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t.), primary colors. See under Color. -- Primitive Fathers (Eccl.), the acknowledged Christian writers who flourished before the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. Shipley. -- Primitive groove (Anat.), a depression or groove in the epiblast of the primitive streak. It is not connected with the medullary groove, which appear…

, in the fourth century, who mixed various elements of Gnosticism and Manicheism with Christianity.

vowed, acknowledged, or claimed; as, a professed foe; a professed tyrant; a professed Christian. The professed (R. C. Ch.) , a certain class among the Jesuits bound by a special vow. See the note under Jesuit.

place to place; to disseminate; as, to propagate a story or report; to propagate the Christian religion. The infection was propagated insensibly. De Foe.

nion, system, or party; thus, a Gentile converted to Judaism, or a pagan converted to Christianity, is a proselyte. Ye [Scribes and Pharisees] compass sea and land to make one proselyte. Matt. xxiii. 15. Fresh confidence the speculatist takes From every harebrained proselyte he makes. Cowper.

s, and appealed to a general council; -- now used in a popular sense to designate any Christian who does not belong to the Roman Catholic or the Greek Church.

st who suffers, or is sacrificed, in any cause; -- applied esp. to Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

right; -- said of person or offenses. That time was, when to be a Protestant, to be a Christian, was by law as punishable as to be a traitor. Milton. -- Pun"ish*a*ble*ness, n.

Having or indicating purpose or design. "Purposive characters." Bastian. Purposive modification of structure in a bone. Owen. It is impossible that the frog should perform actions morepurposive than these. Huxley.

rement, which fits a person for a place, office, or employment, or which enables him to sustian any character with success; an enabling quality or circumstance; requisite capacity or possession. There is no qualification for government but virtue and wisdom, actual or presumptive. Burke.

Jews about purifying. John iii. 25. It is to be to question, whether it be lawful for Christian princes to make an invasive war simply for the propagation of the faith. Bacon.

s or object; an excursion or stroll merely for recreation. Coming home, after a short Christians ramble. Swift.

; to take exceptions. Scripture reclaims, and the whole Catholic church reclaims, and Christian ears would not hear it. Waterland. At a later period Grote reclaimed strongly against Mill's setting Whately above Hamilton. Bain.

To make one's way; to come; to arrive. [Obs.] With much ado the Christians recovered to Antioch. Fuller.

d in 1197; -- so called because the order was especially devoted to the redemption of Christians held in captivity by the Mohammedans. Called also Trinitarian.

Born anew; become Christian; renovated in heart; changed from a natural to a spiritual state.

The entering into a new spiritual life; the act of becoming, or of being made, Christian; that change by which holy affectations and purposes are substituted for the opposite motives in the heart. He saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Chost. Tit. iii. 5.

To fall from Christian faith into paganism, heresy, or unbelief; to backslide. They enter into the justified state, and so continue all along, unless they relapse. Waterland.

ulcated in the Bible, respecting the conduct of life and duty toward God and man; the Christian faith and practice. Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Washington. Religion will attend you . . . as pleasant and useful companion in every proper place, and every t…

An apostate from Christianity or from any form of religious faith. James justly regarded these renegades as the most serviceable tools that he could employ. Macaulay.