Evolution of The Concept in The Middle Ages
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, most institutions of Roman public law fell into disuse, but much of Roman political theory remained. During the early Middle Ages the Christian world was ruled in theory by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. The former had the spiritual power, which was identified with auctoritas, while the latter had temporal power, identified with potestas. At first, the Pope crowned the Emperor and the Emperor appointed the Pope, so they were in a situation of balance, but after the Investiture Controversy the Pope was instead chosen by the College of Cardinals.
As the effective power of the Holy Roman Empire declined, kingdoms asserted their own independence. One way to do this was to claim that the king had, in his kingdom, the same power as the emperor in the empire, and so the king assumed the attributes of potestas.
Read more about this topic: Potestas
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Of man! it is—I really scarce know what;
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—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Like Freud, Jung believes that the human mind contains archaic remnants, residues of the long history and evolution of mankind. In the unconscious, primordial “universally human images” lie dormant. Those primordial images are the most ancient, universal and “deep” thoughts of mankind. Since they embody feelings as much as thought, they are properly “thought feelings.” Where Freud postulates a mass psyche, Jung postulates a collective psyche.”
—Patrick Mullahy (b. 1912)
“The more specific idea of evolution now reached is—a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.”
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)
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—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
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—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Next time, to tarry,
While the Ages steal—
Slow tramp the Centuries,
And the Cycles wheel!”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)