What is the tradition of rule of law in the west? Please be more specific ~ ~

The rule of law in the west, whether it is an idea or a system, stems from people's cognition and care for the meaning and value of life. The classical concept and theory of rule of law was born in the cradle of humanism in Greek period. The formation of modern rule of law is due to the publicity of humanism, humanism or humanism. The rational pursuit of humanistic spirit laid the ideological foundation of modern rule of law; The deep concern of humanistic spirit aroused people's legal belief; The inherent spirit of freedom and equality in humanistic spirit locks the value orientation of western rule of law.

If the humanistic spirit is to think about human existence, pay attention to the value and significance of human existence, and grasp and explore human destiny [1], then the rule of law is the product of thinking, paying attention to and grasping human existence, value and destiny. Looking at modern times, western countries led by Britain gradually established the tradition of rule of law, restricting the power of political parties and governments by law and protecting individual freedom rights. It is not difficult to find that the formation of this tradition is intrinsically related to the humanistic thought of people-oriented in ancient western society and the humanism of freedom, equality, human rights, fraternity and democracy established since the Renaissance. This inherent and inevitable connection, as Max Weber revealed for us, has a spiritual force that determines its development direction and destiny behind any cause [2]. Behind the tradition of western rule of law lies the spiritual power that determines its development direction and destiny, that is, the humanistic spirit of western society.

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Western civilization, whether it is spirit or system, has gradually evolved with the continuous discovery of human values, and it is in the process of the discovery of human values that the western humanistic spirit and the rule of law have been formed. In the process of the accumulation and evolution of western humanistic spirit, the rule of law has absorbed the rich "nourishment" of humanistic spirit. From the initiation and development of ideas to the establishment of systems, the rule of law has been growing in the cultivation of humanistic spirit. In this sense, western society shaped its own humanistic spirit when people discovered it, and at the same time "incubated" its own rule of law in the process of "people discovered it".

Historically, the western humanistic spirit was born in ancient Greece. Alan Brock, a famous contemporary British scholar, once said: "One of the most attractive places of ancient Greek thought is that it is people-centered, not God-centered." [3](P. 14) As early as the 5th century BC, the ancient Greek school of wise men, represented by protagoras, began to change the natural philosophers' concern about the objectivity of things and the essence of "God", putting people's activities and creativity, the social significance and essence of people's understanding and activities out of sight, and shifting from the study of nature and "God" to the study of people and society. In his research, protagoras believed that with the improvement of social laws and systems and the development of production and technology, people became more and more aware of their own strength. Therefore, he put forward the famous proposition that "man is the measure of all things". He said: "Man is the measure of everything. There is everything, and there is nothing. " [4](P. 138) This proposition separates people from the natural world and the animal world, and regards people as the core of all things and the standard for measuring all things, which is undoubtedly the respect for people and the improvement of their status. It is under the guidance of this humanistic thought that protagoras opposes "naturalism" in politics and law and insists on "conventionalism". (Note: Most wise men, represented by protagoras, hold the view of "conventionalism" on political and legal issues and oppose "naturalism". The so-called "naturalism" means that the social, political and legal systems at that time came from nature and had their natural basis, so the aristocratic ruling order was reasonable and eternal; The so-called "conventionalism" means that the political and legal systems at that time were artificial, people recognized each other, and there was no natural basis, so the aristocratic rule order could be changed, and democracy could replace the aristocratic system. Protagoras believes that in politics, the so-called justice and injustice, honor and shame are actually caused by law. Is the opinion of each city-state. ""Anyone who is regarded as fair and just by a country is fair and just as long as he believes in it. " [5] (p. 434) He believes that regime, law and morality are not natural, nor are they the products of God's will, but are artificially agreed. Therefore, their binding force is only relative, and they can only exist and be good if they are beneficial to society and those who agree with them; They should be discarded when they are of no benefit or use to people. Therefore, absolutely unchangeable regime, law, morality, religion and so on do not exist. People can only say that under certain circumstances, a political power, law and morality are good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate. Therefore, citizens can abolish traditional laws and ethics according to their own needs and wishes, and formulate laws and ethics in line with their own interests. In other words, the existence or abolition of law and morality should be measured by "people". The wise men represented by protagoras put forward the requirements of legal justice and equality from the perspective of human needs. They believe that the law must be agreed by all, the criterion of justice and the standard of good and evil. They also expanded the extension of equality on the basis of the same human nature, pushed equality to all people, understood equality as equality of all people in education, property and race, and even broke through the real political and legal boundaries, and thought that equality should also include equality between masters and slaves. This was rare in the ancient Greek era when the concept of status and hierarchy was deeply rooted. It and the idea of measuring the quality of politics and law by human standards have become an important ideological source of the rule of law in the west.

