constant reference to class distinctions. First, there is a sharp line
dividing each state horizontally and marking off the privileged few from
the unprivileged many, the rulers from the ruled. Below the line are the
traders, artisans, and cultivators of the soil; above it the landlords,
the officeholders, and the clergy. If an industrial community, here and
there a Milan or a Ghent, succeeds in asserting political independence,
the phenomenon is regarded as anomalous and revolutionary; still graver
is the head-shaking when mere peasants, like the Swiss, throw off what
is called their natural allegiance. And such cases of successful
rebellion are rare. It is true that in England, in France, and in the
Spanish kingdoms there are privileged towns which receive the right of
representation in national assemblies; but this concession to the power
of the purse is strictly limited; the spokesmen of the burgesses are not
invited to express opinions until asked for subsidies or military aid.
Government is the affair of the King and the privileged classes. But
again there is a division within the privileged classes, a vertical line
of cleavage between the various grades of the lay and clerical
aristocracies. The prelate and the baron, the knight and the priest,
harmonious enough when it is a question of teaching the unprivileged
their place, are rivals for social influence and political power, are
committed to conflicting theories of life. The ecclesiastic, enrolled in
an order which is recruited from every social grade, makes light of
secular rank and titles; he claims precedence over every layman; he
holds that it is the business of the Church to command, of princes to
obey. The lay feudatory, born into a hereditary caste of soldiers,
regards war as the highest vocation for a man of honour, is impatient of
priestly arrogance, and believes in his heart that the Church ought not
to meddle with politics. It would be a mistake to think of the two
privileged classes as always at strife with one another and their social
inferiors. But the great wars of Pope and Emperor, the