CHAPTER XI: THE CIVIL FUNCTIONS OF PRIESTS.

§ 633. Of course where the head of the State, himself regarded as god-descended, plays the part of priest in propitiating the ancestral gods, and, unlimited in his authority, carries his rule into all spheres, the union of civil functions with sacerdotal functions is complete. A good example of this condition in an early stage of social development, is furnished by the Polynesians.

Various extinct societies presented kindred fusions of civil with sacerdotal headships. In Assyria, where the king “was either supposed to be invested with divine attributes, or was looked upon as a type of the Supreme Deity,” and where “all his acts, whether in war or peace, appear to have been connected with the national religion, and were believed to be under the special protection and superintendence of the deity;” he, while civil head of the State, is represented Edition: current; Page: [119] in the sculptures as the chief sacrificer to the gods. The like connexion existed in ancient Egypt, in ancient Mexico, in ancient Peru; and in Japan, until recently, it continued to exist under a nominal form if not under a real form.

Obviously this is the normal connexion in those societies which have preserved that primitive structure in which, along with a general ancestor-worship there has arisen a special worship of the founder of the conquering tribe, whose descendant is at once head propitiator of him, and inheritor of his civil headship along with his military headship.

§ 634. This union, most conspicuous where the divine nature or divine descent of the king is an article of faith, continues also where he is believed to have divine sanction only. For habitually in such cases he is either nominal head or real head of the ecclesiastical organization; and while ordinarily occupied with civil functions, assumes on great occasions sacerdotal functions.

Where the religion is indigenous, this maintenance of the connexion is naturally to be expected; but we have proof that even where the religion is an invading one, which suppresses the indigenous one, there is apt to be a re-establishment of the connexion. This is shown by the growth of the ecclesiastical organization throughout Europe. At first diffused and local, it advanced towards a centralized union of religious with civil authority. According to Bedollierre, during the fourth and fifth centuries in France, senators, governors of provinces, great proprietors, imperial officers, were elected bishops; and Guizot writes that in the fifth century, “the bishops and the priests became the principal municipal magistrates.” In the codes of Theodosius and Justinian are numerous regulations which remit municipal affairs to the clergy and the bishops. The jurisdiction of a bishop in Germany, beginning with his own clergy only, came to be by usage “extended to laymen, in cases where the duties of religion, the rights or discipline of the church, were concerned; and the execution of his decrees was confided Edition: current; Page: [120] to the care of the local courts.” When, in the tenth century, by the growth of the feudal system, bishops had become “temporal barons themselves, and were liable like the merest laymen, to military service, to the jurisdictio herilis, and the other obligations of the dignity;” they became ministers of justice like secular barons, with the exception only that they could not pronounce or execute sentences of death. Similarly in the twelfth century in England.

To all which facts we must join the fact that with this acquisition of local civil authority by local ecclesiastics, there went the acquisition of a central civil authority, by the central ecclesiastic. The public and private actions of kings became in a measure subject to the control of the pope; so that in the thirteenth century there had taken place a “conversion of kingdoms into spiritual fiefs.”

§ 635. We pass by a step, in many cases only nominal, from the civil functions of the priest as central or local ruler, to the civil function of the priest as judge only—as judge coexisting with, but separate from, the political head.

That devolution of the judicial function upon the priesthood which often takes place in early stages of social development, results from the idea that subordination to the deceased ruler who has become a god, is a higher obligation than subordination to the living ruler; and that those who, as priests, are in communication with the ghost of the deceased ruler, are channels for his commands and decisions, and are therefore the proper judges. Hence various facts which uncivilized and semi-civilized peoples present. Of the Coast Negroes we read that “in Badagry the fetish-priests Edition: current; Page: [121] are the sole judges of the people.” In ancient Yucatan “the priests of the gods were so much venerated that they were the lords who inflicted punishments and assigned rewards.” Already in § 525, when speaking of judicial systems, I have referred to the judicial functions of priests among the Gauls and Scandinavians. With more ancient peoples the like relation held for the like reason. Of the Egyptians we are told that—

