724 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Indians. Of various semi-civilized peoples, past and present, 

 we have similar accounts. The traditional &quot; founders of the 

 Maya civilization, united in their persons the qualities of 

 high-priest and king .&quot; In ancient Peru, the Ynca was high- 

 priest : &quot; as the representative of the Sun, he stood at the 

 head of the priesthood, and presided at the most important 

 of the religious festivals.&quot; Of Siam, Thomson writes &quot; the 

 King himself is High Priest.&quot; We are told by Crawfurd that 

 the Javanese king is &quot; the first minister of religion.&quot; In 

 China the ritual laws give to the Emperor-Pontiff &quot;the 

 exclusive privilege of worshipping the Supreme, and prohibit 

 subjects from offering the great sacrifices.&quot; And in Japan, 

 the Mikado was &quot; chief of the national religion.&quot; The 



early records of Old World peoples show us the same con 

 nexion. The Egyptian king, head of the priesthood, was 

 everywhere represented in their monuments as sacrificing to 

 a god. The Assyrian king was similarly represented ; and 

 the inscriptions show that Tiglath Pileser was &quot;high-priest of 

 Babylon/ So, too, in the Hebrew records we read of David 

 officiating as priest. It was the same with Aryan peoples 

 in ancient days. Among the Greeks, as described by Homer, 

 acts of public devotion &quot; are everywhere performed by the 

 chiefs without the intervention of a priest.&quot; The Spartan 

 kings were priests of Zeus ; and they received the perquisites 

 due to priests. So &quot; at Athens, the archon-king . . . embraced 

 in his functions all that belonged to the State-religion. He 

 was a real rex sacrorum&quot; And that the like was the case 

 among the Eomans, &quot; we know from the fact that the rex 

 sacrificulus was appointed on the abolition of the monarchy 

 to perform such sacrifices as could only be performed by a 

 king.&quot; Nor did the Aryans who spread northwards fail to 

 furnish illustrations. Among the primitive Scandinavians 

 the head man was &quot; minister and magistrate in one : &quot; in early 

 days &quot; each chief, as he settled, built his own hof or temple, 

 and assumed the functions of priest himself.&quot; 



This connexion long continued in a modified form through- 



