140
TTTE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
lead the ceremonies and prescribe the ritual 1 Who
but he can sanctify the transfer of land, the union
of man and wife, the entrance of the newborn child
upon his career of life ; who but himself can con-
duct judicial investigations, where the deities are
the Onlyguardians of truth and avengers of perjury,
or where their supernatural power alone can deter-
mine between innocence and guilt1 ? Lastly, who
but he can possess authority to punish the freeman
for offences dangerous to the wellbeing of all free-
men ? To what power less than that of God will
the freeman condescend to bow 2 ?
How then is it to be determined to whom such
power, once admitted to be necessary, shall be at
first entrusted 1 The first claim clearly lies with
those who are believed to be descended from the
gods, or from the local god of each particular dis-
trict3. They are his especial care, his children;
he led them into the land, and gave them the secret
of appeasing or pleasing him : he protects them by
his power, and guides them by his revelations : he
is their family and household god, the progenitor
of their race, one of themselves ; and they are the
* The various forms of the ordeal were undoubtedly pagan, though
retained by the Christian communities of the Germans.
2 Even in war the general had not at first the power of punishing
the freeman. The very urgencies of military discipline were subordi-
nated to the divine authority of the priests. “ Duces exemple potius
quam imperio, si prompti, si conspicui, si ante aciem agant, admira-
tione praesunt. Ceterum neque animadvertere, neque vincire, ne ver-
berare quidem nisi Sacerdotibus permissuɪn ; non quasi in poenam, nee
ducis jussu, sed velut deo imperante, quem adesse bellantibus credunt.”
Tac. Germ. vii.
3 “ Diis genitos sacrosque reges.” Tae. Orat. 12.
СЯ. Vl.]
THE KING.
141
best, indeed the only, expounders of his will. A
single family, with which others have by slow de-
grees united themselves, by which others have been
adopted, and which in process of time have thus
become the nucleus of a state, will probably remain
in possession of this sacerdotal power ; the god of
the land does not readily give place to others, and
those with whom his worship identifies him will
continue to be his priests long after others have
joined in their ceremonies. Or it is possible that
a single household wandering from a more civilized
community may be admitted among a rude people,
to whom they impart more perfect methods of til-
lage, more efficient medical precepts, more impar-
tial maxims of law, better or more ornamental
modes of architecture, or more accurate computa-
tions of time, than they had previously possessed :
the mysterious courses of the stars, the secrets of
building bridges1, towers and ships, of ploughing
and of sowing, of music and of healing, have been
committed to them by their god : for the sake of
the benefits they offer, their god is received into
the community ; and they remain his priests be-
cause they alone are cognizant of, and can conduct,
the rites wherewith he is to be served.
Even in periods so remote as not to be con-
founded with those of national migrations, za small
body of superior personal strength, physical beauty,
mental organization, or greater skill in arms, may
It is a curious fact that Pontifex, literally the bridge-maker, should
be the generic Latin name for a priest. At Athens there was a gens of
yfφυp<n'oι : were these ever a sacerdotal tribe ?