Can somebody explain the ship's priest in "Battleship Potemkin"?

I didn't really get the priest part of the movie. Why was he there? How was the phrase "Remember the Lord" supposed to convince the guy to stop the mutiny? When the priest died, wouldn't that cast a bad light on the mutiny (to the audience), rather than glorify it as the film was trying to do. Why did Eisenstein seem to take such pleasure in doing away with what seemed like a trivial character? I just don't get it.