The article concerns the changes in the definition of the word “priest” in encyclopedias and lexicographical works in the course of shaping of the European culture of Modernity. The article argues that the notion of sacrum (as related to God), which directly correlated with the position of priest and defined its meaning until the 17th century, later, through the 18th century, was replaced by the notion of the community, in which the priest performs some cultic functions.