(147) Now the people were come to that degree of meanness and fear, and these robbers to that degree of madness, that these last took upon them to appoint high priests. (148) So when they had annulled the succession, according to those families out of which the high priests used to be made, they ordained certain unknown and ignoble persons for that office, that they might have their assistance in their wicked undertakings; (149) for such as obtained this highest of all honors, without any sesert, were forced to comply with those that bestowed it on them. (150) They also set the principal men at variance on with another, by several sorts of contrivances and tricks, and gained the opportunity of doing what they pleased, by the mutual quarrels of those who might have obstructed their measures; until at length, when they were satiated with the unjust actions they had done toward men, they transferred their humiliating behavior to God himself, and came into the sanctuary with polluted feet.