The inability of the Gallicanist state to co-opt Catholicism's social energy exposed a tension inherent in liberal democracy: between the people empowered as a sovereign whole, on one hand, and those partial societies of individuals which diversify the nation, on the other. (firstthings.com)
Erasmus and More were remembered as fine men, one a great humanist scholar, the liberal par exemple, the other, the author of Utopia, Lord Chancellor of England, and a martyr of the Catholic Church, an honest, practical lawyer determined to stand firm before a power - mad sovereign; both were unable to harness the complex social energies, at the same time idealistic and disillusioned, which sought for a radical change. (religion-online.org)