no power to judge the citizens, or to excommunicate anyone: this could only
be done by the judges and chiefs chosen from among the people. (9) A
consideration of the successes and the histories of the Hebrews will bring
to light other considerations worthy of note. To wit:

(18:9) I. That there were no religious sects, till after the high priests,
in the second commonwealth, possessed the authority to make decrees, and
transact the business of government. (10) In order that such authority might
last for ever, the high priests usurped the rights of secular rulers, and
at last wished to be styled kings. (11) The reason for this is ready to
hand; in the first commonwealth no decrees could bear the name of the high
priest, for he had no right to ordain laws, but only to give the answers of
God to questions asked by the captains or the councils: he had, therefore,
no motive for making changes in the law, but took care, on the contrary, to
administer and guard what had already been received and accepted. (12) His
only means of preserving his freedom in safety against the will of the
captains lay in cherishing the law intact. (13) After the high priests had
assumed the power of carrying on the government, and added the rights of
secular rulers to those they already possessed, each one began both in
things religious and in things secular, to seek for the glorification of his
own name, settling everything by sacerdotal authority, and issuing every
day, concerning ceremonies, faith, and all else, new decrees which he sought
to make as sacred and authoritative as the laws of Moses. (14) Religion thus
sank into a degrading superstition, while the true meaning and
interpretation of the laws became corrupted. (15) Furthermore, while the
high priests were paving their way to the secular rule just after the
restoration, they attempted to gain popular favour by assenting to
every demand; approving whatever the people did, however impious, and
accommodating Scripture to the very depraved current morals. (16) Malachi
bears witness to this in no measured terms: he chides the priests of his