An Historical Essay on the Laws and the Government of Rome; Designed as an Introduction to the Study of the Civil Law - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1842 Excerpt: ... PONTIFICAL LAW. CHAP. III. Importance of the priesthood in Rome--Policy of the national religion--Jurisdiction of the pontiffs--Dies fasti and nefasti--Jus Civile Flavianum--Jus Mlianum--Account of the actiones legum--butian and Julian laws--Decline of the actiones--Change of the national religion. Of all the numerous privileges which the original constitution of Rome had reserved to the Patricians, there was not one more important than the exclusive right of being eligible to the offices of the priesthood. Among a people ignorant and unenlightened as were the founders of the state, religion and government are ever so closely connected, that the care of both necessarily devolves on the same persons. The men, who are too ignorant to comprehend, or too indocile to obey, the most salutary laws enforced by beings of their own nature, will cheerfully and reverently submit to any restraint, however rigorous or unjust, which they believe to be imposed by a supernatural power; and the history of every uncultivated people will prove that, whatever may be the nominal form of their government, almost the whole of the real authority is exercised by the priesthood. This, however, is an evil which the progress of civilization and of knowledge gradually counteract; and the share which the officers of religion bear by right of their office in the government of a nation may generally be taken as an estimate of the degree of perfection that government has attained. The Gauls and the Britons have been ruled by their Druids; they were unlettered savages. Europe has submitted to the will of a pontiff; but it was in an age of darkness and ignorance. One of the first efforts produced by the revival of knowledge was a struggle to throw off the temporal yoke of ecclesiastical autho...

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