Would have been?

God and duty to the State, which Christianity had introduced, took the form of a conflict between Church and king. The eccle- siastical jurisdiction of the Pope extended over Italy, France, and Spain, Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia, and Poland. At first, outside Italy and southern France, his control over bishops and abbots was very slight, but from the time of Gregory VII (late eleventh century) it became real and effective. From that time on, the clergy, throughout western Europe, formed a single organization directed from Rome, seeking power intelligently and relentlessly, and usually victorious, until after the year 1300, in their conflicts with secular rulers. The conflict between Church and State was not only a conflict between clergy and laity ; it was also a renewal of the conflict between the Mediter- ranean world and the northern barbarians. The unity of the Church echoed the unity of the Roman Empire ; its liturgy was Latin, and its dominant men were mostly Italian, Spanish, or southern French. Their education, when education revived, was classical; their conceptions of law and government would have been more intelligible to Marcus Aurelius than they were to contemporary monarchs. The Church represented at once continuity with the past and what was most civilized in the present. --history of western philosophy

(1) What's the meaning of that bold sentence? I am really confused when I read this sentence. Can't he just write "their conceptions of law and government were more intelligible to Marcus Aurelius than they were to contemporary monarchs ?" Thanks!