Priest"craft` (?), n. Priestly policy; the policy of a priesthood; esp., in an ill sense, fraud or imposition in religious concerns; management by priests to gain wealth and power by working upon the religious motives or credulity of others.

It is better that men should be governed by priestcraft than by violence.

• the craft of performing the duties of a priest
  
• (pejorative) priestly policy directed towards worldy ends
       quotations
       *"In pious times, ere priestcraft did begin, before polygamy was made a sin" — Absalom and Achitophel, John Dryden
       *"Perhaps thou wert a priest,--if so, my strugglesAre vain, for priestcraft never owns its juggles." — Address to a Mummy, Horace (Horatio) Smith