All priesthoods in the world from the beginning had been connected, as we have seen, with the sense and acknowledgment of guilt; and with the rite of sacrifice.
A vast number of various priesthoods subsisted in the different countries untouched and unmeddled with by him.
These priesthoods and corporations, instituted to secure the continuance of special cults, are not of a nature to bring the whole of life under the influence of the priests and so to foster a priestly type of religion.
On the basis of the calendar, and of the names of the most ancient priesthoods attached to particular cults, the Rex and the Flamines, Wissowa (R.
The fourth century is of course the period of plebeian advance in all departments, and ends with the opening of the priesthoods to the plebs by the lex Ogulnia, and the publication of the Fasti.
The machinery of sects and priesthoods for saving souls and fitting men for heaven, I regard as wasteful and injurious folly, except so far as it may tend to better men and improve their condition here.
The leaders of the sects and priesthoods of the day have testified their belief that the Bibles in common use are imperfect and erroneous by making new translations.
The leading men in all the religious sects and priesthoodsof Great Britain and America believe the same.
The sects and priesthoods themselves show that they regard the common translation as imperfect.
Both have gods, churches and priesthoods and these are in each case nothing but symbols.
All these gods were created, endowed and located by man, and then he had them make revelations, create churches, institute sacraments and appoint priesthoods for his redemption from devils whom he also created, endowed and located.
For this suicidal crime, I hold the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Priesthoods mainly responsible, but especially the former.
Complete Opening Up of Magistracies and Priesthoods 31.
And when you have slain out of their band about as many as I think ye will be able to pay blood-fines for, and yet keep your priesthoods and abodes, then I will run up with all my men and part you.
The less important priesthoods were glad to enhance the reputation of the deity they served by identifying him with some more important god.
As a matter of fact the priesthoods were much more independent than was allowed to appear.
But the existence of all sects and priesthoods depends on their power to satisfy the religious instinct with ceremonial or some better method of putting the soul in communication with the divine.
In most countries powerfulpriesthoods are closely connected with the Government under which they flourish and support the secular authority.
From the time of the Gracchi the public priesthoodsdeclined in importance; and in many cases they were used solely as a tool for political purposes.
With the exception of the pontifex maximus, who was elected by the people from an early date, the priesthoods were filled by nomination or cooeptation.
In 382 he withdrew the state support of the priesthoods of Rome, and removed from the Senate house the altar and statue of Victory, which Julian had restored after its temporary removal by Constantius.
At the same time the priesthoods were likewise enlarged.
Now that the old Roman gods had been changed into new-fangled Greek gods, and the old Roman priesthoods into modern political clubs, it is little wonder that the religion of the fathers ceased to satisfy their descendants.
Its effects were much more disastrous in the very important priesthoods which had now become essentially political offices.
It was primarily the human element to which he was appealing in his religious changes, and hence the priesthoods needed especial attention.
Here he was guided not only by his desire to improve the condition of the priesthoods in general but also by his especial interest in the cult of Vesta.
As a matter of fact however these priesthoods had been one of the chief means of bringing the republic into the control of one man.
The control of religion could, of course, be obtained best through the priesthoods, and those priesthoods were naturally most worth gaining which possessed the greatest right of interference in affairs of state.
This distinction extended even to the priesthoods where the wife of the priest of a god was the priestess of the corresponding goddess.
Its priesthoods were deserted, its temples were falling into ruins with the grass carpeting their mosaic pavements and the spiders weaving new altar cloths.
The True System is hostile alike to priesthoods and to the accommodating theologians, whose attempt to rationalize Christianity on historical lines it flouts in Lessing's vein as futile.
As to the offices and priesthoods of such as had been put to death they distributed them not in the fashion prescribed by law but however it suited them.
Of all priesthoods as corporate bodies, however estimable, zealous, and spiritually-minded individual members of them may be, must it not be said that their existence is a sad necessity?
Even if they did, might there not be divisions in the camp, new priesthoods as well as new oracles?
The great fault of priesthoods always is, that having once gained power, they endeavour to retain it and extend it, making greater claims the longer they exist.
From the days when the Aryan hordes first broke in upon the ancient civilizations, it was inevitable that the old gods of the temples and priesthoods should suffer great adaptations or disappear.
Under the Ptolemies and under the Caesars, her temples and altars and priesthoods remained essentially Egyptian.
Optional belief was no invention of his own, he said, but an ancient and honourable resource of priesthoods all the world over.
The different priesthoods also had much land, the revenues from which kept up the temples where they ministered.
However, it is high time that our Christian priesthoods should invent for it some less ridiculous origin than the apple story, for that is too absurd to serve their ends any longer.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "priesthoods" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
