ntries of the European and Asiatic continents absolutism, on the
one hand, and complete subservience to ecclesiastical hierarchies, on the
other, were still the outstanding features of the political and religious
life of the masses. These, dominated and shackled, were robbed of the
necessary freedom that would enable them to either appraise the claims and
merits of the Message proffered to them, or to embrace unreservedly its
truth.

Small wonder, then, that the Author of the Baha'i Faith, and to a lesser
degree its Herald, should have directed at the world's supreme rulers and
religious leaders the full force of Their Messages, and made them the
recipients of some of Their most sublime Tablets, and invited them, in a
language at once clear and insistent, to heed Their call. Small wonder
that They should have taken the pains to unroll before their eyes the
truths of Their respective Revelations, and should have expatiated on
Their woes and sufferings. Small wonder that They should have stressed the
preciousness of the opportunities which it was in the power of these
rulers and leaders to seize, and should have warned them in ominous tones
of the grave responsibilities which the rejection of God's Message would
entail, and should have predicted, when rebuffed and refused, the dire
consequences which such a rejection involved. Small wonder that He Who is
the King of kings and Vicegerent of God Himself should, when abandoned,
contemned and persecuted, have uttered this epigrammatic and momentous
prophecy: "From two ranks amongst men power hath been seized: kings and
ecclesiastics."

As to the kings and emperors who not only symbolized in their persons the
majesty of earthly dominion but who, for the most part, actually held
unchallengeable sway over the multitudes of their subjects, their relation
to the Faith of Baha'u'llah constitutes one of the most illuminating
episodes in the history of the Heroic and Formative Ages of that Faith.
The Divine summons which embraced within its scope so large a number of
the crowned heads of both Europe and Asia; the theme and language of the
Messages that brought them into direct contact with the Source of God's
Revelation; the nature of their reaction to so stupendous an impact; and
the consequences which ensued and can still be witnessed today are the
salient features of a subject upon which I can but inadequately touch, and
which will be fully and befittingly treated by future Baha'i