luence on the
general life was probably less than that of civil officers, poets, and
philosophers. Greek educated thought moved at a relatively early period
from the conventional religious forms toward philosophical conceptions
of the relation between the divine and the human.[1970]

+1073+. The minute details of the Roman ritual might seem to give great
importance to priests;[1971] and the flamens (the ministers of
particular deities) were of course indispensable in certain sacrifices.
But the organization of Roman society was not favorable to the
development of specifically sacerdotal influence. Religion was a
department of State and family government. For the manifold events of
family life there were appropriate deities whose worship was conducted
by the father of the family. The title _rex_ (like the Greek
_basileus_), in some cases given to priests, was a survival from the
time when kings performed priestly functions. Later the consul was
sometimes the conductor of public religious ceremonies. There was hardly
a religious office, except that of the flamen, that might not be filled
by a civilian. In the Augustan revival membership in the College of the
Arval Brothers was sought by distinguished citizens. It was thought
desirable that the Pontifex Maximus, the most influential of the
priests, should be a jurist; and the office was held by such men as
Julius Caesar and Augustus. The increase of temples and priests by
Augustus did not materially change the religious condition. The adoption
of foreign cults was accompanied by ideas that did not belong to the
Roman religion proper. In general, if we except the augurs, who
represent the lowest form of the sacerdotal office, the priest was
relatively uninfluential in Rome.[1972]

+1074+. The minimum of priestly influence is found in the national
religion of China, in which there is no priestly class proper.[1973] In
the worship of ancestors, which satisfies the daily religious needs of
the people, every householder and every civil official is a ministrant.
The great annual sacrifices to the heavenly bodies have been conducted
till recently by the emperor in person.[1974] Public religion is, in the
strictest sense, a function of the State. Society, according to the
Chinese view, is competent to manage relations with the supernatural
Powers--it needs no special class of intermediaries. This thoroughgoing
conception of civic autonomy in religion connects itself with the
sup