The inhabitants of the Mark or Gá, however numerous or however few they may be, must always have some provision for the exigencies of peace and war. But peace is the natural or normal state, that for which war itself exists, and the institutions proper to war are the exception, not the rule. Hence the priestly and judicial functions are permanent,—the military, merely temporary. The former, whether united in the same person, or divided between two or more, are the necessary conditions of the existence of the state as a community; the latter are merely requisite from time to time, to secure the free exertion of the former, to defend the existence of the community against the attacks of other communities. We may admit that the father is the first priest and judge in his own household; he has, above all other, the sacerdotal secrets, and the peculiar rites, of family worship; these, not less than age, experience and the dignity of paternity, are the causes and the justification of his power. The judicial is a corollary from the sacerdotal authority. But what applies to the individual household applies to any aggregate of households: even as the family worship and the family peace require the exertion of these powers for their own maintenance and preservation, so do the public worship and the public peace require their existence, though in a yet stronger degree. From among the heads of families some one or more must be elected to discharge the all-important functions which they imply. If the solemn festivals and public rites of the god are to be duly celebrated, if the anger of the thunderer is to be propitiated, and the fruits of the earth to be blessed,—if the wounded cattle are to be healed, the fever expelled, or the secret malice of evil spirits to be defeated,—who but the priest can lead the ceremonies and prescribe the ritual? Who but he can sanctify the transfer of land, the union of man and wife, the entrance of the newborn child upon his career of life; who but himself can conduct judicial investigations, where the deities are the only guardians of truth and avengers of perjury, or where their supernatural power alone can determine between innocence and guilt[222]? Lastly, who but he can possess authority to punish the freeman for offences dangerous to the wellbeing of all freemen? To what power less than that of God will the freeman condescend to bow[223]? ----- Footnote 222: The various forms of the ordeal were undoubtedly pagan, though retained by the Christian communities of the Germans. Footnote 223: