UNDOUBTEDLY the concept of the "king's two bodies" camouflaged
a problem of continuity. This was less evident, or perhaps only
more concealed, in the earlier Middle Ages. But the truly essen-
tial point became manifest as well as articulate when, as a result
of the reception of the Aristotelian doctrine of the "eternity of
the world" and its more radical Averroist interpretation, the ques-
tion of perpetual continuity itself became a philosophic problem
of the first order.

The revival of the doctrine of the eternity of the world, which
captivated Western minds after the middle of the thirteenth cen-
tury, ¹ coincided with analogous, if independent, tendencies to-
wards "continuity" in the constitutional and legal-political spheres.
For it would be a mistake to assume that the new philosophic
tenet produced, caused, or created a new belief in the perpetual
continuity of political bodies. Facts of chronology would preclude
such a hypothesis anyhow, because the development towards con-
tinuity in the fields of law and politics was already in full swing
before an influence of the new philosophy could have been effec-
tive. Practice, as usual, preceded theory; but existing practice
made the minds all the more receptive for a new theory. However,
simultaneity does not imply causality, and all that can be said is
that the philosophy defending the infinite continuum of Time
made its appearance as a concomitant of related trends in other
fields; further, that the ground was peculiarly well prepared to
receive a doctrine which confirmed and justified what one thought
or did anyhow, and thereby intensified and accelerated existing
conditions; finally, that both strands--the philosophic-scholastic
theory and the politico-legal practice--together decisively influ-
enced the general pattern of Western social and political thought
in its formative period.

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