“This is what I think about the degeneration of the idea of regere once it has become secularized and separated from the traditional spiritual basis: it is merely a temporal and centralizing idea. When considering yet another aspect of this deviation, one will notice that it is typical of all priestly castes to refuse to acknowledge the imperial function and to aim at deconsecration of the concept of state and of royalty. Thus, without often realizing it, the priestly caste contributed to the formation of that lay and "realistic" mentality that unavoidably was destined to rise up against priestly authority itself and to ban any of its effective interferences against the state.”