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An ecclesiastic. Chaucer.

General; universal; in ecclesiastical usage, that which concerns the whole church; as, an ecumenical council. [Written also .] Ecumenical Bishop, a title assumed by the popes. -- Ecumenical council. See under Council.

The ecclesiastic who reads the epistle at the communion service.

That which is established; as: (a) A form of government, civil or ecclesiastical; especially, a system of religion maintained by the civil power; as, the Episcopal establishment of England. (b) A permanent civil, military, or commercial, force or organization. (c) The place in which one is permanently fixed for residen…

the modern Greek Church, a deputy of the patriarch , who visits the clergy, investigates ecclesiastical cases, etc.

of communion; especially, to cut off, or shut out, from communion with the church, by an ecclesiastical sentence.

The act of communicating or ejecting; esp., an ecclesiastical censure whereby the person against whom it is pronounced is, for the time, cast out of the communication of the church; exclusion from fellowship in things spiritual.

. A shutting out from communion; excommunication. [Obs.] Excommunication is the utmost of ecclesiastical judicature. Milton.

city. -- Free church. (a) A church whose sittings are for all and without charge. (b) An ecclesiastical body that left the Church of Scotland, in 1843, to be free from control by the government in spiritual matters. -- Free city, or Free town, a city or town independent in its government and franchises, as formerly t…

out with denunciations or censures; -- said especially of menaces or censures uttered by ecclesiastical authority. They fulminated the most hostile of all decrees. De Quincey.

An invested sum, whose income is devoted to a specific object; as, the fund of an ecclesiastical society; a fund for the maintenance of lectures or poor students; also, money systematically collected to meet the expenses of some permanent object.

A cross formed of four capital gammas, formerly used as a mysterious ornament on ecclesiastical vestments, etc. See Fylfot.

The land belonging, or yielding revenue, to a parish church or ecclesiastical benefice.

on for spectators, at a, race course, etc. -- Grand vicar (Eccl.), a principal vicar; an ecclesiastical delegate in France. -- Grand vizier. See under Vizier.

disposed organically in ranks and orders each subordinate to the one above it; a body of ecclesiastical rulers.

Government by ecclesiastics; a hierarchy. Jefferson.

icious display. -- High bailiff, the chief bailiff. -- High Church, and Low Church, two ecclesiastical parties in the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church. The high- churchmen emphasize the doctrine of the apostolic succession, and hold, in general, to a sacramental presence in the Eucharist, to bapt…

An ornamental fold at the back of an academic gown or ecclesiastical vestment; as, a master's hood.

Appropriate; suitable; proper; fit; adequate. [R.] An ecclesiastical benefice . . . ought to be conferred on an idoneous person. Ayliffe.

To place the profits of (ecclesiastical property) in the hands of a layman for care and disbursement.