Roman religion and the role of the priesthood
The religion of the early Romans, characteristic of a primitive society, was based on a combination of animism - the belief that the phenomena of the natural world were inhabited and governed by spiritual beings, whose powers the Romans called mtmina - and a practical materialistic attitude overlaid with a simple and rather stem morality.
In the sixth century BC, under the influence of the Etruscan culture, the numina began to be associated with deities with distinct characteristics and powers, and the first temples were erected on Etruscan models. But there was very little room for religion to be viewed as a private matter in a society in which the group, in the form of the family, the clan and, later on, the state, predominated over the individual. Moreover, neither emotion nor morality in an abstract sense played a significant part in this religion. It was material goods, such as rich crops, bodily vigour and victory in war, rather than spiritual blessings, that the Romans asked their gods for. The emphasis in early Roman religion was on individual deities and their distinctive powers and ways of interfering in human affairs. It was not until the Romans came into contact with the more advanced religious systems and philosophies of the East that they began to embrace a more universal perception of the divine forces and their relation to man.[125] [126]One of the defining characteristics of early Roman religion was ceremonial formalism and the quasi-contractual nature of the relationship between man and the gods. The Romans believed that if the prayers and other forms of worship were carried out according to the proper ritual, the gods were bound to treat them favourably. And one was no longer obliged to continue his worship if the gods paid no attention to his prayers, although this was often attributed to some mistake or omission in the performance of the relevant ritual.
Religious ritual usually involved the performance of certain acts, such as the covering of one's head with a garment, the raising of the right hand to the lips or the turning of one's body in a certain direction. Of vital importance for the success of the prayer was the use of the appropriate phraseology, for the Romans believed that words possessed a power quite distinct from the attitude or feelings of the person who uttered them?4 It was only through correct ritual that 'divine peace' (pax deorum), that is balance in nature and harmony between gods and men, could be warranted. As Roman society progressed, the idea of balance in nature began to take a distinctively moral flavour and the norms and forms of conduct which aimed at securing harmony between men and gods were gradually extended to relations between men.[127] [128] It was beliefs and practices of a religious origin and nature that furnished a great deal of the raw materials from which early Roman law was formed.During the early archaic age religious worship revolved around domestic life and the farm, and was carried out under the supervision of the pater familias, who acted as the family priest. But as the early settlements moved closer to becoming a city, religious ritual began to broaden and new ceremonies were introduced through which citizens evoked the support and protection of the gods in their collective undertakings.[129] Just as the well-being of individuals and families depended on their gaining the gods' favour by discharging their religious duties with care, so the welfare of the community as a whole depended on the state's fulfilling its obligations towards its divine patrons. Finding out which these obligations were and how they were to be carried out was the concern of the divine or sacred law (ius divinum, ius sacrum), a special branch of Roman public law. During the Monarchy the king (rex), as the head of the Roman state, occupied a position analogous to that which the pater familias occupied in relation to the religious affairs of the family, although most of the relevant duties and powers were delegated to special colleges of priests whose members were chosen exclusively from the patrician class.
The Roman priests were, in effect, state officials who, often in addition to their duties as senators or magistrates, were responsible for the religious branch of public administration?7 Of the various religious bodies the most influential was the college of the pontifices.
According to Roman tradition, the institution of the pontifices was first introduced by Romulus's successor, the priest-king Numa Pompilius (late eighth century BC)?8 Originally, this religious body was made up of five members drawn exclusively from the patrician class (four ordinary pontifices headed by a pontifex maximus)^ As guardians and interpreters of the divine law (ius divinum), the pontifices exercised general supervision over a wide range of matters associated with public religion and set the rules governing the conduct of religious ceremonies and rituals (ius sacrum). 0 They gave instructions to state officials on the performance of public acts of a religious nature and punished wrongdoings regarded as disrupting the pax deorum - the harmony between the community and its gods. The duties of the pontifex maximus included the publishing of the decisions and opinions of the college (referred to as decreta and responsa) on any matter, whether [130] [131] [132] [133] secular or religious, that was put before them, and the recording of the most important events of the year in the annales maximi. The latter should be distinguished from the libri pontificum, the archives of the pontifical college, accessible only to its members, containing norms and decisions relating to matters of both religious and secular law. Moreover, the pontifex maximus was entrusted with the regulation of the calendar, the fixing of the dates of public ceremonies and festivals (dies festi), and the setting of the days of each month on which alone legal transactions, trials and other business could take place (dies fasti)?'The interconnection of religion and law in the archaic period accounts for the important role of the pontifices in the formulation, interpretation and application of the law. During this period all legal knowledge was confined to their college and was handed down to new members by tradition and instruction.
In their capacity as custodians and interpreters of the customary law, they gave opinions on questions of law put before them by state bodies, magistrates and private citizens. Their opinions were based on precedents of which they alone had knowledge. To these precedents, based on ancestral custom, the pontiffs added interpretations and developed formulae or instructions for the performance of legal acts. After the publication of the Law of the XII Tables in the middle of the fifth century BC an important part of the pontiffs' work was to explain and give shape to its provisions and at times, under the cover of interpretation, they extended the law to cover new situations. Thus a body of jurisprudence was gradually built which furnished the basis for the subsequent development of Roman legal science. With the gradual separation of law and religion the priesthood began to lose its monopoly on matters of law and in time was almost entirely superseded by the civil magistracy.[134] [135]
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