Page 137 - UTOPIA

which demands the exercise of more than ordinary virtues.
Nor are the priests in greater veneration among them than
they are among their neighbouring nations, as you may
imagine by that which I think gives occasion for it.
‘When the Utopians engage in battle, the priests who
accompany them to the war, apparelled in their sacred vest-
ments, kneel down during the action (in a place not far from
the field), and, lifting up their hands to heaven, pray, first for
peace, and then for victory to their own side, and particular-
ly that it may be gained without the effusion of much blood
on either side; and when the victory turns to their side, they
run in among their own men to restrain their fury; and if
any of their enemies see them or call to them, they are pre-
served by that means; and such as can come so near them as
to touch their garments have not only their lives, but their
fortunes secured to them; it is upon this account that all
the nations round about consider them so much, and treat
them with such reverence, that they have been often no less
able to preserve their own people from the fury of their en-
emies than to save their enemies from their rage; for it has
sometimes fallen out, that when their armies have been in
disorder and forced to fly, so that their enemies were run-
ning upon the slaughter and spoil, the priests by interposing
have separated them from one another, and stopped the ef-
fusion of more blood; so that, by their mediation, a peace
has been concluded on very reasonable terms; nor is there
any nation about them so fierce, cruel, or barbarous, as not
to look upon their persons as sacred and inviolable.
‘The first and the last day of the month, and of the year,

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