It was not possible for Plato,
Demosthenes, or Cicero, to conceive the idea of constitutionalism.
Wherever the will of the power holder operates _directly_ upon the
subject or object, there is absolutism. Interpose a _medium_ between the
two, separate the law _maker_ from the law _executor_, make _both_ the
subjects or servants of the law, and then, if the people are virtuous,
you can harmonize private liberty with public order. The individual must
not be absorbed by the state; individual liberty must not be merged in
absolutism. Nor must the state go down before individualism.
The problem is to render possible and reconcile the coexistence of the
largest private liberty and the highest public authority. This implies
the idea of _mediation_. There must be _mediatizing_ institutions
standing between the state and the individual, insuring the safe
transmission of power, and guaranteeing justice between the state and
individuals, as well as between individuals in their relations with each
other. This done, you realize or actualize the grand idea of mediation
in the political relations of men. The distinguishing idea of
Christianity--the God-man reconciling man with God, and thus harmonizing
the finite with the infinite--this idea must actualize itself in the
affairs of men, in order to harmonize perfect liberty with salutary
authority. Animated by this idea, penetrated with profoundest belief of
the infinite worth of the individual man because the God-man had
wonderfully renewed his nature, the early Christian heroes and martyrs
took hold of the hostile and disorganized elements of European
society--the fragments of the Roman empire on the one hand, and the
barbarians of the north on the other--and brought order out of chaos.
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