ook _La Cite antique_, pp. 205-210, makes the
priestly function of the king primitive, and the military
function secondary; which is entirely inconsistent with what we
know of barbarous races.]

[Footnote 121: It is worthy of note that the archon who
retained the priestly function was called _basileus_, showing
perhaps that at that time this had come to be most prominent
among the royal functions, or more likely that it was the one
with which reformers had some religious scruples about
interfering. The Romans, too, retained part of the king's
priestly function in an officer called _rex sacrorum_, whose
duty was at times to offer a sacrifice in the forum, and then
run away as fast as legs could carry him,--[Greek: hen thysas
ho basileus, kata tachos apeisi pheugon ex agoras] (!)
Plutarch, _Quaest. Rom._ 63.]

[Sidenote: Mediaeval kingship.]

The typical kingship in mediaeval Europe, after the full development of
the feudal system, was very different indeed from the kingship in early
Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages all priestly functions had passed
into the hands of the Church.[122] A king like Charles VII. of France,
or Edward III. of England, was military commander, civil magistrate,
chief judge, and _supreme landlord_; the people were his tenants. That
was the kind of king with which the Spanish discoverers of Mexico were
familiar.

[Footnote 122: Something of the priestly quality of "sanctity,"
however, surrounded the king's person; and the ceremony of
anointing the king at his coronation was a survival of the
ancient rite which invested the head war-chief with priestly
attributes.]

[Sidenote: Montezuma was a "priest-commander."]

Now the Mexican _tlacatecuhtli_, or "chief-of-men," was much more like
Agamemnon in point of kingship than like Edward III. He was not supreme
landlord, for landlordship did not exist in Mexico. He was not chief
judge or civil magistrate; those functions belonged to the
"snake-woman." Mr. Bandelier regards the "chief-of-men" as simply a
military commander; but for reasons which I shall state hereafter,[123]
it seems quite clear that he exercised certain very important priestly
functions, although beside him there was a kind of high-priest or
medicine-chief. If I am right in holding that Montezuma was a
"priest-