After the last Etruscan King had been driven out of Ancient Rome, the republic was created. In this republic, there were two classes: the Patricians, the rich, wealthy powerful landowners, and the Plebeians, the working class and the majority.
In this system, Plebeians were often jailed for disobeying laws because the Patricians would make new ones and interpret them for their own benefit. Thus, even though Patricians could be wrong, they weren't usually blamed. Soon, Plebeians had a major victory when the laws of the Twelve Tablets were written down, that way nobody could interpret them for their benefit.
It's no different in this government. If it's in writing, it's available to everybody, and there's no way around it in federal court, as it can't be misinterpreted considering how clear it is.
This was intentionally created to help preserve democracy, because even though democracy was created in Ancient Greece and enforced by ruler Cleisthenes, the Framers looked toward the Roman Republic more - in fact, we're still a republic today and have a lot of similar laws.
An example of the crisis of the roman catholic church in the late middle ages is the Western Schism, a split within the catholic church lasting from 1378 to 1417 in which two men claimed to be the true pope, thus dividing the church into two groups, one that believed one man, and another that believed the other man.