Unlike as was originally the relation of the priest to the ruler throughout Christendom, yet when the Christian priest came eventually to be regarded, like the priests of indigenous religions, as divinely inspired, there arose a tendency to recognize his judicial authority. In the old English period the bishop had “to assist in the administration of justice between man and man, to guard against perjury, and to superintend the administration of the ordeals.” And this early participation with laymen in judicial functions afterwards became something like usurpation. Beginning as tribunals enforcing the discipline of superior priests over inferior priests, ecclesiastical courts, both here and abroad, extended their range of action to cases in which clerical and lay persons were simultaneously implicated, and eventually made the actions of laymen also, subject to their decisions. At first taking cognizance of offences distinguished as spiritual, these courts gradually extended the definition of such until in some places—

And at the same time there had been developed a body of canon law derived from papal judgments. These encroachments of ecclesiastical jurisdiction on the sphere of civil jurisdiction, led eventually to struggles for supremacy; until, in the thirteenth century, ecclesiastical jurisdiction began to be restricted, and has since become relatively small in range.

§ 636. Along with a large share in the administration of justice possessed by priests in countries where, or times when, they are supposed to be inspired with divine wisdom, or utterers of divine injunctions, priests also have in such places and times, a large share in the control of State-affairs as ministers or advisers.

In some cases the political ruler seeks their aid not because he believes they have supernatural wisdom but because they are useful controlling agents. Says Cruikshank, “many, also, among the higher and more intelligent ranks of the natives [of the Gold Coast], who have very little faith in the Fetish [or fetish-man], acknowledge its value as an engine of civil government.” The Fijian chiefs admitted “that they have little respect for the power of the priests, and use them merely to govern the people.” Or, as William says, “a good understanding exists between the chief and the priests, and the latter take care to make the gods’ utterances to agree with the wishes of the former.” Probably a kindred relation exists in Abyssinia, where the king of Shoa rules his people “principally through the church.”

In other and more numerous cases, however, the power of the priest (or the medicine-man, or the man uniting both characters,) as political counsellor, results from belief in his supernatural knowledge. Writing of the Marutse, Holub says that in King Sepopo’s employment were “two old wizen-looking magicians or doctors, . . . who exercised almost a supreme control over state affairs.” Similarly, Boyle writes of the Dyaks that “next door to the Tuah Edition: current; Page: [123] [chief] lived the ‘manang’ or medicine man.” And this reminds us of Huc’s remark concerning the Tartar emperor, Mangou-khan, who “was given to a number of superstitious practices, and the principal soothsayer was lodged opposite his tent . . . having under his care the cars that bore the idols.” So has it been where the sacerdotal character has become decided. We have seen that in Mexico “the high-priests were the oracles whom the kings consulted in all the most important affairs of the State.” So was it among other ancient American peoples; as in primitive Michoacan, where the priests “had the greatest influence in secular as well as ecclesiastical affairs.” In ancient Egypt it was the same. “Next to the king, the priests held the first rank, and from them were chosen his confidential and responsible advisers.” And it is still so in Burmah, where, Sangermano says, “all is regulated by the opinions of the Brahmins, so that not even the king shall presume to take any step without their advice.”

That this advising function in civil affairs should be joined with the sacerdotal function, in societies having cults originating from worship of dead rulers, is to be expected. We see, however, that even the priests of a conquering religion acquire in this, as in other respects, the same essential positions as the priests of an indigenous religion. The history of mediæval Europe shows how prelates became agents of civil rule; alike as ministers, as diplomatic agents, and as members of councils dealing with political affairs.

§ 637. But as with the military functions of priests so with their civil functions, social development, ever accompanied by specialization, more and more restricts them.

At the one extreme we have, in the primitive king, a complete fusion of the two sets of functions; while in the governments of advanced societies we see approach to an extreme in which priests, instead of taking prominent parts in civil affairs, are almost excluded from them. Among ourselves, save in the occasional instances of clerical magistrates, Edition: current; Page: [124] the judicial and executive powers once largely shared in by leading ecclesiastics, have lapsed out of their hands; while that remnant of legislative power still exercised by the bishops, appears not likely to be retained much longer. At the same time this differentiation has so established itself in the general mind, that it is commonly thought improper for clergymen to take active parts in politics.

Good reason exists for associating this change, or at any rate the completion of it, with development of the industrial type. Resistance to the irresponsible rule of priests, like resistance to other irresponsible rule, is ultimately traceable to that increasing assertion of personal freedom, with accompanying right of private judgment, which industrial life fosters by habituating each citizen to maintain his own claims while respecting the claims of others. But this connexion will be made more manifest as we proceed with the subject of the next chapter.