Socrates was deeply influenced by the humanistic thought of the wise school and paid attention to the exploration of society and life. "Socrates is particularly respected, as Cicero said, because he brought philosophy from heaven to earth. Humanists have repeatedly demanded that philosophy should become a school of life, dedicated to solving the problem of human similarity. " [3](P. 14) He believes that philosophy should take exploring people's own problems as its mission. "As for himself, he always discusses people's problems and studies what is piety and what is ungodly; What is beauty and what is ugliness; What is justice; What is injustice; What is prudence; What is recklessness; What is universality and what is cowardice; ..... People who know something about this kind of problem are valuable and kind, while those who know nothing about it can be properly called slaves. " [6](P.200-20 1) Because it experienced the glorious period of Athenian democracy, it witnessed its decline. Especially in his later years, he witnessed the tyrannical rule and the Peloponnesian War during the thirty tyrant rule in Athens, which plunged Athens into political, legal and moral crisis. He did not look for the root cause and solution of Athens' political, legal and moral decline from the system, but attributed it to human beings themselves, that is, the loss of human spirit or soul (rationality) and moral decay. He believes that the loss of justice and virtue will inevitably lead to the collapse of the country and society. Therefore, he warned people to care about their own soul, because only soul or reason can make people distinguish right from wrong. A person who regards his soul or reason as supreme will naturally understand what is "good" and what is "evil" and become a moral person, thus establishing a moral society. Accordingly, he put forward the famous thesis that "virtue is knowledge". He said: "knowledge is a virtue, ignorance is evil." [7](P.54) The highest knowledge is the understanding of the eternal, universal and absolutely unchanging concept of "goodness". Starting from this ethics, Socrates thinks that a person without knowledge can't understand the concept of "goodness" and can't be good; And a knowledgeable person will never be evil. Good comes from knowledge and evil comes from ignorance. Although he repeatedly emphasized that virtue is knowledge about goodness, he did not directly answer the concept of "goodness". Sometimes he thinks that goodness is useful and beneficial to people, such as health, strength, wealth, status, honor and so on. , but also includes the so-called "goodness of the soul" such as temperance, justice, ability, sensitivity, generosity and so on. But these behaviors are sometimes beneficial and sometimes harmful. Whether they are beneficial or harmful depends on whether they are guided by a wise soul or a stupid soul. Therefore, goodness comes from wisdom, and virtue is wisdom [4](P. 163- 166). In this way, he returned to the proposition that virtue is knowledge.

It is based on this moral concept that Socrates points out that justice is a virtue of law. Although he did not advocate the establishment of just legal rule, but advocated the rule of saints, that is, the king of philosophy, he regarded justice as the criterion of governing the country and the soul of law. With the help of protagoras's point of view, Socrates is convinced that "a virtue must always be beneficial to its possessor" [9] (page 98), and a just law must be in line with people's interests and can promote people's beautiful and just life. Different from protagoras's point of view, on the one hand, Socrates' judgment on whether the law is just is not experience or feeling, but knowledge or rationality, thus creating a rational view of law. In this regard, American scholar Terrence Owen pointed out: "protagoras's conventional view regards morality and justice as routine things, which also protects them from rational criticism. On the contrary, Socrates believes that, in fact, when we judge whether a norm or practice is fair, we apply some further standard, and this standard makes the agreed norm acceptable to rational criticism. " [8](P.94-95) Socrates' rational legal view laid the legal theoretical foundation of western classical rationalism and had a far-reaching impact on Plato and Aristotle's theory of law and rule of law. On the other hand, Socrates also regards the dignity of obeying and obeying the law as the virtue of adults. He not only hid this virtue in his heart, but also became a model for Athenian citizens to abide by the law. Faced with an unfair and legal death sentence, he didn't want to escape from Athens with the help of his friends, but rather died according to the law. Because he thinks that "justice will sometimes hurt his possessor" and "self-interest and obligation will conflict", the obligation of justice requires people to abide by "reaching an agreement with others, respecting their rights and taking into account their interests" [9](P.98). He thinks that he abides by the laws of Athens, which is "a sacred contract between him and the country, which he cannot break" [9](P.4 17). In his view, the law has independent authority, no matter whether its content is just or not, whether the judgment of the law is effective or not, it is immoral for people to try to escape this authority, which is a violation of the agreement with the state, and obeying this authority is the performance of human virtue.

