810 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of the same blood worshipping the same gods. In this way 

 they aid social co-operation and development. 



This function, however, is but a collateral display of their 

 fundamental function the maintenance of subordination : 

 primarily to the deified progenitor, or the adopted god, and 

 secondarily to his living descendant or appointed vice 

 gerent. It is scarcely possible to emphasize enough the 

 truth that, from the earliest stages down to existing stages, 

 the one uniform and essential action of priesthoods, irre 

 spective of time, place, or creed, has been that of insisting on 

 obedience. That primitive men may be moulded into fitness 

 for social life, they must be held together ; and that they may be 

 held together, they must be made subject to authority. Only 

 by restraints of the most powerful kinds can the unregulated 

 explosive savage be made to co-operate permanently with his 

 fellows ; and of such restraints the strongest, and apparently 

 the indispensable one, is fear of vengeance from the god of the 

 tribe, if his commands, repeated by his successor, are dis 

 obeyed. How important is the agency of Ecclesiastical 

 Institutions as thus re-inforcing Political Institutions, is well 

 seen in the following description Ellis gives of the effects 

 produced by undermining local religions in Polynesia. 



&quot; The sacrificing of human victims to the idols had been one of the 

 most powerful engines in the hands of the government, the requisition 

 for them being always made by the ruler, to whom the priests applied 

 when the gods required them. The king, therefore, sent his herald to 

 the petty chieftain, who selected the victims. An individual who had 

 shewn any marked disaffection towards the government, or incurred 

 the displeasure of the king and chiefs, was usually chosen. The people 

 knew this, and therefore rendered the most unhesitating obedience. 

 Since the subversion of idolatry, this motive has ceased to operate ; and 

 many, free from the restraint it had imposed, seemed to refuse all lawful 

 obedience and rightful support.&quot; 



The result, as described by Ellis, being that social order was 

 in a considerable degree disturbed. 



This maintenance of subordination, to which an eccle 

 siastical system has been instrumental, has indirectly 

 subserved other disciplines of an indispensable kind. No 



