Power Tends To Corrupt: Lord Acton's Study of Liberty

4—The Great Reversal: Modern Infatuation with Power

FOUR The Great reversal Modern Infatuation with Power Liberty was medieval—absolutism was modern. When the last of the reformers died, religion, instead of emancipating the nations, had become an excuse for the criminal art of despots. Calvin preached and Bellarmine lectured, but Machiavelli reigned. authority is essentially an ethical term, but when separated from liberty it is nothing but force. Liberty is essentially a conditional term, and cannot be independent of law.1 e a r LY M o D e r N e U r o P e was, in acton’s words, the result of “a series of violent shocks” that cast off the medieval past and opened a new beginning. its close was even more dramatic: the French revolution and the Napoleonic era, which turned the continent upside down. in the history of liberty, the period roughly between 1492 and 1789 played an important role, but what was that role? Did violent shocks such as the renaissance and the reformation contribute to the growth of liberty, as we often tend to assume? or did they result in the squandering and destruction of the treasures created in the preceding millennium? The period of early modern europe saw the strengthening of royal power and of the state in general, especially vis-à-vis the authority of provincial lords and the Church. Following the ancient romans, acton teaches that the growth of power is, however, not necessarily inimical to liberty, if authority C h a P t e r 82 PoWer teNDs to CorrUPt stays divided. keeping this principle in mind, let us consider how it applied to the early modern period. Did it aim at divided or undivided power? Did the Church and Christianity contribute to the growth of freedom as in the past, or did they weaken it, siding with liberty’s enemies? Finally, after the violent shocks that brought to life modern europe, there also came some aftershocks, such as religious wars and absolutism. acton abhorred them for being inherently unfriendly to liberty, for leading to misery and misgovernment, and ultimately, for ending in revolution and violence. Violent Shocks The medieval inheritance—rich in political thought on liberty as well as rich in a political tradition hostile to unlimited power—did not continue onto the next stage of european history. on the contrary, it was first ignored and then forgotten. The main reason for that neglect, as acton stresses, lay in the lack of continuity between the Middle ages and the modern period. This passage from one epoch to another was not a process of natural, organic growth but of breaking with the past and beginning an entirely new chapter in european history. acton characterized the Middle ages as an era of stability, continuity, and “instinctive evolution,” which was at the same time careless about facts, ignorant of science and history, and satisfied with “a twilight of fiction.”2 The medieval world, as in antiquity, saw a better and happier life not in the future but in the past, which had been wiser, stronger, and more virtuous. The sense of decay and doom was so predominant, particularly in the late Middle ages, that the coming of the end of the world was often anticipated with relief. Modern europe emerged in opposition and reaction to that prevailing outlook. Men and women of that age—more precisely, its leading personages—“taking little for granted . . . sought to know the ground they stand on, and the road they travel, and the reason why.” in other words, they wanted to know facts, not fiction; have scientific knowledge, not just rational speculations; and be active, not passive, in shaping their fate. Furthermore, they believed in the human capacity and power to transform the world and optimistically looked into the future, ready “for untried experience” and for “incalculable change.” it was “an awakening of new life,” as if the world suddenly “revolved in a different orbit.”3 how does acton explain this fundamental shift in human approach to life, and how does he think it affected liberty? he points to a series of revolutionary changes, rapid movements of history, or “violent shocks” The Great Reversal 83 that separated the Middle ages from modern europe, beginning with two turning points—geographic discoveries and the renaissance—that animated others: the modern nation-state (although acton talks only about Machiavelli and his impact on government), the scientific revolution, and the reformation—each influencing and reinforcing...