HIERARCHY, priestly government, a term commonly used in ecclesiastical language to denote the graded organization of angels or of the clergy. The word iepapXia, which does not occur in any classical Greek writer, owes its present extensive currency to the celebrated writings of the pseudo-Dionysius Areopagiticus. Of these the most important are the two which treat of the celestial and of the ecclesiastical hierarchy respectively. Defining hierarchy as the "function which comprises all sacred things," or, more fully, as "a sacred order and science and activity, assimilated as far as possible to the godlike, and elevated to the imitation of God proportionately to the Divine illuminations conceded to it," the author proceeds to enumerate the nine orders of the heavenly host, which are subdivided again into hierarchies or triads, in descending order, thus: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominations, Virtues, Powers; Principalities, Archangels, Angels. The ecclesiastical or earthly hierarchy is the counterpart of the other. In it the first or highest triad is formed by baptism, com munion and chrism. The second triad consists of the three orders of the ministry, bishop or hierarch, priest and minister or deacon (iEpapxrls, tepees, X arovp•yos) . The third or lowest triad is made up of monks, "initiated" and catechumens. (See ORDER, HOLY, and article "Hierarchy" in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.