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Of or pertaining to the Fathers of the Christian church. The voluminous editor of Jerome anf of tons of patristic theology. I. Taylor.

nent of historical theology which treats of the lives and doctrines of the Fathers of the church.

on saint (R. C. Ch.), a saint regarded as the peculiar protector of a country, community, church, profession, etc., or of an individual.

The right of presentation to church or ecclesiastical benefice; advowson. Blackstone.

also, the embrace in the sanctuary now substituted for it at High Mass in Roman Catholic churches.

A particular parish or church which is exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary. Court of Peculiars (Eng. Law), a branch of the Court of Arches having cognizance of the affairs of peculiars. Blackstone. -- Dean of peculiars. See under Dean, 1.

A schoolmaster; a pedagogue. [Obs.] Dryden. A pedant that keeps a school i'th' church. Shak.

ing to the transgression. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. And bitter penance, with an iron whip. Spenser. Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, And penance more will do." Coleridge.

One under church censure, but admitted to penance; one undergoing penance.

That part of a church to which penitents were admitted. Shipley.

A festival of the Roman Catholic and other churches in commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles; which occurred on the day of Pentecost; -- called also Whitsunday. Shak.

Offerings formerly made to the parish priest, or to the mother church, at Pentecost. Shipley.

from a book; especially (Theol.), a selection from the Bible, appointed to be read in the churches or used as a text for a sermon.

inually. The Bible and Common Prayer Book in the vulgar tongue, being perpetually read in churches, have proved a kind of standard for language. Swift.

One of the compartments in a church which are separated by low partitions, and have long seats upon which several persons may sit; - - sometimes called slip. Pews were originally made square, but are now usually long and narrow.

ers in Germany in the 17th century who sought to revive declining piety in the Protestant churches; -- often applied as a term of reproach to those who make a display of religious feeling. Also used adjectively.

They were separatists from the Church of England, and most of them had sojourned in Holland.

rnamental column, formerly carried before a cardinal, as emblematic of his support to the church. [Obs.] Skelton.

A niche near the altar in a church, containing a small basin for rinsing altar vessels.

Having a scale running from the dominant to its octave; -- said of certain old church modes or tunes, as opposed to those called authentic, which ran from the tonic to its octave. Plagal cadence, a cadence in which the final chord on the tonic is preceded by the chord on the subdominant.