Selma Stern THE COURT JEW INTRODUCTION TX period which we designate as the epochof court absolutism and early capitalism and which extended from the end of the Renaissance until the period of Enlightenment created a new Weltanschauung , a new type of individual , new economic and political views and new forms of social organization . No longer was there a unified political and religious world , protected by the secular sword of the Emperor and the reli gious sword of the Pope . In place of a universal monarchy and a universal Church there arose strong individual , autonomous states , each contending with the other , and independent religions and sects , each struggling against the other . For the alldominating ideaof supporting and defending the Church which alone had the power of granting salvation , there was substituted the idea of supporting and defending the European balance of power . The universal conception of an absolute , positive law was superseded by the belief in natural l...
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