Kings promoted cities as a tool to concentrate power and debilitate intermediate feudal lords. But that temporary alliance could not last, once the basic idea t

Kings promoted cities as a tool to concentrate power and debilitate intermediate feudal lords. But that temporary alliance could not last, once the basic idea that the power comes from God was undermined and bourgeoisie raised. I wouldn't call that "a counter-movement" because it seems exactly the opposite: one idea that keeps pushing ahead until it's taken to its ultimate consequences. It would have been impossible to have a middle class revolution when there was no middle class. If there's a single factor that explains the changes between Quattrocento and Enlightenment is commerce. It was almost completely absent in the Middle Ages.