A still worse element had begun, since the reign of Herod the Great, to corrupt the high-priesthood. Herod having fallen in love with Mariamne, daughter of a certain Simon, son of Boethus of Alexandria, and having wished to marry her (about the year 28 B.C.), saw no other means of ennobling his father-in-law and raising him to his own rank than by making him high-priest. This intriguing family remained master, almost without interruption, of the sovereign pontificate for thirty-five years.[1] Closely allied to the reigning family, it did not lose the office until after the deposition of Archelaus, and recovered it (the year 42 of our era) after Herod Agrippa had for some time re-enacted the work of Herod the Great. Under the name of _Boethusim_,[2] a new sacerdotal nobility was formed, very worldly, and little devotional, and closely allied to the Sadokites. The _Boethusim_, in the Talmud and the rabbinical writings, are depicted as a kind of unbelievers, and always reproached as Sadducees.[3] From all this there resulted a miniature court of Rome around the temple, living on politics, little inclined to excesses of zeal, even rather fearing them, not wishing to hear of holy personages or of innovators, for it profited from the established routine. These epicurean priests had not the violence of the Pharisees; they only wished for quietness; it was their moral indifference, their cold irreligion, which revolted Jesus. Although very different, the priests and the Pharisees were thus confounded in his antipathies. But a stranger, and without influence, he was long compelled to restrain his discontent within himself, and only to communicate his sentiments to the intimate friends who accompanied him. [Footnote 1: Jos., _Ant._ XV. ix. 3, XVII. vi. 4, xiii. 1, XVIII. i. 1, ii. 1, XIX. vi. 2, viii. 1.] [Footnote 2: This name is only found in the Jewish documents. I think that the "Herodians" of the gospel are the _Boethusim_.] [Footnote 3: The treatise of _Aboth Nathan_, 5; _Soferim_, iii., hal. 5; Mishnah, _Menachoth_, x. 3; Talmud of Babylon, _Shabbath_, 118 _a_. The name of _Boethusim_ is often changed in the Talmudic books with that of the Sadducees, or with the word _Minim_ (heretics). Compare Thosiphta, _Joma_, i., with the Talm. of Jerus., the same treatise, i. 5, and Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 19 _b_; Thos. _Sukka_, iii. with the Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 43 _b_; Thos. ibid., further on, with the Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 48 _b_; Thos. _Rosh hasshana_, i. with Mishnah, same treatise ii. 1; Talm. of Jerus., same treatise, ii. 1; and Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 22 _b_; Thos. _Menachoth_, x. with Mishnah, same treatise, x. 3; Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 65 _a_; Mishnah, _Chagigah_, ii. 4; and Megillath Taanith, i.; Thos. _Iadaim_, ii. with Talm. of Jerus.; _Baba Bathra_, viii. 1; Talm. of Bab., same treatise, 115 _b_; and Megillath Taanith, v.]