History Main / HighPriest

** The [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] faction that's partly responsible for the Upper Mander Rebellion is led by Septon Ryman, who is unquestionably viewed as their ultimate authority short of the gods themselves.

* ''Series/TheOutpost'': Yavalla is the high priestess of the Blackbloods, and revered as a result.

** That trump card being that Caesar was ''actually'' the chief priest of Rome and actually knew what he was talking about when it came to Roman religion. Several years earlier, he had been elected to the lifetime post of Pontifex Maximus, which was the closest thing the Roman religion of the time had to a high priest.[[note]]Technically he was outranked by the ''rex sacrorum'', or "King of Sacrifices", but (1) the ''rex sacrorum'' had so many interminable ritual duties to please the gods he functionally had no time to actually deal with day-to-day religious administration and (2) guess who picked the ''rex sacrorum''? That's right, the Pontifex Maximus.[[/note]] Caesar at every turn [[MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours used this superior religious knowledge to overturn Bibulus's readings of the birds and proclamations of holidays]]. Since Caesar was both popular and (thanks to his long history of religious office[[note]]Besides being Pontifex Maximus, Caesar had been Flamen Dialis--chief priest of the cult of Jupiter--in his youth before being exiled by Sulla[[/note]]) seen as having superior knowledge of the ways of the gods, Bibulus' attempts to thwart Caesar with religion were completely ineffectual.

* A peculiar example is the consuls of UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic. Even though they were elected politicians--with one-year terms at that--consuls were ''ex officio'' augurs (interpreters of the activities of birds, a major form of divination in Rome) and had authority to set the dates of holidays. They frequently did this to their own political advantage. A fascinating--and darkly comic--example of these powers in practice came in 59 BCE, when UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar (the famous one) was consul with Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Bibulus--who disagreed with Caesar on practically every point--kept trying to use his authority as an augur and proclaimer of holidays to interfere with Caesar's populist political agenda. Caesar, however, had a trump card; several years earlier, he had been elected to the lifetime post of the ''actual'' chief priest of Rome, the Pontifex Maximus, and at every turn he used this superior religious knowledge to overturn Bibulus's readings of the birds and proclamations of holidays. Since Caesar was both popular and (thanks to his long history of religious office[[note]]Besides being Pontifex Maximus, Caesar had been Flamen Dialis--chief priest of the cult of Jupiter--in his youth before being exiled by Sulla[[/note]]) seen as having superior knowledge of the ways of the gods, Bibulus' attempts to thwart Caesar with religion were completely ineffectual.

UsefulNotes/ThePope is the TropeCodifier, hence why many High Priests reside in Vatican-style cities, worship Abrahamic-analogue Gods, and [[ChristianityIsCatholic borrow Catholic aesthetics]]. Compare the GodEmperor, who usually leads and is worshiped by the religion in question. There is a good chance he will carry a StaffOfAuthority. If the High Priest is also the leader of the government, you've likely got TheTheocracy.

* A peculiar example is the consuls of UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic. Even though they were elected politicians--with one-year terms at that--consuls were ''ex officio'' augurs (interpreters of the activities of birds, a major form of divination in Rome) and had authority to set the dates of holidays. They frequently did this to their own political advantage. A fascinating--and darkly comic--example of these powers in practice came in 59 BCE, when UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar (the famous one) was consul with Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. Bibulus--who disagreed with Caesar on practically every point--kept trying to use his authority as an augur and proclaimer of holidays to interfere with Caesar's populist political agenda. Caesar, however, had a trump card; several years earlier, he had been elected to the lifetime post of the ''actual'' chief priest of Rome, the Pontifex Maximus, and he used this superior religious knowledge to overturn Bibulus' readings of the birds and proclamations of holidays. Since Caesar was both popular and (thanks to his long history of religious office[[note]]Besides being Pontifex Maximus, Caesar had been Flamen Dialis--chief priest of the cult of Jupiter--in his youth before being exiled by Sulla[[/note]]) seen as having superior knowledge of the ways of the gods, Bibulus' attempts to thwart Caesar with religion were completely ineffectual.

** The horribly beweaponed [[ChurchMilitant Divine Legions]] also mutated after the Brutha reforms, to a residual organisation devoted to spreading the Word through formation brass bands and community hymn singing, armed with weapons no more formidable than tambourines and agressively shaken collection boxes.

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' the Grey Council (in its original form) has three representatives each from the Warrior, Religious, and Worker castes respectively. Delenn is in the religious caste making her a High Priestess. [[spoiler:Delenn would later reform the council by reducing the Warrior and Religious representation to two each and increasing Worker representation to five, thereby [[TakeAThirdOption taking the third option]] to resolve the Warrior-Religious Minbari Civil War.]]

* In pre-christian Scandinavia, one of the suites expected of a leader - be it king, jarl or simple chieftain - was to lead the sacrifices to the gods and arrange religious feasts. This meant some problems for the kings who converted to christianity, as they would have to take part in the sacrifices unless the people thought they did not do their job. In one famous instant, a christian Swedish king briefly lost the kingship to a pagan rival because he would perform sacrifices.

