racy_.--In a previous chapter, in
which were recounted the early attempts at popular representation, it
was shown that in nearly every instance the rise of popular power was
suppressed by the rapid and universal growth of monarchy. Having
obtained power by combining with the people in their struggle against
the nobility, monarchy finally denied the people the right to {393}
participate in the government. It was recognized nearly everywhere in
Europe as the dominant type of government through which all nations
must pass. Through it the will of the people was to find expression,
or, to use a more exact statement, monarchy proposed to express the
will of the people without asking their permission.

The intellectual revival which spread over Europe tended to free the
mind from the binding power of tradition, prestige, and dogmatism, and
to give it freedom in religious belief. But while these great
movements were taking place, monarchy was being established in Europe,
and wherever monarchy was established without proper checks of
constitutional government, it became powerful and arbitrary to such a
degree as to force the people into a mighty cry for political liberty.
In France royalty ran rapidly into imperialism; in Spain it became
oppressive; but in England there was a decided check upon its absolute
assumptions by way of slowly developing constitutional liberty.

_Struggle for Constitutional Liberty in England_.--For a long period
monarchy had to struggle fiercely with the feudal nobility of England,
but finally came off conqueror, and then assumed such arbitrary powers
as appeared necessary for the government of the realm of England. It
was inevitable, however, that in a people whose minds had been
emancipated from absolute spiritual power and given freedom of thought,
a conflict would eventually occur with monarchy which had suppressed
municipal liberty, feudal nobility, and popular representation. Pure
monarchy sought at all times the suppression of political liberty.
Hence, in England, there began a struggle against the assumptions of
absolute monarchy and in favor of the liberty of the people.

There grew up in England under the Tudors an advocacy of the inherited
rights of kings. There was a systematic development of arbitrary power
until monarchy in England declared itself superior to all laws and to
all constitutional rights and duties. In another place it has been
told how the English {394} Reformation