Priest (Gr. presbyteros, Lat. presbyter, Fr. prêtre), the title, in its most general signification, of a minister of public worship, but specially applied to the minister of sacrifice or other mediatorial offices. In the early history of mankind the functions of the priest seem to have commonly been discharged by the head of each family; but on the expansion of the family into the state the office of priest became a public one. It thus came to pass that in many instances the priestly office was associated with that of the sovereign. But in many religious and political bodies, also, the orders were maintained in complete independence, and the priests formed a distinct and, generally speaking, a privileged class. The priestly order, in most of the ancient religions, included a graduated hierarchy; and to the chief, whatever was his title, were assigned the most solemn of the religious offices entrusted to the body. In Egypt the population is supposed to have been divided into three or four castes, at the head of which was the sacerdotal, or priests. This division, however, was not very strictly observed, as the son did not invariably follow the profession of the father. That of the priest appears most honourable, and two principal classes of priests were in existence at the earliest periods—the hont, or prophets, and the ab, or inferior priests. The first were attached to the worship of all the deities of Egypt; and in the greater cities there was hont api, high prophet, or priest, who presided over the others; at Thebes there were as many as four prophets of Ammon. Their duties appear to have comprised the general cults of the deity. They also interpreted the oracles of the temples. Besides the prophets of the gods, others were attached to the worship of the king, and to various offices connected with the administration of the temples. The class of priests called ab, or 'pure,' were inferior, and were also attached to the principal deities and to the personal worship of the monarch. They were required to be scrupulously neat and clean, entirely shaven, and ascetic in their diet, bathing and fasting frequently. The priesthood of India belongs to the first caste, or that of the Brahmins, exclusively (see CASTE, INDIA). But, as the proper performance of such functions requires, even in a Brahman, the knowledge of the sacred texts to be recited at a sacrifice, and of the complicated ceremonial of which the sacrificial acts consist, none but a Brahman learned in one or more Vedas, and versed in the works treating of the ritual, possessed, according to the ancient law, the qualification of a priest. See also BUDDHISM, LAMAISM.
In sacred history the patriarchal period furnishes an example of the family priesthood; while in Melchizedec, king of Salem, we find the union of the royal with the priestly character. In the Mosaic law the whole theory of the priesthood, as a sacrificial and mediatorial office, is fully developed. The priest of the Mosaic law stands in the position of a mediator between God and the people; and, even if the sacrifices which he offered be regarded as but typical and prospective in their moral efficacy, the priest must be considered as administering them with full authority in all that regards their legal value. The Mosaic priesthood was the inheritance of the family of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi (q.v.). It consisted of a High-priest (q.v.), and of inferior ministers, distributed into twenty-four classes. The age for admission to the priesthood is nowhere expressly fixed; but, from
2 Chronicles, xxxi. 17, it would seem that the minimum age was twenty. In the service of the temple the priests were divided into twenty-four classes, each of which was subject to a chief priest, and served, each company for a week, following each other in rotation. Their duties in the temple consisted in preparing, slaying, and offering victims, in preparing the show-bread, burning the incense, and tending the lights of the sanctuary. Outside they were employed in instructing the people, attending to the daily offerings, enforcing the laws regarding legal uncleanness, &c. For their maintenance were set aside certain offerings (see FIRST-FRUITS) and other gifts. They wore a distinguishing dress, the chief characteristics of which were a white tunic, an embroidered cincture, and a turban-shaped head-dress. The Jewish priesthood may be said to have practically ceased with the destruction of the temple.
In the Christian dispensation the name primitively given to the public ministers of religion was presbyteros, of which the English name 'priest' is but a form derived through the old French or Norman prestre. The name given in classical Greek to the sacrificing priests of the pagan religion, Gr. hiereus, Lat. sacerdos, is not found in the New Testament explicitly applied to ministers of the Christian ministry; but very early in ecclesiastical use it appears as an ordinary designation; and with all those bodies of Christians—Roman Catholics, Greeks, Syrians, and other Orientals—who regard the eucharist as a sacrifice (see LITURGY) the two names were applied indiscriminately. The priesthood of the Christian church is one of the grades of the hierarchy, second in order only to that of bishop, with which order the priesthood has many functions in common. The priest is regarded as the ordinary minister of the eucharist, whether as a sacrament or as a sacrifice; of baptism, penance, and extreme unction; and although the contracting parties are held in the modern schools to be themselves the ministers of marriage, the priest is regarded by all schools of Roman divines as at least the normal and official witness of its celebration. The priest is also officially charged with the instruction of the people and the direction of their spiritual concerns, and by long-established use special districts, called parishes, are assigned to priests, within which they are entrusted with the care and supervision of the spiritual wants of all the inhabitants. The holy order of priesthood can only be conferred by a bishop, and he is ordinarily assisted by two or more priests, who, in common with the bishop, impose hands on the candidate. The rest of the ceremonial of ordination consists in investing the candidate with the sacred instruments and ornaments of his order, anointing his hands, and reciting certain prayers significative of the gifts and the duties of the office. The distinguishing vestment of the celebrant priest in the mass is the Chasuble (q.v.). In Catholic countries priests wear even in public a distinctive dress, in most respects common to them with the other orders of Clergy (q.v.). In the Latin Church priests are bound to a life of celibacy. In the Greek and oriental churches married men may be advanced to the priesthood; but no one is permitted to marry after ordination, nor is a married priest permitted to marry a second time, should his wife die.
In the Church of England, and other Reformed Episcopal Churches, the term priest is retained as the designation of the second order of clergy, whose special office it is (1) to celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; (2) to pronounce the forms of Absolution in the Morning and Evening Prayer, in the Communion Service, and in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick; and (3) to preach, though this last office is, by special license, sometimes extended to deacons. See DEACON, ORDERS (HOLY).