der the feudal system, had been a head who could not enforce his
headship. But there was, all the while, such a thing as kingship, and
somebody bore the title of king; and society, striving to escape from
feudal violence and to get hold of real order and unity, had recourse to
the king in an experimental way, to see, as one might say, what he could
do. Gradually there developed the idea of the king as the protector of
public order and justice and of the common interest as the paramount
magistrate--the idea that changed Europe society from a series of
classes into a group of centralised States.

But the old order did not perish without efforts to perpetuate itself.
These efforts were of two kinds; a particular class sought predominance,
or it was proposed that the classes should agree to act in concert. To
the first kind belonged the design of the Church to gain mastery over
Europe that culminated with Pope Gregory VII. It failed for three
reasons--because Christianity is a purely moral force and not a temporal
administrative force; because the ambitions of the Church were opposed
by the feudal aristocracy; and because the celibacy of the clergy
prevented the formation of a caste capable of theocratic organisation.
Attempts at democracy were made, for a time with apparent means, by the
Italian civic republics; but they were a prey to internal disorder,
their government tended to become oligarchical, and their incapacity for
uniting among themselves made them the victims of foreign invaders. The
Swiss Republican organisation was more successful, but became
aristocratic and immobile. The House Towns and the towns of Flanders and
the Rhine organised for pure defence; they preserved their privileges,
but remained confined within their walls.

The effort at concerted action by the classes was manifested in the
States General of France, Spain, and Portugal, the Diet in Germany, and
the Parliament in England. All these, except the Parliament, were
ineffective and as it were accidental in their action; all they did was
to preserve in a manner the notion of liberty. The circumstances of
England were exceptional. The Parliament did not govern; but it became a
mode of government adopted in principle, and often indispensable in
practice.

Nothing, however, could arrest the march of centralisation. In France
the war of independence against England brought a sense of national
unity and purpose, and feudalism was finally overthrown,