ation or birth lives on a higher level than
others. He may teach and do good but irrespective of that it is the duty
of the laity to support the priesthood. This doctrine is preached by
Hinduism in a stronger form than by Buddhism. The intellectual
superiority of the Brahmans as a caste was sufficiently real to ensure
its acceptance and in politics they had the good sense to rule by
serving, to be ministers and not kings. In theory and to a considerable
extent in practice, the Brahmans and their gods are not an _imperium in
imperio_ but an _imperium super imperium_. The position was possible
only because, unlike the Papacy and unlike the Lamas of Tibet, they had
no Pope and no hierarchy. They produced no a'Beckets or Hildebrands and
no Inquisition. They did not quarrel with science but monopolized it.

In India kings are expected to maintain the priesthood and the temples
yet Hinduism rarely assumes the form of a state religion[78] nor does it
admit, as state religions generally have to admit, that the secular arm
has a co-ordinate jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters. Yet it affects
every department of social life and a Hindu who breaks with it loses his
social status. Hindu deities are rarely tribal gods like Athene of
Athens or the gods of Mr Kipling and the German Emperor. There are
thousands of shrines specially favoured by a divine presence but the
worshippers think of that presence not as the protector of a race or
city but as a special manifestation of a universal though often
invisible power. The conquests of Mohammedans and Christians are not
interpreted as meaning that the gods of Hinduism have succumbed to alien
deities.

The views prevalent in China and Japan as to the relations of Church and
State are almost the antipodes of those described. In those countries it
is the hardly dissembled theory of the official world that religion is a
department of government and that there should be regulations for gods
and worship, just as there are for ministers and etiquette. If we say
that religion is identified with the government in Tibet and forms an
_imperium super imperium_ in India, we may compare its position in the
Far East to native states under British rule. There is no interference
with creeds provided they respect ethical and social conventions:
interesting doctrines and rites are appreciated: the Government accepts
and rewards the loyal co-operation of the Buddhist and Taoist
priesthoods but maintains