I might carry this analysis farther but what I have already said is
sufficient to show that the rise of a Fascist ideology already gives
evidence of an upheaval in the intellectual field as powerful as the
change that was brought about in the XVII and XVIII centuries by the
rise and diffusion of those doctrines of _ius naturale_ which go under
the name of "Philosophy of the French Revolution." The philosophy of
the French Revolution formulated certain principles, the authority of
which, unquestioned for a century and a half, seemed so final that
they were given the attribute of immortality. The influence of these
principles was so great that they determined the formation of a new
culture, of a new civilization. Likewise the fervor of the ideas that
go to make up the Fascist doctrine, now in its inception but destined
to spread rapidly, will determine the course of a new culture and of a
new conception of civil life. The deliverance of the individual from
the state carried out in the XVIII century will be followed in the XX
century by the rescue of the state from the individual. The period of
authority, of social obligations, of "hierarchical" subordination will
succeed the period of individualism, of state feebleness, of
insubordination.

This innovating trend is not and cannot be a return to the Middle
Ages. It is a common but an erroneous belief that the movement,
started by the Reformation and heightened by the French Revolution,
was directed against mediaeval ideas and institutions. Rather than as
a negation, this movement should be looked upon as the development and
fulfillment of the doctrines and practices of the Middle Ages.
Socially and politically considered the Middle Ages wrought
disintegration and anarchy; they were characterized by the gradual
weakening and ultimate extinction of the state, embodied in the Roman