Individual liberty was not an idea that sprang from the mind of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. It had a long and difficult adolescence in Western Europe, a development that spanned centuries. It is not a coincidence that the ideas of liberty germinated there rather than in some other part of the globe. The history of Western Europe is unique because, for many centuries, political power had become fractured. There was no centralized power to rule uniformly over the people. Many areas had similar traditions, cultures, ethnicities and geographic characteristics but different rulers. Some ruled justly, others were abusive of citizens. Under these conditions, it was relatively easy for the people to pack up and move to an area known to have a more benevolent ruler. Political authority was quite decentralized, with small warring kingdoms always in arguments with one another. At the same time, the Roman Catholic Church was growing in power. As kings centralized control and subdued