Of course, Socrates' strict law-abiding theory has an important premise that law as a whole is beneficial to society. Just because the personal interests and obligations stipulated by law are not fair enough, we can't think that the law violates fairness. In order to realize this hypothesis, Socrates emphasized that the people who make laws must be authorized by the majority of citizens, so that the decisions made by the people who make laws will be similar to the wishes of the majority. In this case, it can be considered that we should accept the reasoning that is legally binding on everyone. Here, we have to admit that Socrates' thought and demonstration of defending the dignity and authority of the law promoted the formation of the spirit of respecting the law in the west, and it is precisely the accumulation and popularization of this spirit that supports the construction of the rule of law in the west.

In the era of Plato and Aristotle, the mainstream of Greek philosophy has changed from natural philosophy to humanistic philosophy. Plato and Aristotle's theory of rule of law is the product of this change. In Plato's political philosophy, man is its starting point and final destination. Plato took the interests and happiness of mankind as the ultimate goal, and put forward two strategies for governing the country, namely, the rule of sages and the rule of law. Early Plato put forward the general plan of philosophers governing the country with human virtue. The ideological origin of this strategy is that his teacher Socrates thinks that virtue is knowledge. He believes that the human soul consists of three parts: reason, will and lust, and three kinds of people are derived from it, namely rulers, soldiers and people. Three kinds of people have three different virtues, namely wisdom, courage and temperance. Wisdom is the talent of governing the country and the necessary quality of rulers. If the ruler is wise, the whole country will be wise, if the ruler is unwise, the whole country will fall into ignorance; Courage is an essential quality of soldiers and a guarantee of national security; Temperance is the quality of farmers and craftsmen. It is to control one's own desires and suppress inferior quality with noble quality. Rulers are the highest and decisive rank and the embodiment of wisdom, so only philosophers can bear it. He said: "The study of political art naturally belongs to philosophers and politicians who love the wise." [10](P. 173) "There is a government in various political systems, whether it is ruled by law or not, whether its subjects like it or not, as long as its rulers are not superficial but really master scientific knowledge, that is a very correct government and the only real government." [11] (p.19) Obviously, Plato put the law in an irrelevant position. Because his ideal ruler, the philosopher, has superhuman wisdom and insight, and has the character of putting an end to favoritism and refusing corruption. Compared with wisdom, the law is lame. Therefore, in Plato's view, making the wisdom of philosophers subject to the laws of rigid dogma is equivalent to making real knowledge subject to everyone's "opinions" and making human wisdom subject to habits and prejudice. Law is not created for the wise, but for the inherent defects of ordinary people. Philosophers have no defects of ordinary people. Therefore, the rule of philosophers is the rule of knowledge or wisdom, and it is an ideal way of governing the country.

Plato's failure to convince King Syracuse with his philosopher's strategy of governing the country in his later years, coupled with the tragic situation of his two trips to Sicily, made him doubt his philosopher's strategy of governing the country and prompted him to have the idea of governing the country according to law. In a letter at this time, he said: "Don't let Sicily or any other city obey the master of mankind (although such obedience is my theory), but obey the law. Obedience is not good for the master and subjects, and it is not good for yourself and future generations. " [12](P.97) In Law, Plato not only advocated restoring the first important position of law, but also re-conceived a "second-class ideal country", that is, the blueprint of a country ruled by law. He began to step out of the circle of "ideas" and pay attention to the reality of Greek politics. People think that in an era when a wise king like a philosopher can't appear, law is the voice of God to convey his orders, and any city-state should be dominated by law, not by rulers or special interest groups. If there is absolute power beyond the law, it will only bring disaster to those in power and those who obey. At the same time, he is no longer based on human virtue, but on human nature. He believes that without law, human beings are no different from "wild animals", so the law should override all officials and citizens of the country, and all political and social activities should follow the law. He emphasized that "in all sciences, law is the most perfect and interesting one." [13] (p.151) A country whose rulers and citizens abide by the law will be saved and blessed by God. It can be seen that Plato took man as the logical starting point, first proposed the rule of man, but finally accepted the rule of law for the practical interests of man.

