Most people will surrender their freedom in exchange for bread, miracle, and someone to bow to, because free choice is an unbearable burden they would rather hand to an authority. A system that relieves people of the anguish of choosing can win their gratitude and allegiance even as it governs them.
An elite can knowingly govern by deception while sincerely believing it acts out of love, taking on the sin of ruling so the masses can live happily as children. In this account the guardians carry the torment of truth so the governed need never face it.
Mass obedience is secured through three levers: miracle (spectacle that overrides reason), mystery (withheld explanation that commands awe), and authority (a central power to submit to). Whoever controls these three can hold a conscience that free conviction alone cannot.
In 16th-century Seville, Christ returns during the Inquisition and is arrested by a cardinal who tells him the Church has corrected his work by removing the freedom he gave humanity. Christ answers only with a kiss, and the Inquisitor, shaken but unmoved, releases him and tells him never to return.