Max Weber defined authority as the complement of power. Power means the ability to get people to do the things they don’t want to do; authority is the ability to influence people so that they will come to want to do the things you want them to do. Power is an objective feature of a situation. A judge can sentence a criminal according to guidelines set out in the law. A parent can discipline a child although the law limits a parent’s discretion in doing so. Authority, on the other hand, is in the eye of those upon whom authority is exercised. The Catholic Church holds its authority because its believers accept its view of itself even if there were times when the Church could turn heretics over to the secular arm for punishment. A professor exercises the authority he or she has been given by the university to act as someone who knows what he or she is talking about even though that provisional authorization has to be supported by convincing students that he or she is indeed knowledgeable or at least has the charm that makes students not care whether he or she is knowledgeable. That is apart from the power of the professor to award grades.