Aristotle further perfected Plato's theory of rule of law. He is more firm than Plato in his belief in upholding the rule of law. However, like Plato, Aristotle's thought of rule of law is also based on his cognition and care for people. He believes that it is human nature to pursue a better life and happiness. So he concluded: "People are essentially political animals." [14] (p.7) How can people get happiness? He said that the key is that human behavior must have a rational life. The virtue of a person's behavior lies in whether his irrational behavior such as will and lust can obey reason. Only when will and desire obey the laws of reason can what they do be moral. However, unlike Plato's understanding of man, Aristotle does not think that people like philosophers become rulers only by wisdom and reason, and are not moved by will and lust, so the law is meaningless to them. He said: "The reason why human beings have achieved something is because they are eager to be kind and eager to be the best animals. If they don't pay attention to etiquette and violate justice, they will degenerate into the worst animals. " [14](P.9) He thinks that rulers, like ordinary people, have aspirations and passions. Therefore, he pointed out that any ruler who does not rule by emotional factors is better than a ruler who rules by emotional factors. "Law is the embodiment of God and reason, and it is not affected by any lust." [14](P. 169) In his view, the advantage of the rule of law is that the laws are made by most people, which embodies the wisdom of most people. Generally speaking, the wisdom of most people is higher than that of a few people or one person, and most people are not prone to corruption. In addition, the law is a just "balance of the golden mean", without emotional factors, which can put an end to the partiality of ordinary people and curb their lust. Therefore, he believes that "everyone recognizes that the law is an excellent ruler" and that the rule of law should be superior to the rule of one person [14] (P.171,167- 168). Because human nature is evil, Aristotle put forward the idea of rule of law. But he didn't stop there. He put forward some requirements for the rule of law according to people's interests. For example, he believes that laws should embody democracy, especially legislation should reflect the wishes of the majority. He warned that "legislators and politicians should determine democratic measures, which are to safeguard democracy, and these measures are just enough to destroy a civilian regime" [14] (page 274). For another example, he believes that the mission of law is not to enslave freedom, but to protect it. He said: "citizens should abide by the rules of life formulated by a country, so that everyone's behavior is bound." Law should not be regarded as slavery (as opposed to freedom), but as salvation. " [14](276) Aristotle's thoughts directly became the ideological source of modern western liberals about democracy-based law and "freedom under the law" and the legitimate reason for establishing legal rule.

The above description shows that the classical concept of rule of law not only grows in the embryonic stage of humanistic spirit, but also embodies certain humanistic care everywhere. In this sense, humanistic spirit constitutes the spiritual basis of western theory of rule of law.

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The real "discovery of man" in the west began in the Renaissance, and its symbol was the formation of humanism which was against "God-centered". Therefore, it can be said that the western humanistic spirit was perfected in the rise of humanistic thoughts in the Renaissance. It is also the emergence and publicity of humanism that laid a solid spiritual foundation for the birth of modern rule of law and a country ruled by law.

Humanism, as the concentrated expression of western humanistic spirit in the Renaissance, regained human dignity in the struggle against "theism". In the understanding of the relationship between man and God, man and nature, humanism advocates human value and secular happiness. It is also under the guidance of humanism that the Enlightenment with freedom, equality, human rights, fraternity and modern democracy broke out in the west in the 17 and 18 centuries. "The Enlightenment is only a certain stage of the humanistic tradition, and this tradition itself can be traced back to the ancient world and the discovery of this world during the Renaissance." [3] (p. 270) It is not difficult to find that humanism in the Western Renaissance and later humanism or humanitarianism are essentially consistent with the freedom, equality, fraternity and modern democratic spirit of the Enlightenment; Their identity just shows their relationship, and also shows the performance of humanistic spirit in different periods in the West. It is also in this bourgeois enlightenment that the spirit of freedom, equality, human rights, fraternity and democracy contained in the humanistic spirit aroused people's pursuit of the rule of law and became the proper meaning of the western rule of law. So, what valuable spiritual resources does the western humanistic spirit provide for the modern rule of law?

(A) the humanistic spirit laid a rational foundation for the rule of law.

Rationalism has the most profound influence on the western rule of law, not only because rationality is the inherent connotation of the western rule of law, but also because the pursuit of rationality is the consistent concern of the western rule of law. However, the rational spirit supporting the formation of the rule of law is not accidental. It is a spiritual branch derived from the long-term accumulation of western humanistic spirit and one of the core contents of humanistic spirit. It is the rational spirit nurtured by the western humanistic spirit that gave birth to the western rule of law.

