794 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



pleased them, and order him to put an end to himself, in obedience to 

 the will of the oracle imparted to them ; and to such a degree had they 

 contrived to enslave the understanding of those princes by superstitious 

 fears, that they were obeyed without opposition.&quot; 



Other cases of the subjection of the temporal power to the 

 spiritual power, if less extreme than this, are still sufficiently 

 marked. 



&quot; The Government of Bhutan, as of Tibet, and of Japan, is a theocracy, 

 assigning the first place to the spiritual chief. That chief being by 

 profession a recluse, the active duties are discharged ordinarily by 

 a deputy.&quot; 



But in these cases, or some of them, the supremacy of the 

 spiritual head has practically given place to that of the 

 temporal head: a differentiation of the two forms of rule 

 which has arisen in Polynesia also, under kindred con 

 ditions. 



Where Church and State are not so completely fused as 

 by thus making the terrestrial ruler a mere deputy for the 

 celestial ruler, there still continues a blending of the two 

 where primitive beliefs survive in full strength, and where, 

 consequently, the intercessors between gods and men con 

 tinuing to be all-powerful merge civil rule in ecclesiastical 

 rule. In Egypt for example 



&quot; The priesthood took a prominent part in everything. . . . Nothiiig 

 was beyond their jurisdiction : the king himself was subject to the laws 

 established by them for his conduct, and even for his mode of living.&quot; 



Along with religious beliefs equally intense with those in 

 Egypt, there went in the ancient American societies a like 

 unity of Church and State. The Peruvians exhibited a com 

 plete identity of the ecclesiastical government with the 

 political ; in Yucatan the authority of priests rivalled that of 

 kings; and in harmony with the tradition of the ancient 

 Mexicans that the priests headed their immigration, there 

 was such mingling of sacerdotal with civil rule as made the 

 two in great measure one. 



That this blending of Church and State is not limited to 

 societies in which the gods are apotheosized rulers more or 



