be evident from a
brief statement of the historical facts.

+1096+. _Savage secret societies._ These societies are referred to
above;[2019] here we have only to notice their germinal ecclesiastical
character. They represent a partial break-up of tribal communal worship
by assigning special duties and granting special privileges to certain
initiated persons. Totemic groups are sometimes (as in Central
Australia) charged with specific functions in the tribal life; but
membership in such groups is a matter of birth, and they everywhere tend
to give way to secret societies. These latter often have charge of
certain religious rites, and from their secret proceedings and from a
knowledge of their secret lore the rest of the tribe are excluded.

The extent to which religious organization and influence have been
carried is illustrated by the history of the Polynesian Areoi, the most
remarkable of such fraternities.[2020] The Areoi created 'mysteries,'
with an elaborate ritual whose effectiveness was dependent on absolute
accuracy in words; its members were chosen without regard to tribal
position and entered of their own free will; it was a voluntary
association and made its own religious laws. It was restricted (as all
such associations are) by the necessity of paying regard to existing
customs, but within such limits it was independent of the tribe, and its
members were held to be entitled to special honors and enjoyments in
this life and the next (a crude conception of salvation). It was
essentially a church, and other societies, in Polynesia, Africa, and
North America, approached this position more or less nearly. They all
tended to become tyrannical--their social influence enabled them to
impose their authority on the tribe, and they did not hesitate to employ
violence in asserting their rights.[2021] To foreign influence they were
naturally hostile, since this generally diminished their power. Founded
as they are on savage ideas they have disappeared, or are disappearing,
before foreign civilizations. In their best form they doubtless gave a
certain unity to communities and were thus an element of order.

+1097+. _Greek mysteries._ In Greece dissatisfaction with the current
cults expressed itself in various ways, largely through poets and
philosophers, who asserted themselves, indeed, individually, but showed
no power of organization. The task of organizing religious opinion fell
to that new direction of thought (vague