They worked miracles to prove doctrine.

Ever has it seemed to me a witless thing to prove the multiplication table by turning a staff into a serpent, or even into two serpents.

Yet these things the _thaumaturgi_ did, and always to the excitement of the common people.
Heavens, what sects and sects! Pharisees, Essenes, Sadducees--a legion of them! No sooner did they start with a new quirk when it turned political.

Coponius, procurator fourth before Pilate, had a pretty time crushing the Gaulonite sedition which arose in this fashion and spread down from Gamala.
In Jerusalem, that last time I rode in, it was easy to note the increasing excitement of the Jews.

They ran about in crowds, chattering and spouting.