ABSTRACT
THE POWER OF the papacy lay in the religious and intellectual field; this power exercised by the mind was at all times far more enduring and determinative than that exercised by physical force. In the thirteenth century the bond that held Europe together was a common faith, one that in its essentials was the one fixed by the papacy, despite certain regional or local differences, none of which however affected the substance of the faith. In the public field particularly the commonly held faith left an indelible imprint upon the unquestioned theocratic Rulership. Its basis was nothing but faith in the divinely instituted Ruler, the very theme which the papacy had upheld throughout its long history. This Ruler-ship moreover was underpinned by an elaborate anointing and coronation ceremonial. And the papacy itself was built on exactly the same theocratic premisses to which was added a definite biblically verifiable statement made by Christ to St Peter whose heir the pope was.
