But the bond of connection between the religion and the polity is a much deeper and more intimate one than this, and is to be looked for in the general spiritual movement of the time of which both are manifestations. What we have to keep in mind is, that Christianity never could have been that general form of the religious consciousness which it is, had not the whole development of the world’s history, up to the time when it appeared, been preparing for it. First came the general intellectual culture