Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Priestly policy or system of management based on temporal or material interest; the arts practised by selfish and ambitious priests to gain wealth and power, or to impose on the credulity of others.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Priestly policy; the policy of a priesthood; esp., in an ill sense, fraud or imposition in religious concerns; management by priests to gain wealth and power by working upon the religious motives or credulity of others.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun the
craft of performing the duties of apriest - noun pejorative
priestly policy directed towardsworldly ends
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the skills involved in the work of a priest
- noun a derogatory reference to priests who use their influence to control secular or political affairs
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In Florence, too, the hell-on-earth created by priestcraft is coarsely and pungently denounced: young Vespucci capers happily around the pyre on the day that Savonarola is burned and the reign of clerical puritan terror brought to a close.
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In Florence, too, the hell-on-earth created by priestcraft is coarsely and pungently denounced: young Vespucci capers happily around the pyre on the day that Savonarola is burned and the reign of clerical puritan terror brought to a close.
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Here, if any where, the cloven foot shows itself and teaches us that the only solid stratum underlying priestcraft is one composed of £ s.
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He’s engaged in priestcraft, using God to make money.
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Most of their priestcraft was a vulgar imposition upon the ignorance and credulity of the common people.
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 03 Rossiter Johnson 1906
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I feel that it is not necessary for me to go further to convince any one of my readers that the lustfulness of the priestcraft is a menace to the chastity of womankind, for if this nun has told the truth, and which I know from past experiences is true, and which I also know is a recital that could be intensified ten thousand times over, if the whole truth could be told, but which cannot be told in this volume, as I have too much respect for my readers to recite what I have seen with my own eyes and what I have had repeated to me by broken-hearted "sisters" who have come to me with tears in their eyes and with sighs in their throats to tell me of their miseries.
Thirty Years In Hell Or, From Darkness to Light Bernard Fresenborg
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If they had, I should have suspected "priestcraft" and forgeries and third-century
Gilbert Keith Chesterton Maisie Ward 1932
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What he called "priestcraft" was abhorrent to him.
December Love Robert Smythe Hichens 1907
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Christ Jesus is the way of life, and he is a plain way, a pleasant way, a way suitable for the tottering feet and feeble knees of trembling sinners: am I found in this way, or am I hunting after another track such as priestcraft or metaphysics may promise me?
Latest Articles 2010
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Christ Jesus is the way of life, and he is a plain way, a pleasant way, a way suitable for the tottering feet and feeble knees of trembling sinners: am I found in this way, or am I hunting after another track such as priestcraft or metaphysics may promise me?
Latest Articles 2010
yarb commented on the word priestcraft
Jolter no sooner perceived the Hollander was a Jew, than he entered into an investigation of the Hebrew tongue, in which he was a connoisseur; and the doctor at the same time attacked the mendicant on the ridiculous maxims of his order, together with the impositions of priestcraft in general, which, he observed, prevailed so much among those who profess the Roman Catholic religion.
— Smollett, Peregrine Pickle
March 25, 2022
vendingmachine commented on the word priestcraft
In 2019, Rowe was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for publicly speaking out against the church, teaching false doctrine, and practicing priestcraft for content in her podcasts and website.
September 18, 2022