The development of western rationalism is tortuous, which doomed the formation of western rule of law to be carried out in a stumbling way. The rational tradition formed as early as ancient Greece was quickly replaced by divinity in the Middle Ages. Therefore, the western concept of rule of law, which sprouted from ancient Greece, also suffered setbacks in the Middle Ages. Later, the theocracy based on divinity was defeated and the rule of law based on reason was established. As we all know, the Middle Ages was an irrational era, and the theocracy of replacing humanity with divinity hung over the European continent. God is the master of the world, and man is a body without any independence. As far as people's real life is concerned, people's freedom is almost completely deprived, and the combination of feudal hierarchy and Christian theology makes people's independence, dignity and freedom universally suppressed and denied. As far as his thoughts are concerned, it belongs to the most depressed and lifeless period. In the west where theocracy monopolizes, it can only lead to theocracy and rule by man. In this context, in order to form a rule of law that is opposite to the rule of God and the rule of man, it is necessary to save from the root, that is, to restore and rebuild human rationality. Therefore, humanism or humanitarianism, which aims at opposing divinity and calling for human rationality, has opened the prelude to the human liberation movement. Humanists use "humanity" to oppose "Shinto", advocate "individual liberation" and "individual happiness", and oppose feudal bondage and religious asceticism; Affirming "human dignity" and "human greatness", affirming human wisdom, knowledge and strength, affirming that individual efforts can reveal the secrets of the universe and seek benefits for mankind, and so on. During this period, humanism advocated human nature and opposed divinity, which laid the foundation for the recovery and development of western rationalism.

Inspired by humanism, a large-scale enlightenment broke out in the west in the18th century. This is the second ideological emancipation movement since the Renaissance. The rich humanistic spirit in this movement laid a solid ideological foundation for the later bourgeois revolution and the formation of the rule of law in Europe. In the movement, enlightenment thinkers held high the banner of "rationality" and regarded rationality as the only criterion for judging all existing affairs. They don't recognize any foreign authority, no matter what it is. Religion, view of nature, social form, national system, etc. Must be the most ruthless criticism in front of the "rational" court. They believe that tyranny and religion stifle people's rationality, leaving people in ignorance and pain for a long time; Now they have regained the authority of reason and discovered "eternal justice". They demanded the establishment of a "rational kingdom" and the reconstruction of human order. Because it characterized the Enlightenment as the liberation of human thought, rather than the liberation of human reason. Its achievements are first manifested in the establishment of rationalism. As the famous British scholar Brock said: "The great discovery of the Enlightenment is the effectiveness of applying critical reason to authority, tradition and customs, whether it is religion, law, government or social customs. It has become a very common methodology to ask questions, ask experiments and not accept what you have been doing or saying and thinking in the past [3](P.84-86). This "methodology" is nothing more than rationalism.

Under the guidance of rationality, the classical natural law thought based on humanism is favored by people. Classical natural law school holds high the banner of rationality and claims that law is the embodiment of human rationality. In order to prove the existence of this rationality and express it in reality, they invented a supreme natural law. It is considered that natural law is a rational rule of justice, which shows that any behavior that conforms to our rationality and sociality is moral justice. Man's rationality is the inherent feature and ultimate goal of natural law, and "the basic principles of natural law belong to public rationality, just like the theorem of geometry" [15](P. 12). This unchangeable "basic principle" is to highlight people's value and respect their basic personality. Therefore, natural law must be a "good law" that embodies human equality, freedom and justice. Under the influence of rationalism, the rising bourgeoisie in the Enlightenment accepted the classical natural law thought to a great extent and formed a set of legal concepts, values, principles and systems of rationalism. It is based on these ideas and principles that they have created various models of rule of law.

(B) the humanistic spirit contributed to the trust in the law.

Legal belief is an important tradition and content of western rule of law. If the external elements of building a western building ruled by law are a series of principles and systems ruled by law, then the internal elements must be people's universal belief in law. Without people's universal respect and belief in the law, no matter how perfect the principle and system of rule of law can support the construction of rule of law. However, the belief in law is not the innate existence of human beings, and its acquired formation does not have the characteristics of spontaneity, but must go through the psychological process of cognition-trust-belief in the rule of law. In this process, humanistic spirit plays a catalytic and supporting role to a great extent.

