768 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



&quot;The festivals of the gods thus worshipped in common wero 

 national festivals. From the system of festivals it was only a step to a 

 common calendar. A common purse was needed for the preservation 

 of the buildings in which the worship was carried on, and for furnish 

 ing sacrifices ; this made a common coinage necessary. The common 

 purse and temple-treasures required administrators, for whose choice it 

 v as requisite to assemble, and whose administration of their office had 

 to be watched by a representation of the federated tribes. In case of 

 dispute between the Amphictyones, a judicial authority was wanted to 

 preserve the common peace, or punish it s violation in the name of the 

 god. Thus the insignificant beginning of common annual festivals 

 gradually came to transform the whole of public life ; the constant carry 

 ing of arms was given up, intercourse was rendered safe, and the 

 sanctity of temples and altars recognized. But the most important 

 result of all was, that the members of the Amphictyony learnt to 

 regard themselves as one united body against those standing outside it ; 

 out of a number of tribes arose a nation, which required a common 

 name to distinguish it, and its political and religious system, from all 

 other tribes.&quot; 



And that, little as it operated, acceptance of a common creed 

 tended somewhat towards consolidation of European peoples, 

 we see alike in the weekly suspensions of feudal fights under 

 the influence of the Church, in the longer suspensions of 

 larger quarrels under promise to the pope during the crusades 

 and in the consequent combined action of kings who at 

 other times were enemies; as shown by the fighting of 

 Philip Augustus and Richard I. under the same banners. 



And then beyond these various influences indirectly aiding 

 consolidation, come the direct influences of judgments 

 supposed to come from God through an inspired person^ 

 Delphian oracle or Catholic high-priest. &quot;As men of a 

 privileged spiritual endowment &quot; the priests of Delphi were 

 &quot; possessed of the capacity and mission of becoming in the 

 name of their god the teachers and counsellors, in all matters, 

 of the children of the land ; &quot; and obviously, in so far as their 

 judgments concerning inter-tribal questions were respected, 

 they served to prevent wars. In like manner belief in the 

 pope as a medium through whom the divine will was com 

 municated, tended in those who held it to cause subordina- 



