CHAP. XXX.
Of the Authority of the Clergy under the first Race.
Book XVIII.
Chap. 30.THE priests of barbarous nations are commonly invested with power, because they have both that authority which is due to them from their religious character, and that influence which amongst such a people arises from superstition. Thus we see in Tacitus, that priests were held in great veneration by the Germans, and that they presided[1] in the assembly of the people. They alone were permitttd[2] to chastise, to bind, to smite; which they did, not by order of the prince, or as his ministers of justice; but as by an inspiration of that Deity who was always supposed to be present with those who made war.
We ought not to be astonished if from the very beginning of the first race, we see bishops the dispensers of[3] justice, if we see them appear in the assemblies of the nation, if they have such a prodigious influence on the minds of kings, and if they acquire so large a share of property.
- ↑ Silentium per sacerdotes, quitus coercendi jus est, imperatur. De morib Germ.
- ↑ Nec legibus libera aut infinita potestas. Cœterùm neque animadvertere, neque vincire. neque verberare, nisi sacerdotibus est permisfum, non quasi in pœnam, nec Ducis jussu, sed velut Deo imperante, quem adesse bellatoribui credunt. De morib. Germ.
- ↑ See the constitutions of Clotarius in the year 560. art. 6.
