Page:Maria Felicia.pdf/182

 were not allowed to take part in any earthly authority whatever, to serve in public offices, such as that of judges or councilmen. They were forbidden to inflict capital punishment, to appeal to law courts, to take oaths; a spoken promise was to be binding. They had no legal officers; for the most part in matters of importance they were only advised by a body of the oldest members, who were selected every third year. As they rejected earthly power, so they renounced the sword; they were forbidden to go to war, and they abjured the shedding of blood. They were also forbidden to sell liquors and to trade, on the ground that a man in business is liable to become dishonest or knavish; they lived only from the work of their hands and minds. As they, above all, disliked one person to have authority over another, they did not want aristocrats and nobles in their Union; and when later they were persecuted and needed protection and felt obliged to accept members of the nobility who had long wished to join them, the nobles had, at the meetings of