The whole state may possibly consist only of the predominant tribe, as Dorians or Ionians, or Anglosaxons: the rest of the population of the country may be perioecian as were the inhabitants of Laconia, and the British. The ruling tribe itself may have distinctions of rank; as for instance the Hypomeiones among the Spartans, the Ceorlas among the Anglosaxons. Footnote 229: The rule, _reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute_, ἀγαθοῦ τινος ὑπεροχὴ, applies in strictness to this case. Agis or Agesilaus might be generals, but Brasidas could not have been a king. Descent from Heracles was to the Spartiate what descent from Wóden was to the Saxon,—the condition of royalty. Footnote 230: In the Dooraunee empire, the Suddozyes had the exclusive right to royalty. Sooja ul Moolk was the last of the race in Caubul. The Essufzyes were hereditary viziers: the Barukzyes, the family of Dost Mahomet Khan, hereditary commanders in chief: the union of the vizierat with the military command in Dost Mahomet’s father, led to the ultimate ruin of the Suddozye princes. In the Mogul empire, the great offices of state became hereditary, and the historians of India could speak of the Vizier of Oude, the Nizam, the Peishwa or the Guicowar, long after the throne of Aurungzeb had crumbled to the dust. Footnote 231: Hist. Eccl. v. 10. Ælfred translates the word _satrapae_ by _ealdormen_. Footnote 232: Germ. xii. ----- The early separation of the judicial from the strictly sacerdotal functions, to a certain degree at least, is easily conceived. It would be mere matter of convenience, as soon as a population became numerous and widely dispersed. Yet to a very late period among the Teutons we find traces of the higher character. The ordeal or judgment of God, the casting of lots and divination, are all derived from and connected with priesthood. The heathen place of judgment was sanctified to the gods by priestly ceremonies; nor can it be supposed that the popular councils were held without a due inauguration by religious rites, or a marked exertion of authority by the priests. Tacitus speaking of these parliaments makes the intervention of the priest the very first step to business: “Ut turbae placuit, considunt armati. Silentium per sacerdotes, quibus tum et coercendi ius est, imperatur[233].” The Witena-gemót of later times was opened by the celebration of mass[234], and even yet Mr. Speaker goes to prayers. During the flourishing period of Christianity among the Anglosaxons, synods of the bishops and their clergy were commanded to be held twice a year, to act as supreme courts of justice, at least in civil causes[235]. The law of the Visigoths, while it recognizes a separation of the persons, implies a confusion of the jurisdiction: “Si iudex vel sacerdos reperti fuerint nequiter iudicasse[236].” The people, it is true, found the judgment or verdict, but the judge declared the law, pronounced the sentence, and most