PRIESTHOOD. In Babylonia priesthoods had developed in the prehistoric period. Elaborate liturgies were developed later. " As time advanced, the duties of the priests were differentiated; some gave themselves to the ordinary duties of a palest, while others were set apart for the observance of omens. and still others for the recitation of the incantations which were supposed to drive out the demons of sickness " (G. A. Barton, R.W.. p. 29 f.). The priesthood iu Babylonia was the learned class. " In addition to the purely religious duties in con nection with the temple service, the priests were also the scribes, the judges and the teachers of the people all three functions following naturally from the religious point of view involved in writing, in legal decisions and in knowledge in general. The tradition once established, the priests continued to act as the official scribes in the case of the thousands upon thousands of legal and com mercial documents that have came down to us from all periods, though, to be sure, in later days we occasionally come across a scribe who does not appear to have been a temple official " (Jastrow, °iv.. p. 273). In ancient Egypt the priesthoods as finally organized consisted of various classes of priests, prophets, and others with different duties. " Greek writers tell of festivals at which priests acted out the myths of the gods. At some of the temples (probably at all) schools existed for the instruction of candidates for the priesthood in the mysteries of their work and the culture of their time " (Barton, p. 51). Among the Hebrews. the priests, apart
from their ordinary duties, acted as scribes and codifiers of the laws. The priests of Zoroastrianism under the Achaemenians were the Magi (originally a Median tribe) who had gradually attained power through royal patronage. The completion of the Avesta by the addi Con of the Yashts and the Vendidad was probably due to their influence. The priests of the Avesta " formed a hereditary caste, the members of which were alone competent to offer sacrifices or perform the rites of puri fication; the priest was born, not made. They lived on the proceeds of their ritual, which were strictly defined by law, and also on the numerous fines they exacted in return for indulgences. They were, in short, a regular clergy " (Reinach. O., p. 63). In India the priests are known as Brahmans (q.v.). In the Greek states of the classic period, the priests were never associated in com munities, nor set apart as instructors, like the Druids of Gaul. They learned the ritual of a god, not in seminaries for priests, but by serving him. " Thus the Greek priests never constituted a clergy like those of India, Persia or Gaul; the only attempt at such a constitution was the one Grote has compared to the foundation of the Society of Jesus, the confraternity formed in Southern Italy by Pythagoras, which was a failure " (ibid., p. 91). In Germany in primitive times the king was also the priest.