* The tradition handed down by Diodorus tells us that the goddess Isis assigned a third of the country to the priests; the whole of Egypt is said to have been divided into three equal parts, the first of which belonged to the priests, the second to the kings, and the third to the warrior class.  When we read, in the great Harris Papyrus, the list of the property possessed by the temple of the Theban Amon alone, all over Egypt, under Ramses III., we can readily believe that the tradition of the Greek epoch in no way exaggerated matters.

Its administration was not vested in a single body of Priests, representing the whole of Egypt and recruited or ruled everywhere in the same fashion.  There were as many bodies of priests as there were temples, and every temple preserved its independent constitution with which the clergy of the neighbouring temples had nothing to do:  the only master they acknowledged was the lord of the territory on which the temple was built, either Pharaoh or one of his nobles.  The tradition which made Pharaoh the head of the different worships in Egypt* prevailed everywhere, but Pharaoh soared too far above this world to confine himself to the functions of any one particular order of priests:  he officiated before all the gods without being specially the minister of any, and only exerted his supremacy in order to make appointments to important sacerdotal posts in his domain.**

* The only exception to this rule was in the case of the Theban kings of the XXIst dynasty, and even here the exception is more apparent than real.  As a matter of fact, these kings, Hrihor and Pinozmu, began by being high priests of Amon before ascending the throne; they were pontiffs who became Pharaohs, not Pharaohs who created themselves pontiffs.  Possibly we ought to place Smonkhari of the XIVth dynasty in the same category, if, as Brugsch assures us, his name, Mir-mashau, is identical with the title of the high priest of Osiris at Mendes, thus proving that he was pontiff of Osiris in that town before he became king.

** Among other instances, we have that of the king of the XXIst Tanite dynasty, who appointed Mankhopirri, high priest of the Theban Amon, and that of the last king of the same dynasty, Psusennes IL, who conferred the same office on prince Auputi, son of Sheshonqu.  The king’s right of nomination harmonized very well with the hereditary transmission of the priestly office through members of the same family, as we shall have occasion to show later on.

He reserved the high priesthood of the Memphite Phtah and that of Ra of Heliopolis either for the princes of his own family or more often for his most faithful servants; they were the docile instruments of his will, through whom he exerted the influence of the gods, and disposed of their property without having the trouble of administrating it.  The feudal lords, less removed from mortal affairs than the Pharaoh,