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Grimm's TM - Chap. 5 Chapter 5
(Page 1) The most general term for one who is called to the immediate service
of deity (minister deorum, Tac. Germ. 10) is one derived from the name of deity
itself. From the Goth. guð [[[god]]] (deus) is formed the adj. gaguds [[[godly]]]
(godly, pius, eusebhj), then gagudei [[[godliness]]]
(pietas, eusebeia). In OHG. and MHG., I
find pius translated erhaft [[[honorable]]], strictly reverens, but also used
for venerandus; our fromm [[[pious]]] has only lately acquired this meaning,
the MHG. vrum being simply able, excellent. The God-serving, pious man is in
Goth. gudja [[[priest]]] (iereuj Matt. 8,4,
27, 1. 63. Mk. 10, 34. 11, 27. 14, 61. Lu. 1, 5. 20, 1. Jo. 18, 19. 22. 19,
6. ufargudja [[[high priest]]] (arciereuj)
Mk 10, 33. gudjinôn [[[to officiate as a priest]]] (ierateuein),
Lu. 1, 8. gudjinassus [[[priesthood]]] (ierateia)
Lu. 1, 9. (see Suppl.) That these were heathen expressions follows from the accordance
of the ON. goði [[priest, chieftain]] (pontifex), hofs goði [[temple priest]]
(fani antistes), Egilss. 754. Freys goði [[Freyr's priest]], Nialss. cap. 96.
117. Fornm. sög. 2, 206. goðord [[authority of the a goði (priest)]] (sacerdotium).
An additional argument is found in the disappearance of the word from the other
dialects, just as our alah [[[temple]]] disappeared, though the Goths had found
alhs [[[temple]]] unobjectionable. Only a faint vestige appears in the OHG.
cotinc [[[priest]]] by which tribunus is glossed, Diut. 1, 187 (Goth. gudiggs?).---Now as Ulphilas (1) associates gudja [[[priest]]]
and sinista [[[eldest]]] (presbuteroj, elder,
man of standing, priest), a remarkable sentence in Amm. Marcell. 28, 5 informs
us, that the high priest of the Burgundians was called sinisto [[[elder]]]:
Nam sacerdos omnium maximus apud Burgundios vocatur sinistus, et est perpetuus,
(2) obnoxius discriminibus nullis ut reges. The connexion of
priests with the nobility I have discussed in RA. 267-8 (see Suppl.). More decidedly heathen are the OHG. names for a priest harugari
[[[fortune-teller, heathen priest ('harrower')]]], Diut. 1, 514, (3)
and parawari [[[inspecting priest for offerings]]], Diut. 1, 150, (being derived
from haruc [[[grove, place of sacrifice (harrow)]]] and paro [[[sanctuary, place
of sacrifice]]], the words for temple given on p. 68-9, and confirming what
I have maintained, that these two terms were synonymous). They can hardly have
been coined by the glossist to interpret the Lat. aruspex, they must have existed
in our ancient speech.---A priest who sacrificed was named pluostrari [[[sacrificer]]]
(see p. 36). The fact that cotinc [[[priest]]] could bear the sense of tribunus
shows the close connexion between the offices of priest and judge, which comes
out still more clearly in a term peculiar to the High Germ. dialect: êwa, êa
signified not only the secular, but the divine law, these being closely connected
in the olden times, and equally sacred; hence êowart, êwart law-ward, administrator
of law, nomikoj, AS. æ-gleaw [[[law-learned]]],
æ-láreow [[[law-teacher]]], Goth. vitôdafasteis [[[knower of the law]]], one
learned in the law, K. 55 56,. Gl. Hrab. 974. N. ps. 50, 9. êwarto [[[law-ward,
priest]]] of the weak decl. in O.I. 4, 2. 18. 72. gotes êwarto [[[god's law-ward]]]
I. 4, 23. and as late as the 12th century êwarte [[[law-ward]]], Mar. 21. and,
without the least reference to the Jewish office, but quite synonymous with
priest: der heilige êwarte [[[the holy law-ward]]], Reinh. 1705. der bâruc und
die êwarten sin [[[his fattened hog (?) and priests]]], Parz. 13, 25. Wh. 217,
23 of Saracen priests (see Suppl.). The very similar êosago, êsago [[[law-sayer]]]
stood for judex, legislator, RA. 781. The poet of the Heliand uses the expression wihes ward [[[temple's
warden]]] (templi custos) 150, 24; to avoid the heathen as well as a foreign
term, he adopts periphrases: the giêrôdo man [[[the honored man]]] (geehrte,
honoured), 3, 19. the frôdo man [[[the wise man]]] (frôt, fruot [[[wise]]],
prudens) 3, 21. 7, 7. frôdgumo [[[wise-man]]] (gumo, homo) 5, 23. 6, 2. godcund
gumo [[[godlike man]]] 6, 12, which sounds like gudja [[[priest]]] above, but
may convey the peculiar sense in which Wolfram uses 'der guote man'
[[[the good man]]]. (4) In the Romance expressions prudens
homo, bonus homo (prudhomme, bonhomme) there lurks a reference to the ancient
jurisprudence.---Once Ulphilas renders arciereuj
by aúhumists veiha [[[highest priest]]], John 18, 13, but never iereuj
by veiha [[[priest]]]. With christianity there came in foreign words (see Suppl.). The
Anglo-Saxons adopted the Lat. sacerdos in abbreviated from: sacerd [[[priest]]],
pl. sacerdas; and Ælfred translates Beda's pontifex and summus pontificum (both
of them heathen), 2, 13 by biscop [[[bishop]]] and ealdorbiscop [[[archbishop]]].
