Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/453

* p PRIEST. 391 PRIESTLEY. cient Egypt (London, 1894) ; Deveria, Monument hioyruphique dc Bakcnkhunsou (Paris, 18(J2). See also Egypt. The Hindu Priesthood. The priesthood of India belongs to the tirst or Brahman caste ex- clusively. The growth of a priest caste can be traced in the history of Hindu literature. Oi'igi- nally a king, or paterfamilias, -whether of jiriestly caste or not, could officiate as a priest. Any defective knowledge on the part of a priest or any defective performance by him of the sacrificial rites was supposed to entail upon him the most serious consequences both in this life and in the future. As the duration of a Hindu sacrifice varies from one day to a year, or even more, the number of priests required at such a ceremony likewise varied. Again, as there are sacrificial acts at which verses from the Rig■^■eda only were recited : others requiring the inaudible muttering of verses from the Yajur- Veda only; otlicrs, again, at which verses only of the Sama-A'eda were chanted ; and others, too. at which all these three Vedas were indis- pensable — there were priests who merelj- knew and practiced the ritual of the Rig-Veda, or the Yajur-'cda, or the Sama-Veda. while there were others who had a knowledge of all these Vedas and their rituals. The full contingent of priests required at a great sacrifice amounts to sixteen. Other inferior assistants, such as the ladle-hold- ers, slayers, choristers, and the like, are not looked upon as priests. From one to four priests sufficed at the minor sacrifices, or those of daily occurrence. These were the rules and practices when the Hindu ceremonial obeyed the canon of the Vedic ritual; and the latter probably still ]irevailed at the epic period of India, though many additions to it are perceptible in the Mahubliurata (q.v.) and Ramayand (q.v.). But at the Puranie period, and from that time dowTi- ward, when the study of the Vedas had fallen into disuse, almost every Brahman not utterly ignorant became qualified to be a priest. By a sort of historical retrogression to earl}' conditions, in the latter-day sects of the Hindus it was not even necessary that a priest should be a Brahman. He might lie of any caste, and priestesses as well as priests were permitted. The radical difference between the Vedic and Puranie ritual was in the abolition on the part of the latter of the Vedic service and in the method of slaughtering the sacrificial victim. In Vedie rites the victim is throttled: in Puranie rites its throat is cut, or very often no victim at all is otTered. only vegetable offerings being made. The Puranie rites required no knowledge of the Vedas whatever. For the priesthood of the Buddhists, Jainas, and Tibetans, see Buddhism : JaIN.VS ; L.M.VISM. In the history of the Christian Church the question of the existence of a priesthood properly so called has given rise to fundamental divisions. On the one hand, Roman Catholic theologians contend that the Apostles were definitely made by Christ partakers of His mediatorial priest- hood, with power to hand it down to their suc- cessors (see John xx. 21). and assert that from the date of this commission there has been an unbroken tradition of sacerdotal power, whose most important function is the offering of sacrifice for the living and the departed (see Mass) ; that the Christian ministry is as truly a priesthood as that of the Jewish law, though with higher functions. There is a sense in which they admit this priesthood to be shared by the whole body of the faithful; but its specific exer- cise they claim is strictly limited to those who have been set apart by episcopal ordination. The Protestant bodies generally deny the existence of any such class or powers, and have therefore usuall_v abandoned the use of the word "priest,' substituting for it "presbyter' or 'minister' — though Milton, dissatisfied with the thoroughness of the English Reformation, complained that "Xew presbyter is but old priest writ large." 8ee Oedees, Holy; Bishop: Apostolic Succes- sion. PRIEST'LEY, Joseph ( 17.33-1804) .An Eng- lish clergyman and scientist. He was born at Fieldhead, near Birstall, in Yorkshire, the son of Jonas Priestley, a woolen cloth dresser. At six years of age, owing to his mother's death, he was adopted by his father's sister. He gave every evidence of an aptness for languages, study- ing Latin and Greek at school and Hebrew under a clergyman. Later he mastered Italian, French, and German himself, and ultimatelj- ac- quired Chaldee and Syriac. He also " had a mathematical mind and was given to scientific research. He was brought up a Calvinist; but as he grew older and began to think for himself he appears to have resented the Calvinist doctrine of original sin, which was synonymous with total depravity. In his twentieth year he was sent to the Non- conformist Academy at Davcntry, where he re- mained three years. While there he joined freely in the theological discussions which pre- vailed, and found himself on every occasion on the heterodox side of the questions at issue. He ne.xt announced himself a necessitarian and final- ly became a Socinian and denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Despite his unorthodox views, how- ever, and a serious impediment in his speech, he sought the ministry, beginning at 22 years of age with a small congregation at Xeedham Mar- ket, in Suffolk. While there, he wrote The Scripture Doctrine of Remission, which was pub- lished in 17C1. From Xeedham he went to Nant- wich, and from there to Warrington, where he was appointed a teacher of languages and belles- lettres in a X'onconformist academy. Here he married and spent six of the happiest years of his life. The University of Edinburgh gave him an honorary degree in recognition of his literary ork and he became acquainted with Franklin and Price. He now manifested another side of his nature. Chemistry was then unborn, but Priestley, living next door to a brewery in Leeds, where he had removed to take charge of >K11 Hill Chapel, be- came interested in the production of carbonic acid and succeeded in forcing it into water. He also wrote a nistory of Electricity and afterwards published political tracts and papers, some of which were opposed to the Government's attitude toward the American colonies. In 1772 he be- came librarian and "literary companion" to Lord Shelburne at a salary of £2.50 a year, and in 1774 he accompanied him on a Continental tour in France and Germany. About this time he wrote the Letters to a Philosophical T^iihelicrcr and oth- er works criticising the doctrines of Hume and others. He also made the discovery of oxygen and other gases, which gave him his scientific