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munion in both kinds (using leavened bread) and to infants as well as adults, permits its secular clergy to marry before ordination and to keep their wives afterward, but not to marry a second time, selects its bishops from the monastic clergy only, recognizes the offices of bishop, priest, and deacon as the three nece…

r pertaining to the church; relating to the organization or government of the church; not secular; as, ecclesiastical affairs or history; ecclesiastical courts. Every circumstance of ecclesiastical order and discipline was an abomination. Cowper. Ecclesiastical commissioners for England, a permanent commission establis…

To annul the consecration of; to secularize; to unhellow. [Obs.] Holland.

One charged with the performance of a function or office; as, a public functionary; secular functionaries.

Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. Save and defend us from our ghostly enemies. Book of Common Prayer [Ch. of Eng. ] One of the gostly children of St. Jerome. Jer. Taylor.

hieratic -- were employed only for sacred, while the third, the demotic, was employed for secular, purposes. No such distinction is discoverable on the more ancient Egyptian monuments; bur we retain the old names founded on misapprehension. W. H. Ward (Johnson's Cyc.).

A secular festival; a holiday.

laration; proclamation; public notice or appointment. [Obs.] "Indiction of a war." Bacon. Secular princes did use to indict, or permit the indiction of, synods of bishops. Jer. Taylor.

tion; having divine authority; hence, sacred, holy; -- opposed to uninspired, profane, or secular; as, the inspired writings, that is, the Scriptures.

An unaccompanied polyphonic song, in four, five, or more parts, set to secular words, but full of counterpoint and imitation, and adhering to the old church modes. Unlike the freer glee, it is best sung with several voices on a part. See Glee.

in ideas; wanting strength of diction or affluence of imagery. "Meager soil." Dryden. Of secular habits and meager religious belief. I. Taylor. His education had been but meager. Motley.

ded or beset; the press; the burden; as, in the midst of official duties; in the midst of secular affairs.

nt, attendant, or agent; to attend and serve; to perform service in any office, sacred or secular. The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Matt. xx. 28.

A religious as well as a secular designation applied to rulers of some of the city states of ancient Chaldea, as Lagash or Shirpurla, who were conceived to be direct representatives of the tutelary god of the place.

ments or changes on the earth's surface, as the currents of the atmosphere and ocean, the secular variations in heat, moisture, magnetism, etc.; physical geography.

ossessing peculiar sanctity; unconsecrated; hence, relating to matters other than sacred; secular; -- opposed to sacred, religious, or inspired; as, a profane place. "Profane authors." I. Disraeli. The profane wreath was suspended before the shrine. Gibbon.

One of the clergy of first rank in the lower order of secular clergy; an archpriest; -- called also protopapas.

Belonging to a monastic order or community; as, regular clergy, in distinction dfrom the secular clergy.

A person bound by monastic vows, or sequestered from secular concern, and devoted to a life of piety and religion; a monk or friar; a nun. Addison.

Relating to religion, or to the services of religion; not secular; religious; as, sacred history. Smit with the love of sacred song. Milton.