All priests were religious leaders. Some were active in the government, others were highly respected teachers. They have several privileges such as being one of the only people that knew the Aztec language Nahuatl. They were treated as nobles and were very important to the Aztec society. However the life of an Aztec priest was very tiring and hard. They had mountains of responsibilities such as:

• Keeping the time of the day
• Keeping track of eclipses and other planetary events
• Naming certain constellations
• Tracking the movement of the stars and planets to predict their future positions in the sky
• Reading the calendar
• Analyzing the incantations to the gods and horoscopes
• Analyzing horoscopes for the citizens of the Aztec Empire
• Making offerings and sacrifices to gods as well as making sure they are the correct ones in order to satisfy the gods
• Perform all sorts of ceremonies in temples to make sure that the gods were pleased so that disasters does not strike the civilisation
• Record down events in hieroglyphics
• Hear confessions as well as going to war with the warriors to hear their confessions
• Train boys that will become priests by taking them out into the dark on nightly walks to gather dangerous creatures.