T. and O. use in the same sense bisgof, biscof [[[bishop]]] (from episcopus),
O. I. 4, 4. 27. 47; and the Hel. 150, 24 biscop [[[bishop]]]. Later on, priester
[[['priest]]] (from presbyter, following the idea of elder and superior), and
pfaffe [[[priest, parson]]] (papa) came to be the names most generally used;
AS. preost [[['priest]]], Engl. priest, Fr. prestre, prêtre; in Veldek, prêster
[[[priest]]] rhymes with mêster [[[master]]], En. 9002. When Cæsar, bell. Gall. 6, 21, says of the Germans: Neque druides
habent qui rebus divinis praesint, neque sacrificiis student, ---the statement
need not be set down as a mistake, or as contradicting what Tacitus tells us
of the German priests and sacrifices. Cæsar is all along drawing a contrast
between them and the Gauls. He had described the latter 6, 16 as excessively
addicted to sacrifices; and his 'non studere sacrificiis' must in the connexion
mean no more than to make a sparing use of sacrifices. As little did there prevail
among the Germans the elaborately finished Druid-system of the Gauls; but they
did not want for priests or sacrifices of their own. The German priests, as we have already gathered from a cursory
review of their titles, were employed in the worship of the gods and in judging
the people. In campaigns, discipline is entrusted to them alone, not to the
generals, the whole war being carried on as it were in the presence of the deity:
Ceterum neque animadvertere neque vincire nec verberare quidem nisi sacerdotibus
permissum, non quasi in poenam, nec ducis jussu, sed velut deo imperante, quem
adesse bellantibus credunt, Germ. 7 (see Suppl.). The succeeding words must
also refer to the priests, it is they that take the 'effigies et signa' from
the sacred grove and carry them into battle. We learn from cap. 10, that the
sacerdos civitatis superintends the divination by rods, whenever it is done
for the nation. If the occasion be not a public one, the paterfamilias himself
can direct the matter, and the priest need not be called in:---a remarkable
limitation of the priestly power, and a sign how far the rights of the freeman
extended in strictly private life; on the same principle, I suppose, that in
very early times covenant transactions could be settled between the parties,
without the intervention of the judge (RA. 201). Again, when the divination
was by the neighing of the white steeds maintained by the state, priests accompanied
the sacred car, and accredited the transaction. The priest alone may touch the
car of Nerthus, by him her approaching presence is perceived, he attends her
full of reverence, and leads her back at last toher sanctuary, cap. 40. Segimund,
the son of Segestes, whom Tac. Ann. 1, 57 calls sacerdos, had been not a German
but a Roman priest (apud aram Ubiorum), and after tearing up the alien chaplet
(vittas ruperat), had fled to his home. 1. Strictly the Evangelist; the translator had no choice.----Trans. (back) 2. For the sense of perpetuity attaching to sin- in composition, see Gramm. 2, 554-5. (back) 3. If haruc [[[harrow]]] meant wood or rock, and harugari [[[harrower]]] priest, they are very like the Ir. and Gael. carn, cairn, and cairneac priest. O'Brien 77. (back) 4. Parz. 457, 2. 458, 25. 460, 19. 476, 23. 487, 23. The gôdo
gumo [[[the good man]]], Hel. 4, 16 is said of John; ther guato man [[[the good
man]]], O. ii. 12, 21. 49 of Nicodemus; in Ulrich's Lanzelot, an abbot is styled
der guote man [[[the good man]]], 4613. 4639. conf. 3857, 4620 êwarte, 4626
priester. But with this is connected diu guote frouwe [[[the good lady]]] (v.
infra), i.e. originally bona socia, so that in the good man also there peeps
out something heathenish, heretical. In the great Apologue, the cricket is a
clergyman, and is called (Ren. 8125) preudoms and Frobert = Fruotbert (see Suppl.)
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