It should provide for the whole spectrum of religious needs, and yet maintain peace among the differences. Obviously there are no easy answers to such questions. We must begin, however, with national religions in the more stable situations of history. There are first of all the priesthoods of Sumer and Egypt which we looked at in the second chapter . Sociologically these give us very little information because their histories are limited to the court.
Priests become significant only when they serve to glorify or oppose the king.
From these ancient civilizations we know nothing of how the common people prayed in their homes, or what they did for marriages and births and deaths in their families, or whether they consulted holy men, or witch-doctors, or astrologers in difficult decisions. The religions were evidently both stable and national, but all we know is that they helped the king in war and kept the people in their place. The same may be said of the Mayas and Aztecs of Central and South America. The Roman Empire With Rome we have the data for a more detailed observation. The original sacrificial religion of Rome was at the heart of the nation's life.