the feudal law . The desire of dominion , that great principle by which we have attempted to account for so much good and so much evil , is , when properly restrained , a very useful and noble movement in the human mind .
“ But when such restraints are taken off , it becomes an encroaching , grasping , restless , and ungovernable power . Numberless have been the systems of iniquity contrived by the great for the gratification of this passion in themselves ; but in none of them were they ever more successful than in the invention and establishment of the canon and the feudal law .”
Never one to shy away from controversy , Adams continued that the Church ’ s rule :
“… for the same purposes of tyranny , cruelty , and lust which had dictated the canon law , was soon adopted by almost all the princes of Europe , and wrought into the constitutions of their government . …
“ In this manner the common people were held together in herds and clans in a state of servile dependence on their lords , bound , even by the tenure of their lands , to follow them , whenever they commanded , to their wars , and in a state of total ignorance of every thing divine and human , excepting the use of arms and the culture of their lands .”
Adams argued that the Dark Ages ended when Martin Luther ’ s ninety-five theses punctured the power of the Church :
“ Thus , as long as this confederacy lasted , and the people were held in ignorance , liberty , and with her , knowledge and virtue too , seem to have deserted the earth , and one age of darkness succeeded another , till God in his benign providence raised up the champions who began and conducted the Reformation .”
Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson agreed , noting in his Notes on the State of Virginia :
The Trial Lawyer x 81