High Priest
the chief priest in any faith, he who occupies the highest place in the hierarchy, as the Pontifex Maximus among the Romans. In Judaism, the divinely-appointed head of the Jewish hierarchy. The first to hold office was Aaron. The high priests were to be without blemish, were to avoid eating things which died of themselves, or marrying a widow or a divorced person. They were not to make mourning for private or domestic sorrows.
Romans were afraid of the influence likely to be acquired by so exalted a spiritual functionary and apparently appointed a new one every year (John xviii: 13).