Principles of western civilisation

vil ZHE GREAT ANTINOMY: FIRST STAGE 267

lingers in certain quarters in our civilisation as a legitimate conception, was that which we have already seen outlined in Charlemagne’s Capitulary of 802.‘ It was that in which the sovereign of the State was concerned as standing not simply at the head of the civil and military power, but at the head of morality, of religion, and of the Church. The nature of the controversy in its opening terms as regards the empire is well defined by Sir Frederick Pollock: ‘It was the common ground of the disputants that the papacy and the empire were both divinely ordained, and each in its own sphere had universal jurisdiction over Christendom. The point of difference was as to the relation of these two jurisdictions to one another. Was the temporal ruler in the last resort subordinate to the spiritual, as the lesser to the greater light? or were their dignities co-ordinate and equal?”* Or was the temporal ruler—as Frederick 1]. afterwards aimed at making himself—actually “supreme in spiritual as well as temporal government ?”®

This was the outline of the controversy at the beginning. As we look at it now, we see that from the outset there could be no doubt as to the issue which must be reached. Once the human mind, in the existing conditions of the world, had accepted the position involved in the concept that its spiritual welfare was of more importance than its temporal interests, the advance to the position which was soon to be reached was to all appearance inevitable.

As accordingly that conception of the greatness of the spiritual authority, which had dawned on

1 Select Historical Docuntents, ii. ii. * History of the Science of Polttecs, p. 34. > [bid.