Villains a priest reformed (7)
I believe the answer is:
pirates
'villains' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'a priest reformed' is the wordplay.
'reformed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'a'+'priest'='apriest'
'apriest' anagrammed gives 'PIRATES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pirates that I've seen before include "Buccaneers" , "Robbers on the high seas" , "Robbers at sea" , "Bad sailors" , "Copyright infringers" .)