"Pagan civilization was founded upon the state, Christian civilization upon religion. To a Roman his religion was part of the structure and ceremony of government, and his morality culminated in patriotism; to a Christian his religion was something apart from and superior to political society; his highest allegiance belonged not to Caesar but to Christ. Tertullian laid down the revolutionary principle that no man need obey a law that he deemed unjust. The Christian revered his bishop, even his priest, far above the Roman magistrate; he submitted his legal troubles with fellow Christians to his church authorities rather than to the officials of the state."
--Will Durant, Caesar and Christ, 1944

While the highest allegiance is to Christ, Christ has told us that we are to give to Caesar, too.

The authority of the state is limited and superceded by divine authority--fine. But when we get into reverence for the bishop, and even the priest, over the magistrate, we are moving toward very dangerous territory. The problem of clericalism will likely arise, whereby the proper role and authority of the clerics are distorted and obscured. Clericalism has all sorts of bad effects, and one readily thinks of the damage done by Islamic clerics' wielding undue power. Perhaps even more important, though, is the attendant problem of anticlericalism--i.e., secular backlash against religious authorities (and religion by extension), backlash which is at least partly justified by clerics' overreaching.

I guess I agree with Buzz, yet I do revere the bishop and the preist higher than the magistrate, because I don't revere the latter at all.

I understand the point you are making Buzz but I think that the biblical passage you reference (Luke 20:25) is an easy one to misinterpret, particularly as people almost invariably wrench it out of the context of Christ's avoiding the trickery of the Pharisees. I think it has to be studied in conjunction with the much more definitive presentation of a Christian's proper relationship to the state as expressed in Romans 13. A great discussion of that chapter was written by Eric Voegelin and can be found here: http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_philosophy&Number=294772061&t=0

As to Durant's quote though I don't think it is useful to abstract it from the context he is describing, that of 2nd and 3rd century Rome, AD. Also, he is at least here relying on the testimony of Tertullian who is a fascinating guy but not the most reliable theologian, in fact he was deemed a schismatic Montanist during his life and his works have numerous inconsistencies, better to rely on later theologians and the Magisterium to formulate an understanding of the Christian's duties towards the state.