... allow one man to tyrannize them, a man who has no power except the power they themselves give him.'1 A view held in past centuries that had given unquestionable power to monarchs, clergy, and masters, was the divine authority theory. Those in power and their inferiors believed that G_d2 had given them power and authority to rule, meaning that they had the absolute right to coerce any individual. This connection to the divine authority could have been made in three ways; the rulers could have had divine status themselves, they may have been related to a G_d or as humans they had been given the authority from G_d. Uneducated human beings were prepared to consider themselves slaves to kings under divine authority, without even considering the possibility of its falseness. This assumption could have easily permitted an evil ruler to ascend to the throne and create great coercive pressures. Since the ...

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