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; as, the rites of freemasonry. He looked with indifference on rites, names, and forms of ecclesiastical polity. Macaulay.

lise, but with narrower sleeves, also without sleeves, worn by bishops, and by some other ecclesiastical dignitaries, in certain religious ceremonies. They see no difference between an idler with a hat and national cockade, and an idler in a cowl or in a rochet. Burke.

An ecclesiastical court of Rome, called also Rota Romana, that takes cognizance of suits by appeal. It consists of twelve members.

A secular ecclesiastic, or one not bound by monastic rules. Burke.

A member of, or one educated in, a seminary; specifically, an ecclesiastic educated for the priesthood in a seminary.

n civil and admiralty law, the judgment of a court pronounced in a cause; in criminal and ecclesiastical courts, a judgment passed on a criminal by a court or judge; condemnation pronounced by a judgical tribunal; doom. In common law, the term is exclusively used to denote the judgment in criminal cases. Received the s…

crees of the court. And now the profits of a benefice are sequestered to pay the debts of ecclesiastics. Blackstone.

One of an order of celestial beings, each having three pairs of wings. In ecclesiastical art and in poetry, a seraph is represented as one of a class of angels. Isa. vi. 2. As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As the rapt seraph that adores and burns. Pope. Seraph moth (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of g…

be; also, the chief magistrate of an Arab village. The name is also applied to Mohammedan ecclesiastics of a high grade. [Written also scheik, shaik, sheikh.]

The crime of buying or selling ecclesiastical preferment; the corrupt presentation of any one to an ecclesiastical benefice for money or reward. Piers Plowman.

An ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls. Ayliffe.

The third month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year; -- supposed to correspond nearly with our month of June.

A summoner; esp., one who summons to an ecclesiastical court. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.

Not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things; ecclesiastical; as, the spiritual functions of the clergy; lords spiritual and temporal; a spiritual corporation. Spiritual coadjuctor. (Eccl.) See the Note under Jesuit. -- Spiritual court (Eccl. Law), an ecclesiastical court, or a court having jurisdiction in ecclesias…

a regard for spiritual things only; one whose employment is of a spiritual character; an ecclesiastic.

That which belongs to the church, or to a person as an ecclesiastic, or to religion, as distinct from temporalities. During the vacancy of a see, the archbishop is guardian of the spiritualities thereof. Blackstone.

An ecclesiastical body; a spirituality. Shak.

d by profession, or constituting a community of a particular character; as, the civil and ecclesiastical states, or the lords spiritual and temporal and the commons, in Great Britain. Cf. Estate, n., 6.

One of the places at which ecclesiastical processions pause for the performance of an act of devotion; formerly, the tomb of a martyr, or some similarly consecrated spot; now, especially, one of those representations of the successive stages of our Lord's passion which are often placed round the naves of large churches…

Government by the state, or by political power, in distinction from government by ecclesiastical power. [R.] O. A. Brownson.