It had enabled them to believe in an idea and to fight devotedly on its behalf.

It is no accident, consequently, that the national resistance took on a religious character, and in Jeanne d'Arc gave birth to one of the most fragrant figures in human history.

Thus the French national resistance, and the national bond thereby created, was one political expression of the power of cooeperation developed in the people of Europe by the acceptance of a common religious bond.

On the other hand, the use which the English had made of their precocious national organization weakened its foundations.

The aggressive exercise of military force abroad for an object which it was incompetent to achieve disturbed the domestic balance of power on which the national organization of the English people rested.