The older social order which had prevailed throughout Western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire was now passing away.

The speculation of the twelfth century, the scholastic criticism of the thirteenth, the Lollardry and socialism of the fourteenth century, had at last done their work.

The spell of the past, the spell of custom and tradition, which had enchained the minds of men was roughly broken.

The supremacy of the warrior in a world of war, the severance of privileged from unprivileged classes, no longer seemed the one natural structure of society.

The belief in its possession of supernatural truths and supernatural powers no longer held man in unquestioning awe of the priesthood.