[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by peter12

Well, I get in trouble for this all the time here because I talk about book-learning, but, there is a great author and thinker, Pierre Manent, who basically says something like "no, they tried at times, but were more like a mediator between the different warring factions of the Middle Ages, and Early Modern Period."

http://www.amazon.ca/City-Man-Pierre...=pierre+manent

http://www.amazon.ca/Seeing-Things-P...=pierre+manent

They were a political entity by literally every definition. At many times they failed to affect other political systems, but they were mostly political. In fact, in feudal England they were basically the government