The term "high priest" (or, less frequently, high priestess) usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious caste.
Read more about High Priest: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Israel, Ancient World, India, Christianity, Other Religions, Non-religious Usages
Famous quotes containing the words high priest, high and/or priest:
“I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“From low to high doth dissolution climb,
And sink from high to low, along a scale
Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail;”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“This is the priest all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. The House That Jack Built (l. 37–38)