What seems to impress it most is the impossibility of founding society upon other than a divine origin.

Anything less will not command the assent of men sufficiently to be immune from their evil passions.

Let their minds but once turn to resistance, and the bonds of social order will be broken.

Complete submission is the only safeguard against anarchy.

So, a century later, de Maistre could argue that unless the whole world became the subject of Rome, the complete dissolution of Christian society must follow.