CHURCH AND STATE. 790 



gans, the high priest, &quot; a bold, violent, unscrupulous man, who 

 combined in his own person the threefold office of warrior, 

 prophet, and priest,&quot; urged that the Tongan prisoners should 

 be put to immediate death. The king opposed this proposal, 

 and hence originated a feud between the priest and the king, 

 which resulted in a civil war, the overthrow and exile of the 

 king, and usurpation of his place by the priest. Though 

 this contest between a merciful king and a merciless priest 

 does not in all respects parallel that between Saul and 

 Samuel, since Samuel, instead of usurping the kingship him 

 self, merely anointed David ; yet the two equally illustrate 

 the struggle for authority which arises between the political 

 head and the supposed mouthpiece of divine commands. 

 Similarly among the Greeks. Curtius, speaking of the time 

 when the Iliad took form, says : 



&quot; The priests, especially the soothsayers, also oppose themselves to 

 the royal power; themselves constituting another authority by the 

 grace of God, which is proportionately more obstinate and dangerous. 



And we find traces of resistance to civil power among the 

 Eomans. 



&quot;The priests even in times of grave embarrassment claimed the 

 right of exemption from public burdens, and only after very trouble 

 some controversy submitted to make payment of the taxes in arrear. 



In various ways among various peoples this conflict is shown. 

 Of the Japanese priests in the sixteenth century, Dickson 

 writes : 



&quot; By their wealth, and from among their vassals, they were able to 

 keep up a respectable army ; and not by their vassals alone the priests 

 themselves filled the ranks. 



Among the Nahuan nations* of ancient America, the priests 

 &quot; possessed great power, secular as well as sacerdotal. Yopaa, 

 one of their principal cities, was ruled absolutely by a pontiff , 

 in whom the Zapotec monarchs had a powerful rival/ And 

 the relation between spiritual and temporal rulers here 

 indicated, recalling that between spiritual and temporal 

 rulers in Christendom, reminds us of the long fights for 

 supremacy which Europe witnessed between political heads 



