In approximate coincidence with the Renaissance movement and the accompanying awakening of the intellect of Europe, there began a conflict between the sovereigns and the Pope. The Popes had gradually acquired great power, because of their prestige as the successors of St. Peter, to whom it was declared our Savior had given the keys of heaven. Coincidentally, the multitudinous barons had gradually built up the Feudal System. This was a loose-jointed contrivance, under which Europe was virtually divided into little geographical sections, ruled over by hereditary feudal lords, who in each country owed allegiance to a sovereign. By reason of the slowness and uncertainty of transportation and communication, the various feudal lords were extremely independent, and each one did substantially as he willed in his little domain. The situation was a miserable one for every person, except the Pope, the sovereigns, the feudal lords and their hangers-on; not only because of the various petty tyrannies, but because of the continual little wars and the general absence of good government. Gradually, the sovereigns got more and more power (except in England) and the conditions improved so much that the people realized that it was better to be ruled by one king, or emperor, than by a multitude of barons. The sovereigns finally acquired so much power that they dared to oppose the Pope in many of his aggressions; but no very important situations were developed until the Reformation caused the existence of protestant or heretic sovereigns, and the occasional excommunication of one of them by the Pope, with its attendant exhortation to his subjects to take up arms against him. To meet this situation, the theory of the Divine Right of Kings was invented. This was a very important invention; for it offset the Divine authority of the Pope as Pope, and gave a theme for the bishops and priests in their discourses to the people, and a slogan for the soldiers. It was extremely successful for three centuries, and its influence was in the main beneficent. It worked for the establishment of stable governments and great nations, tended to prevent the excessive domination of a religious organization, and, by recognizing the fact that every sovereign's power comes from the Almighty, it suggested the sovereign's responsibility to Him. At first this suggestion evidently bore little fruit; for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were characterized by general oppression of the people, and filled with dynastic wars, waged merely in behalf of monarchical ambitions. But gradually the kings and the peoples came to realize the duties of sovereigns, as well as their privileges and powers. Gradually then, the view came to be held that kings were bound to exercise their power for the benefit of their people.