"There were no intellectuals as such in the Middle Ages; for the medieval man... society and its structures were once and for all given, namely as a reflection of the divine order, analogous in heaven and on earth. It was the individual who, through his participation in the mystical body of Christ and through his membership in the Church, was important in the eyes of God, not the community; it was the individual whose fate, sins, repentance, and salvation were the important matter; his submission to or defiance of the social order were not weighed in terms of benefit or loss to the latter, but in terms of whether he did or did not follow the divine decrée. ...the community was considered an instrument helping or hindering the individual's earthly course, not a goal in itself, but a testing ground for individual virtue or weakness."