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A summoner; esp., one who summons to an ecclesiastical court. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.

Not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things; ecclesiastical; as, the spiritual functions of the clergy; lords spiritual and temporal; a spiritual corporation. Spiritual coadjuctor. (Eccl.) See the Note under Jesuit. -- Spiritual court (Eccl. Law), an ecclesiastical court, or a court having jurisdiction in ecclesias…

a regard for spiritual things only; one whose employment is of a spiritual character; an ecclesiastic.

That which belongs to the church, or to a person as an ecclesiastic, or to religion, as distinct from temporalities. During the vacancy of a see, the archbishop is guardian of the spiritualities thereof. Blackstone.

An ecclesiastical body; a spirituality. Shak.

d by profession, or constituting a community of a particular character; as, the civil and ecclesiastical states, or the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons, in Great Britain. Cf. Estate, n., 6.

One of the places at which ecclesiastical processions pause for the performance of an act of devotion; formerly, the tomb of a martyr, or some similarly consecrated spot; now, especially, one of those representations of the successive stages of our Lord's passion which are often placed round the naves of large churches…

Government by the state, or by political power, in distinction from government by ecclesiastical power. [R.] O. A. Brownson.

on which a composition or a movement is based. The earliest known form of subject is the ecclesiastical cantus firmus, or plain song. Rockstro.

dination of a person to fill a station already occupied; especially, the ordination by an ecclesiastical official, during his lifetime, of his successor. Fuller.

the sovereign in spiritual affairs, and renounced or abjures the supremacy of the pope in ecclesiastical or temporal affairs. [Eng.] Brande & C.

The deputy of an ecclesiastical judge, most commonly of a bishop or his chancellor, especially a deputy who grants marriage licenses. [Eng.]

An ecclesiastic council or meeting to consult on church matters.

archdeacon, at the time of his Easter visitation, by every parish priest, now made to the ecclesiastical commissioners; a procuration. Synodals are due, of common right, to the bishop only. Gibson.

The tenth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, answering to a part of December with a part of January. Esther ii. 16.

Civil or political, as distinguished from ecclesiastical; as, temporal power; temporal courts. Lords temporal. See under Lord, n. -- Temporal augment. See the Note under Augment, n.

hat which pertains to temporal welfare; material interests; especially, the revenue of an ecclesiastic proceeding from lands, tenements, or lay fees, tithes, and the like; -- chiefly used in the plural. Supreme head, . . . under God, of the spirituality and temporality of the same church. Fuller.

coerce by intimidation. Humiliated by the tyranny of foreign despotism, and terrorized by ecclesiastical authority. J. A. Symonds.

The fourth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, -- supposed to correspond nearly with our month of July.

dered in our general's ear. Dryden. An archdeacon, as being a prelate, may thunder out an ecclesiastical censure. Ayliffe.