Westerners are not born close to the law, they are full of firm belief in the law. In fact, the formation of their legal belief is based on the western humanistic spirit to some extent. More precisely, the vigorous publicity of humanistic spirit has consolidated and promoted the formation of people's legal beliefs.

First of all, the humanistic spirit with humanism or humanitarianism as the core has established people's trust in the law. As we all know, the core of humanitarianism or humanism is the theory of human nature, which first emphasizes "human" and "humanity". Human nature can be divided into two aspects: human natural attribute and human social attribute. Humanists first emphasize the natural attributes of human beings. It is believed that the rule of religion has not fully developed the natural humanity. Medieval religious thought holds that God created man, and man fell to the world because of his "original sin". Only by believing in religion and obeying God can people get rid of their sins and ascend to heaven again. Humanists, on the other hand, believe that people are free and can achieve all their goals. Therefore, people are great and have their own dignity. The western rule of law based on humanism and humanitarianism aims at realizing human value and personal dignity, which objectively enhances people's trust and dependence on the law. People can find their dignity and reflect their value in the realization of the law. Therefore, they have no reason not to believe and rely on it.

Secondly, the humanistic spirit's advocacy of rationality also contributes to the formation of the concept of "law first". In the west, people's universal belief in law is mainly manifested in the emergence of the concept of sanctity and supremacy of law. We know that faith, as an absolute spirit of human beings, is at the core of human consciousness. Its formation is often not simple and direct, and it must rely on or rely on the assistance of many factors. Moreover, whether in the East or the West, law did not exist as a belief in people's consciousness in the early days, but only as a universal psychology or concept. Because law, as a necessary "tool" for human beings, appears in people's lives and does not fully show its "good" side. To a great extent, it represents a kind of power, which is barbaric, arbitrary and full of fear and sin, so people's belief in it is not sufficient. In the west, people's belief in law is not formed from the direct understanding of law to a great extent, but mainly from two external factors. One is from the support of religious belief, and the other is from the support of humanistic rationality. As we all know, Christian culture is the background of western culture, which makes any part of western culture more or less Christian since the Middle Ages. In the legal culture, although the "breath" of Christianity has been gradually eliminated in the legal system, it is deeply rooted in the people's consciousness. Religious consciousness not only does not confront with legal consciousness, but also forms strong support, especially the concept that "law is the will of God", which objectively helps people to establish a lofty image of law in their hearts and form support for the concept of sanctity and supremacy of law. In the days when people generally believe in God, people can respect laws not so much because they are afraid of punishment, but because they believe that the universal norms contained in these laws reflect God's will. The rights and obligations stipulated by law are not determined by people, but are natural and self-evident. Accordingly, Pahlman asserted that the western concept of the supremacy of law originated from surreal religious beliefs, that is, the help of Christian beliefs [16]. Unger also believes that a condition for the emergence of the rule of law order is that "there is a widely spread belief, which can be called the concept of natural law in a less strict sense". The concept of natural law first comes from the universal law developed by Roman jurists on the basis of human nature and the support of commodity exchange. "Another support of the concept of natural law comes from transcendental religion." [17] (p.68-69) Because in the eyes of westerners, the Christian God is the only true God in the universe, supreme, omniscient and omnipresent, and the creator of the essence of the universe and all things in the world. It is not only the master of the movement and change of all things in the world, but also the giver of life and the savior of human suffering. He is also a judge of good and evil behavior and the highest legislator of mankind. Although secular laws are made by the king, the king has no autonomy. He's just an angel of God. He should be bound by the law when making secular laws according to God's will. Aquinas believes that "as far as the dominance of law is concerned, it is in line with the regulations for a monarch to voluntarily obey the law." "According to God's judgment, a monarch can't be bound by the guiding force of law, but should meet the requirements of the law voluntarily and without reluctance." [18] (p.122-123) Therefore, in people's minds, God is sacred and has authority beyond all secular powers, so law, as the expression of God's will, is undoubtedly sacred and supreme. People's belief is based on the worship of God, and all laws come from the will of God, so believing in laws constitutes a part of believing in God. In fact, in the Middle Ages, law and religion were confused, and law was subordinate to religion. The social function of law has not been fully reflected, but the dignity and authority of law in people's minds have not disappeared under the impact of religion. On the contrary, people have gained the concept of sanctity and supremacy of law in their universal belief in God.

Although, the formation of the concept of the supremacy of law in the middle ages had a positive impact on the birth of the rule of law later. But the fundamental opposition between the rule of law and the rule of god means the rule of law.