I'm not attributing superior contribution to the Protestants or the Catholics, but to the dialectic. I'm not saying that the Protestant Reformers were more or l

I'm not attributing superior contribution to the Protestants or the Catholics, but to the dialectic. I'm not saying that the Protestant Reformers were more or less virtuous than the Catholic Church of the time. I'm saying that the intractable schism within what might (not necessarily "would") otherwise be a more unified European elite had progressive effects over the long term. Of course, something other than religious reformation could have had a similarly elite-divisive effect. My real point has nothing to do with the Reformation per se, so much as the overarching truth that competition within an elite leads to progress and social mobility, while in-elite collaboration is stagnant and toxic.