take up again the accounts of the Gospels and the Buddhistic
chronicle, it is very possible that the bribed informer was really
Judas, although the Buddhistic version is silent on this point. As to
the pangs of conscience which are said to have impelled the informer to
suicide, I must say that I give no credence to them. A man capable of
committing so vile and cowardly an action as that of making an
infamously false accusation against his friend, and this, not out of a
spirit of jealousy, or for revenge, but to gain a handful of shekels!
such a man is, from the psychic point of view, of very little worth. He
ignores honesty and conscience, and pangs of remorse are unknown to him.

It is presumable that the governor treated him as is sometimes done in
our days, when it is deemed desirable to effectually conceal state
secrets known to men of his kind and presumably unsafe in their keeping.
Judas probably was simply hanged, by Pilate's order, to prevent the
possibility of his some day revealing that the plot of which Jesus was a
victim had been inspired by the authorities.

On the day of the execution, a numerous detachment of Roman soldiers was
placed around the cross to guard against any attempt by the populace for
the delivery of him who was the object of their veneration. In this
occurrence Pilate gave proof of his extraordinary firmness and
resolution.

But though, owing to the precautions taken by the governor, the
anticipated revolt did not occur, he could not prevent the people, after
the execution, mourning the ruin of their hopes, which were destroyed,
together with the last scion of the race of David. All the people went
to worship at Jesus' grave. Although we have no precise information
concerning the occurrences of the first few days following the Passion,
we could, by some probable conjectures, reconstruct the scenes which
must have taken place.

It stands to reason that the Roman Caesar's clever lieutenant, when he
saw that Christ's grave became the centre of universal lamentations and
the subject of national grief, and feared that the memory of the
righteous victim might excite the discontent of the people and raise the
whole country against the foreigners' rule, should have employed any
effective means for the removal of this rallying-point, the mortal
remains of Jesus. Pilate began by having the body buried. For three days
the soldiers who were stationed on guard at the grave, were exposed to
all kind