the Pharisaic attitude became more and more hardened into a theological creed, clothed in a web of ceremonial formalities, but vivified by an inspiring devotion to the will of Jehovah, and an ardent belief in the ultimate triumph of His Elect. Against this teaching arose the sect of the Sadducees, who played towards Pharisaism a part in one respect analogous to that played by Protestantism towards Catholicism, in another to that played by the Cavaliers towards the Roundheads. They derived all their religious tenets from the letter of Scripture, rejecting the lessons of oral tradition and the “legacies of the Scribes.” They refused to believe in angels or in the resurrection of the dead, and they repudiated the fatalistic doctrine that the future of the individual and of the state depends not upon human action but upon the divine will, fixed once for all. They pointed out that, if this were the case, the belief in God’s justice would be reduced to an absurdity, as saint and sinner would be confused in one indiscriminate verdict. The Sadducees held that man is master of his own fortunes. The Pharisees met the objection of their opponents as to divine justice by the non-Scriptural doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which had crept into Judaism in the latter years of the Babylonian captivity. If the saint and the sinner fared alike in this life, they argued, the balance would be restored in the next. The righteous would then rise up to everlasting bliss, and the wicked to everlasting shame. This and other minor points formed the ground of dogmatic difference between the two sects. Their difference in questions of practical politics and in social views was characteristic of their respective creeds. The Sadducees, far from expecting the salvation of the nation from a miraculous intervention of the Deity, looked to human wisdom for help. They placed the interests of the State above the interests of the Synagogue. They shared in the aristocrat’s well-bred horror of disturbing enthusiasms and of asceticism. Though recognising the authority of the Law, they were temperate in their piety and could not live by unleavened bread alone. They favoured Hellenism and supported the Hasmonaean kings in their efforts to shake off the trammels of ecclesiastical tyranny. ♦40–4 B.C.♦ The liberal and progressive and, at the same time, degenerate tendencies of the Sadducean protestants are seen under their most pronounced form in the sect of the Herodians, who later helped Herod the Great in his endeavour to render pagan culture popular among his subjects by the erection of temples and theatres, by the adoption of heathen fashions of worship, and by the encouragement of the Hellenic games. The party of the Sadducees included the great priestly families, the noble, and the wealthy, that is, the minority. Their opponents interpreted the feelings of the lower priesthood and of the people. Judaism, as understood by the Pharisees, was the idol for which