The Catholic Church was derived from three sources.  Its sacred history was Jewish, its theology was Greek, its government and canon law were, at least indirectly, Roman.  The Reformation rejected the Roman elements, softened the Greek elements, and greatly strengthened the Judaic elements.  It thus co-operated with the nationalist forces which were undoing the work of social cohesion which had been effected first by the Roman Empire and then by the Roman Church.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The Catholic Church was derived from three sources.  Its sacred history was Jewish, its theology was Greek, its government and canon law were, at least indirectly, Roman.  The Reformation rejected the Roman elements, softened the Greek elements, and greatly strengthened the Judaic elements.  It thus co-operated with the nationalist forces which were undoing the work of social cohesion which had been effected first by the Roman Empire and then by the Roman Church." in the context of "Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy (1946), Introduction." to mean that wisdom is timeless.