264: PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



authority and actions of Samuel, who, dedicated to him from 

 childhood, was a &quot; prophet of the Lord,&quot; who as a priest 

 built an altar, and, as we see in the case of Agag, was the 

 medium through whom God conveyed his commands, and 

 who played the part of both judge and executioner. 



Of course we may expect that Egypt with its long history 

 furnishes good evidence, and we find it. Here are relative 

 facts from three authorities Bunsen, Brugsch, and Ermau. 



&quot;That the oldest laws were ascribed to Hermes, implies however 

 nothing more than that the first germ of the Civil law sprung from 

 the Sacred Books, and that it was based in part upon the religious 

 tenets which they contained.&quot; 



Mentu-hotep, a priest and official of the 12th dyn., on his tomb, 

 prides himself on having been a man learned in the law, a legislator, &quot; 



&quot; The chief judge was always of highest degree; if he was not one 

 of the king s own sons, he was chief priest of one of the great gods, 

 an hereditary prince.&quot; 



&quot; All the judges of higher rank served Ma at, the goddess of Truth 

 as priests and the chief judge wore a small figure of this goddess as a 

 badge round his neck.&quot; 



A court which held a sitting in the 46 of Ramses II, consisted of 

 9 priests (prophets and priests) and one lay member, the registrar. 

 But in another case (Ramses IX) the lay element preponderated. 

 Which last statement implies a step towards differentiation 

 of the secular from the sacred in legal administration. 



To the circumstance that the Greek States did not lie- 

 come fully united has already been ascribed the fact that 

 the Greek priesthood never became a hierarchy. Says Thirl- 

 wall &quot; The Greek priests never formed one organized body 

 . . . even within the same state they were not incorpo 

 rated.&quot; Hence the normal development of sundry profes 

 sions is less distinctly to be traced. Nevertheless the rela 

 tion between the priestly and the judicial functions is visi 

 ble in a rudimentary, if not in a developed, form. Among 

 the Greeks, as among the Hebrews, it was the habit in cases 

 of doubt to &quot; enquire of the Lord w ; and the oracular utter 

 ance embodying the will of a god was made by a priest or 

 priestess. Moreover, the circumstance that Greek laws were 



