Search the Dictionary

Pertaining to civic life and affairs, in distinction from military, ecclesiastical, or official state.

An ecclesiastical body or judicat

A clergyman or ecclesiastic. [Obs.] All persons were styled clerks that served in the church of Christ. Ayliffe.

erness; to fondle; to indulge; to pamper. Cocker thy child and he shall make thee afraid. Ecclesiasticus xxx. 9. Poor folks cannot afford to cocker themselves up. J. Ingelow.

l investigation; capable of being judicially heard and determined. Cognizable both in the ecclesiastical and secular courts. Ayliffe.

A partner or associate in some civil or ecclesiastical office or employment. It is never used of partners in trade or manufactures.

An officer on the bishop, who exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction in parts of the diocese at a distance from the residence of the bishop. Ayliffe.

yard in London where the doctors of civil law used to common together, and where were the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts and offices having jurisdiction of marriage licenses, divorces, registration of wills, etc. -- To be on short commons, to have small allowance of food. [Colloq.]

II, on condition of a general amnesty and of guarantees for the security of the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the realm.

A small or private assembly, especially of an ecclesiastical nature. [Obs.] Bacon.

An obscure ecclesiastical council; a conciliable. Milman.

One of the two ecclesiastics allowed to attend a cardinal in the conclave.

An agreement made between the pope and a sovereign or government for the regulation of ecclesiastical matters with which both are concerned; as, the concordat between Pope Pius VIL and Bonaparte in

A stated meeting of preachers and others, invested with authority to take cognizance of ecclesiastical matters.

A body of cardinals or other ecclesiastics to whom as intrusted some departament of the church business; as, the Congregation of the Propaganda, which has charge of the missions of the Roman Catholic Church.

That system of church organization which vests all ecclesiastical power in the assembled brotherhood of each local church.

To unite in an ecclesiastical consociation. [U.S.]

nance, regulation or enactment; especially, one made by a Roman emperor, or one affecting ecclesiastical doctrine or disipline; as, the constitutions of Justinian. The positive constutions of our own churches. Hooker. A constitution of Valentinian addressed to Olybrius, then prefect of Rome, for the regulation of the c…

eet or appear. By the papal canon law, clerks . . . can not be convened before any but an ecclesiastical judge. Ayliffe.

s or representatives, to accomplish some specific object, -- civil, social, political, or ecclesiastical. He set himself to the making of good laws in a grand convention of his nobles. Sir R. Baker. A convention of delegates from all the States, to meet in Philadelphia, for the sole and express purpose of reserving the…