The whole system of THE PRIESTHOOD was transplanted into Christianity
from Paganism; the Egyptian priesthood, however, was in great part
hereditary, and in this differs from the Christian, while resembling the
Jewish. The priests of the temple of Dea (Syria) were, on the other
hand, celibate, and so were some orders of the Egyptian priests. Some
classes of priests closely resembled Christian monks, living in
monasteries, and undergoing many austerities; they prayed twice a day,
fasted often, spoke little, and lived much apart in their cells in
solitary meditation; in the most insignificant matters the same
similarity may be traced. "When the Roman Catholic priest shaves the top
of his head, it is because the Egyptian priest had done the same before.
When the English clergyman--though he preaches his sermon in a silk or
woollen robe--may read the Liturgy in no dress but linen, it is because
linen was the clothing of the Egyptians. Two thousand years before the
Bishop of Rome pretended to hold the keys of heaven and earth, there was
an Egyptian priest with the high-sounding title of Appointed keeper of
the two doors of heaven, in the city of Thebes" ("Egyptian Mythology,"
S. Sharpe, preface, p. xi.). The white robes of modern priests are
remnants of the same old faith; the more gorgeous vestments are the
ancient garb of the priests officiating in the temple of female deities;
the stole is the characteristic of woman's dress; the pallium is the
emblem of the yoni; the alb is the chemise; the oval or circular
chasuble is again the yoni; the Christian mitre is the high cap of the
Egyptian priests, and its peculiar shape is simply the open mouth of the
fish, the female emblem. In old sculptures a fish's head, with open
mouth pointing upwards, is often worn by the priests, and is scarcely
distinguishable from the present mitre. The modern crozier is the hooked
staff, emblem of the phallus; the oval frame for divine things is the
female symbol once more. Thus holy medals are generally oval, and the
Virgin is constantly represented in an oval frame, with the child in her