The name is absent

guard of their freedom ; the monarchical principle
is the condition of their nationality. But this idea
of kingship is not that which we now generally en-
tertain ; it is in some respects more, in others less,
comprehensive.

And here it seems necessary to recur to a defi-
nition of words. With us, a king is the source both
of the military and the judicial powers ; he is chief
judge and general in chief; among protestants he
is head of the church, and only wants the functions
of high priest, because the nature of the church
of Christ admits of no priestly body exclusively
engaged in the sacrifices, or in possession of the
exclusive secrets, of the cult ɪ. But in the eye of the
state, and as the head of a state clergy, he is the
high priest, the authority in which ultimately even
the parochial order centres and finds its comple-
tion. He is an officer of the state ; the highest
indeed and the noblest, but to the state he belongs
as a part of itself : with us a commission of regency,
a stranger or a woman may perform all the func-
tions of royalty ; the houses of parliament may
limit them ; a successful soldier may usurp them.
With the early Germans, the king was something
different from this.

The inhabitants of the Mark or Ga, however nu-
merous or however few they may be, must always
have some provision for the exigencies of peace
and war. But peace is the natural or normal state,
that for which war itself exists, and the institu-

' 1 Peter, ɪɪ. 5, 9.

tions proper to war are the exception, not the rule.
Hence the priestly and judicial functions are per-
manent,—the military, merely temporary. The for-
mer, whether united in the same person, or divided
between two or more, are the necessary conditions
of the existence of the state as a community ; the
latter are merely requisite from time to time, to
secure the free exertion of the former, to defend
the existence of the community against the attacks
of other communities.

We may admit that the father is the first priest
and judge in his own household; he has, above all
other, the sacerdotal secrets, and the peculiar rites,
of family worship ; these, not less than age, expe-
rience and the dignity of paternity, are the causes
and the justification of his power. The judicial
is a corollary from the sacerdotal authority. But
what applies to the individual household applies to
any aggregate of households : even as the family
worship and the family peace require the exertion
of these powers for their own maintenance and
preservation, so do the public worship and the
public peace require their existence, though in a
yet stronger degree. From among the heads of
families some one or more must be elected to dis-
charge the all-important functions which they im-
ply. If the solemn festivals and public rites of the
god are to be duly celebrated, if the anger of the
thunderer is to be propitiated, and the fruits of the
earth to be blessed,—if the wounded cattle are to be
healed, the fever expelled, or the secret malice of
evil spirits to be defeated,—who but the priest can

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