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The office or character of a priest; the priestly function. Bk. of Com. Prayer.

The office, dignity, or position of a high priest.

; to estrange; to wean; -- with from. The errors which . . . alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. Macaulay. The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present. I. Taylor.

vable; as, an ambulatory court, which exercises its jurisdiction in different places. The priesthood . . . before was very ambulatory, and dispersed into all families. Jer. Taylor.

Hostile to priests or the priesthood. Waterland.

nt Episcopal churches, one ordained to the highest order of the ministry, superior to the priesthood, and generally claiming to be a successor of the Apostles. The bishop is usually the spiritual head or ruler of a diocese, bishopric, or see. Bishop in partibus [infidelium] (R. C. Ch.), a bishop of a see which does not…

ssion, especially of the clergy; hence, the clerical profession. Appeals were made to the priesthood. Would they tamely permit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth Macaulay. The cloth, the clergy, are constituted for administering and for giving the best possible effect to . . . every axiom. I. Taylor. Body…

under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory. Priesthood works out its task age after age, . . . treasuring in convents and crypts the few fossils of antique learning. Motley. My knees are bowed in crypt and shrine. Tennyson.

Government by a priesthood; hierarchy.

A chief priest; esp., the head of the Jewish priesthood.

High-priesthood.

rship of God; hallowed; sacred; reserved from profane or common use; holy vessels; a holy priesthood. "Holy rites and solemn feasts." Milton.

ou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement. Ex. xxix. 36. A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices. 1 Pet. ii. 5.

Priestly policy; the policy of a priesthood; esp., in an ill sense, fraud or imposition in religious concerns; management by priests to gain wealth and power by working upon the religious motives or credulity of others. It is better that men should be governed by priestcraft than by violence. Macaulay.…

Priests, collectively; the priesthood; -- so called in contempt. [R.] Milton.

The influence, doctrines, principles, etc., of priests or the priesthood. [R.]

Of or pertaining to a priest or the priesthood; sacerdotal; befitting or becoming a priest; as, the priestly office; a priestly farewell. Shak.

Of or pertaining to priests, or to the order of priests; relating to the priesthood; priesty; as, sacerdotal dignity; sacerdotal functions. The ascendency of the sacerdotal order was long the ascendency which naturally and properly belongs to intellectual superiority. Macaulay.

The system, style, spirit, or character, of a priesthood, or sacerdotal order; devotion to the interests of the sacerdotal order.

member of, or one educated in, a seminary; specifically, an ecclesiastic educated for the priesthood in a seminary.