ission proceeded, his conflicts with official
hypocrisy became incessant. His goal was in the future, not in the past.
He was more than the reformer of an obsolete religion; he was the
creator of the eternal religion of humanity. A hatred which death alone
could satisfy was the consequence of these controversies. The war was to
the death. Judaea drew him as by a charm; he wished to attempt one last
effort to win the rebellious city, and seemed anxious to fulfil the
proverb that a prophet ought not to die outside Jerusalem.

At the feast of tabernacles in the year 32, his relatives, always
malevolent and sceptical, pressed him to go there. He set out on the
journey unknown to every one and almost alone, and never again saw his
beloved northern land.

In Jerusalem, Jesus was a stranger. There he felt a wall of resistance
he could not penetrate. At every step he met with obstinate scepticism.
The arrogance of the priests made the courts of the Temple disagreeable
to him, and his criticisms naturally exasperated the sacerdotal caste.
Imagine a reformer going, in our own time, to preach the overthrow of
Islamism round the Mosque of Omar! His teaching in this new world was
greatly modified; he had to become controversialist, jurist, theologian,
though when alone with his disciples his gentle and irresistible genius
inspired him with accents full of tenderness.

_APPROACHING THE CRISIS_

Jesus spent the autumn and part of the winter in Jerusalem. In the new
year he undertook a journey to the banks of the Jordan, the district he
had visited when he followed the school of John. After this pilgrimage
he returned to Bethany, a place he especially loved, and where he knew a
family whose friendship had a great charm for him. In impure and
depressing Jerusalem, Jesus was no longer himself. His mission weighed
him down, and he let himself be carried away by the torrent. The
contrast between his ever-increasing exaltation and the indifference of
the Jews became wider day by day. At the same time the public
authorities began to be bitter against him. In February, or early in
March, the council of the chief priests asked clearly the question "Can
Jesus and Judaism exist together?" The High Priest was Joseph Kaiapha,
but beside and behind him we always see another man, Hanan, his
father-in-law. He had been High Priest, and in reality kept all the
authority of the office. During fifty years the pontificate remained in
his family al