ABSTRACT
Religious life has produced its own organization, its own functionaries. From an early period some men have been noted among their fellows as having special aptitude for dealing with sacred things. With the passing of time and the development of religion a professional priesthood to be established with its hierarchies, though there are great religions, notably Islam, in which priesthood plays a very small part. The union of believers in a religion is a Church in its associational aspect; the body of practices and of relationships by which they seek to achieve their purposes is a Church in its institutional aspect. Some kind of a Church is to be found wherever there is religion, but fully developed and closely organized Churches are rarer; indeed, there is no complete parallel to be found elsewhere to the Churches of Christendom. The functions of a Church are the regulation of the cult, the propagation of the religion, the maintenance of discipline.
