The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1871 page)

Judaism
The
kohanim
(sing.,
kohen
) are a hereditary class whose special responsibility was the performance of the cultic ceremonies of the Jerusalem
Temple
. The Hebrew scriptures indicate in some places that only the descendants of
Aaron
have the right to priesthood (Leviticus 8) and in others that the entire tribe of
Levi
has a priestly role (Deuteronomy 33. 8–10); to these were added the Zadokites (perhaps predecessors of
Sadducees
) when
David
captured Jerusalem and assimilated the cult of Zadok. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the sacrificial system came to an end. Knowledge of priestly descent can no longer be proved. None the less supposed Kohanim enjoy certain privileges in the
synagogue
. Because of the doubt entailed in priestly ancestry, the
Progressive
movements disregard all the laws applying to Kohanim.
Christianity
In Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican Churches, the priest is the minister who is typically in charge of a
parish
. The English word is ultimately derived from Gk.
presbyteros
, as the office is derived from that of the early Christian
presbyter
. The idea of ‘priesthood’, in the sacrificial sense continuous with the Jewish office, only gradually attached to this order of minister. At first, the
sacrifice
of the
eucharist
was the function of
bishops
only, but with the spread of Christianity to country districts priests were allowed to consecrate the eucharist themselves. This opened the way for a doctrine that priestly powers were conferred in
ordination
, especially when in the 11th cent. the practice spread of ordaining priests who had no benefice. The priest thus became the normal celebrant of the eucharist and after 1215 the one who heard
confessions
. He remained, however, subordinate to the bishop, who alone could ordain and
confirm
.
The tendency of medieval theology to see the priesthood of the clergy in terms of the
mass
led to its rejection by the
Reformers
. Protestant Christians thus take the view that priesthood belongs only to Christ and, derivatively, to ‘all believers’ (1 Peter 2. 5, 9).
The term ‘priest’ is then sometimes applied to functionaries in other religions, as e.g. to
mullahs
in Islam, or to
granthi
or
mahant
among Sikhs, to
hot
and
brahmans
among Hindus, to
tao-shih
among Taoists, to
magi
among
Zoroastrians
, but the differences in order, duties, appointment, and role are extreme.

 
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Primate
.

The
metropolitan
of the ‘first see’
(Lat.,
prima sedes
) of a whole nation or people. Anomalously, the archbishop of
Canterbury
is ‘Primate of All England’ and the archbishop of York ‘Primate of England’.

 
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Prime, terce, sext, none
.

The ‘little hours’ of the divine
office
of the W. Church, appointed to be read at the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours (i.e. 6, 8, 11 a.m., and 2 p.m.) respectively.

 
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Primitive Methodist Church
.

A branch of early 19th-cent.
Methodism
. In N. Staffordshire Hugh Bourne and William Clowes engaged in open-air preaching. The Liverpool
Wesleyan
Conference (1807) condemned their ‘highly improper’ meetings as ‘likely to be productive of considerable mischief’. Once expelled by the parent body, Bourne and Clowes officially formed the Primitive Methodist Connexion in 1811. In 1932 the denomination joined with the Wesleyan and United Methodists to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain and Ireland.

 
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see
HONJI SUIJAKU
.

 
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