II. vi. 5.]

[Footnote 7: Jos., _Ant._, l. XVIII.]

Continual seditions, excited by the zealots of Mosaism, did not cease,
in fact, to agitate Jerusalem during all this time.[1] The death of
the seditious was certain; but death, when the integrity of the Law
was in question, was sought with avidity. To overturn the Roman eagle,
to destroy the works of art raised by the Herods, in which the Mosaic
regulations were not always respected[2]--to rise up against the
votive escutcheons put up by the procurators, the inscriptions of
which appeared tainted with idolatry[3]--were perpetual temptations to
fanatics, who had reached that degree of exaltation which removes all
care for life. Judas, son of Sariphea, Matthias, son of Margaloth, two
very celebrated doctors of the law, formed against the established
order a boldly aggressive party, which continued after their
execution.[4] The Samaritans were agitated by movements of a similar
nature.[5] The Law had never counted a greater number of impassioned
disciples than at this time, when he already lived who, by the full
authority of his genius and of his great soul, was about to abrogate
it. The "Zelotes" (Kenaim), or "Sicarii," pious assassins, who imposed
on themselves the task of killing whoever in their estimation broke
the Law, began to appear.[6] Representatives of a totally different
spirit, the Thaumaturges, considered as in some sort divine, obtained
credence in consequence of the imperious want which the age
experienced for the supernatural and the divine.[7]

[Footnote 1: Ibid., the books XVI. and XVIII. entirely, and _B.J._,
books I. and II.]

[Footnote 2: Jos., _Ant._, XV. x. 4. Compare Book of Enoch, xcvii. 13,
14.]

[Footnote 3: Philo, _Leg. ad Caium_, Sec. 38.]

[Footnote 4: Jos., _Ant._, XVII. vi. 2, and following; _B.J._, I.
xxxiii. 3, and following.]

[Footnote 5: Jos., _Ant._, XVIII. iv. 1, and following.]

[Footnote 6: Mishnah, _Sanhedrim_, ix. 6; John xvi. 2; Jos., _B.J._,
book IV., and following.]

[Footnote 7: _Acts_ viii. 9. Verse 11 leads us to suppose that Simon
the magician was already famous in the time of Jesus.]

A movement which had much more influence upon Jesus was that of Judas
the Gaulonite, or Galilean. Of all the exactions to which the country
newly conquered by Rome was subjected, the census was the most
unpopular.[1] This measure, which always astonishes people
unaccustomed to the requirements of great central administrations,