** Part of the reason for the similarity between the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs and the Roman Catholic Pope is because before the two branches of Christianity split, the Pope was considered one of the Patriarchs. In fact the Pope still counts Patriarch of Rome as one of his titles, and the Orthodox hierarchy, while disagreeing with the Pope's claim of primacy, still accords him the title of Patriarch of Rome and respects him as leader of the Latin Church.

** Part of the reason for the similarity between the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs and the Roman Catholic Pope is because before the two branches of Christianity split, the Pope was considered one of the Patriarchs. In fact the Pope still counts Patriarch of Rome as one of his titles.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Aeron Greyjoy seems to be the top Priest of the Drowned God faith. In the books, the Drowned Men who serve as priests in their religion actually don't have any ruling hierarchy — theoretically all of the priests are equal and any priest can ordain another man as a priest if he is worthy. They don't have an equivalent to the High Septon in the Faith of the Seven. ''In practice'', of course, Drowned Priests who have been serving the longest and successfully revived the most initiates in drowning ceremonies are respected much more than others, and often in every generation or so there will be one Drowned Priest that all of the others look up to for guidance. Aeron is universally respected by the others — on the level of an Old Testament style prophet — and thus he is their ''unofficial'' leader, first among equals, etc.

* Sarastro in ''Theatre/MagicFlute''.

** After defeating the [[AbusivePrecursors Ayleids]] and [[FounderOfTheKingdom founding]] the First Cyrodiilic Empire, St. Alessia upheld her end of the BargainWithHeaven by making the religion of the Eight Divines (which worships the eight [[OurGodsAreDifferent Aedra]] who [[DivineIntervention aided her]] during the Alessian Revolt) into the official religion of her new Empire. This new religion was a compromise between the traditional [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] pantheon (which her Cyrodiilic followers, as slaves to the Ayleids, were accustomed to) and the Nordic Pantheon of her [[HornyVikings Nord]] allies, who refused to accept any "Elven" gods. Thousands of years later, through several Empires, the religion of the Eight (later Nine) Divines continues to serve as a SaintlyChurch to much of Tamriel.

** Iraz has two of them, husband and wife: the latter is also the lover of the King who, in order to mantain his role, has to partake a ritual and monthly spend a night of passion with the high priestess. If his performance is unsatisfying, the priestess warns her husband, who presents the king a sacred rope he [[OrderedToDie must use to hang himself]].

* In Literature/TheBible, Israel went through a period of being ruled by "Judges" like Samuel. God was actually [[AristocratsAreEvil very displeased]] when the Jews asked for a regular king.
** The actual office of High Priest and its duties in Ancient Israel are described, including the vestments to be worn and the proper way of butchering a sacrifice. The office was hereditary and dominated by the line of Aaron, Moses' brother, and of the Tribe of Levi. This fell out of joint a bit after the Babylonian Exile and while the office was restored by the returnees, it was destroyed along with a large amount of the Jewish religious hierarchy during the UsefulNotes/JewishRevolts. There hasn't been a High Priest since then. The rabbinical class to some degree took the place of the priesthood, but rabbis can't do sacrifices, one reason that modern Jews don't sacrifice anymore (the other is that there is no Temple). There are, however, many Jews who are hereditary priests--the last names Cohen, Kahn, Kahane, Kane, Katz, and others all come from the Hebrew word kohen, or priest, and signify priestly families--and they do still have some special religious duties, such as giving blessings to the congregation on holidays. There is no high priest, or kohen gadol, because the method for selecting the high priest (there were different selection methods in the first and second Temples) became defunct when the Temple was destroyed.
** One [[OneSceneWonder famous example]] from the Literature/BookOfGenesis was Melchizedek, a Canaanite priest-king who gave Abraham and Sarah some food and blessed them. He is also noted for acknowledging the Abrahamic {{God}}, although it is not clear whether Melchizedek was a monotheist or merely worshipped {{God}} as part of a larger pantheon.
** ''Literature/BookOfExodus'' has Aaron, as mentioned above.
** Then there's Jesus himself, who is both king of all creation, and intercedes between humans and God the Father in the manner of the high priest (including performing a [[HeroicSacrifice rather famous sacrifice.]]) It was prophesied (in the Old Testament Psalm 110) that the Messiah would be "a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek". The Literature/BookOfHebrews goes into some detail on what this means.

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* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' has a [[CrystalDragonJesus Pope-equivalent]] called the High Septon. The ones seen in the series have been fairly bad, including a corrupt glutton who was killed by a starving mob; the glutton's substantially (but not totally) better replacement, regarded as a decent man but also a weak-willed pawn, who was killed by political enemies; and most recently, an incorruptible, but fanatical and misogynistic KnightTemplar.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' the Grey Council (in its original form) has three representatives each from the Warrior, Religious, and Worker castes respectively. Delenn is in the religious caste making her a High Priestess. [[spoiler]]Delenn would later reform the council by reducing the Warrior and Religious representation to two each and increasing Worker representation to five, thereby [[TakeAThirdOption taking the third option]] to resolve the Warrior-Religious Minbari Civil War.[[/spoiler]]

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' the Grey Council (in its original form) has three representatives each from the warrior, religious, and worker castes respectively. Delenn is in the religious caste making her a High Priestess.