| 释义 |
catholic, a. and n.|ˈkæθəlɪk|
With capital initial exc. in senses 1 to 3.
[a. F. catholique (13th c. in Littré) ad. late L. catholic-us, a. Gr. καθολικός general, universal, f. καθόλου (i.e. καθ' ὅλου) on the whole, in general, as a whole, generally, universally, f. κατά concerning, in respect of, according to + ὅλος whole. (If immed. derived from L. or Gr., the Eng. word would, according to the regular analogy of words in -ic, have been accented caˈtholic).]
A. adj.
I. In non-ecclesiastical use.
1. gen. Universal.
1551T. Wilson Logike 1 b, Catholike being a greeke word signifieth nothing in English but universall or common. 1613R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3) Catholicke, vniuersall or generall. 1660N. Ingelo Bentiv. & Ur. (1682) 11, The Indisputable Commands of a Catholick Dictator in knowledge. 1885Times (weekly ed.) 11 Sept. 7/1 Science is truly catholic, and is bounded only by the universe.
†2. In specific uses:
a. Universally prevalent: said e.g. of substances, actions, laws, principles, customs, conditions, etc. Obs.
1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iii. 248 This is to be holden for a catholike principle. 1615Crooke Body of Man 418 It is a Catholicke principle, Euery thing is preserued and refreshed with his like. 1657S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 95 This is a common, but no catholique custome [among bees] for I have often observed the contrary. 1660Sharrock Vegetables 79 The universal and catholick order of all bulbous plants, is..that about St. James' tyde they be taken out of the ground. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. ii. §14 The Catholick Laws of nature which appear in the world. 1665–6Phil. Trans. I. 192 All Bodies are made of one Catholick matter common to them all. 1675Evelyn Terra (1729) 10 There is but one Catholic homogeneous, fluid matter. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. 112 This Catholick Principle of Gravitation. 1696Edwards Exist. & Provid. God i. 3 A great proof of the catholick degeneracy of this present age.
†b. Universally applicable or efficient; spec. of medicines, remedies. Obs.
1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 43 It hath the prime place, for a Catholick medicine in exulcerations. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. v. i. v. (1651) 393 There is no Catholike medicine to be had: that which helps one is pernitious to another. 1658A. Fox Wurtz' Surg. iv. ii. 309 A Catholick Plaister, used for all wounds and stabs. 1671Salmon Syn. Med. iii. xlix. 559 A noble Extract, and a catholick purge. 1691Ray Creation i. (1704) 115 Fire..which is the only Catholick Dissolvent. 1693Slare in Phil. Trans. XVII. 906 Tho' Spirit of Wine be a very Catholic Menstruum. 1713Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (1743) 261 [Water] is the only Catholick Nourishment of all Vegetables, Animals, and Minerals. 1752Hume Ess. (1777) II. 11 Accurate and just reasoning is the only Catholic remedy.
†c. More loosely: Common, prevalent. Obs.
1607Dekker Northw. Hoe v. Wks. 1873 III. 74 What is more catholick i' the city than for husbands daily for to forgive the nightly sins of their bedfellows? 1631Massinger Emper. of East iv. iv, The pox, sir..Is the more catholic sickness. 1660Sharrock Vegetables 130 Hot beds are the most general and catholick help.
†d. Entire, without exception. Obs.
1664Evelyn Sylva 19 Deep interring of Roots is amongst the Catholick Mistakes. 1671Dryden Even. Love iv. i, Alon. And, how fares my Son-in-law that lives there? Mel. In Catholick Health, Sir.
3. In current use:
a. Of universal human interest or use; touching the needs, interests, or sympathies of all men.
a1631Donne Serm. lxvi. (1640) So are there some..Catholique, universal Psalmes, that apply themselves to all necessities. 1704Swift Mech. Operat. Spirit (1711) 279 All my Writings..for universal Nature, and Mankind in general. And of such Catholick Use I esteem this present Disquisition. 1838–9Hallam Hist. Lit. iii. v. §4 Catholic poetry, by which I mean that which is good in all ages and countries. 1844Emerson Lect. New Eng. Ref. Wks. (Bohn) I. 264 A grand phalanx of the best of the human race, banded for some catholic object. 1867Froude Short Stud. 363 What was of catholic rather than national interest.
b. Having sympathies with, or embracing, all: said of men, their feelings, tastes, etc.; also fig. of things. (Closely connected with 8.)
1586Bright Melanch. iv. 16 The stomach becommeth the most Catholicke part in all the bodie, carying a more indifferent affection to what soever is receiued then anie part beside. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. iv. 73 Others more catholic in their taste. 1620J. Parkinson Paradisus xxvi. 215 Such as are Catholicke obseruers of all natures store. 1833Lamb Elia, Books & Read., I bless my stars for a taste so catholic, so unexcluding. 1851Carlyle Sterling i. iv. (1872) 31 Of these two Universities, Cambridge is decidedly the more catholic (not Roman catholic, but Human catholic). 1878Stevenson Inland Voy., On these different manifestations, the sun poured its clear and catholic looks. 1879Tourgee Fool's Err. xxxviii. 271 A man of unusually broad and catholic feeling.
4. Catholic Epistle: a name originally given to the ‘general’ epistles of James, Peter, and Jude, and the first of John, as not being addressed to particular churches or persons. The second and third epistles of John are now conventionally included among the number.
It is not certain that this was the original sense of ἐπιστολὴ καθολικὴ, since some early writers appear to use it in the sense ‘genuine and accepted’ (see canonical): but the attribute has been understood in the sense ‘encyclical’ or ‘general’ since the 10th or 11th c.
1582N. T. (Rhem.) James (heading) The Catholic Epistle of St. James the apostle. 1725tr. Dupin's Eccl. Hist. I. v. 69 The Encyclick, Circular, or Catholick Letters, were address'd to all Churches, or to all the Faithful. 1855Westcott Canon N.T. (1881) 395 It may be inferred that the seven Catholic Epistles were formed into a collection at the close of the third century.
II. In ecclesiastical use.
The earlier history of this lies outside English, and may be found in such works as Smith's Dict. Christian Antiq. or in Lightfoot's Ignatius I. 398–400, 605–607; II. 310–312. Ἡ καθολικὴ ἐκκλησία ‘the catholic church’ or ‘church universal’, was first applied to the whole body of believers as distinguished from an individual congregation or ‘particular body of Christians’. But to the primary idea of extension ‘the ideas of doctrine and unity’ were super-added; and so the term came to connote the Church first as orthodox, in opposition to heretics, next as one historically, in opposition to schismatics. Out of this widest qualitative sense arose a variety of subordinate senses; it was applied to the faith the Church held, to particular communities or even individual members belonging to it, and especially in the East, to cathedrals as distinguished from parish churches, then later to parish churches as opposed to oratories or monastic chapels. After the separation of East and West ‘Catholic’ was assumed as its descriptive epithet by the Western or Latin Church, as ‘Orthodox’ was by the Eastern or Greek. At the Reformation the term ‘Catholic’ was claimed as its exclusive right by the body remaining under the Roman obedience, in opposition to the ‘Protestant’ or ‘Reformed’ National Churches. These, however, also retained the term, giving it, for the most part, a wider and more ideal or absolute sense, as the attribute of no single community, but only of the whole communion of the saved and saintly in all churches and ages. In England, it was claimed that the Church, even as Reformed, was the national branch of the ‘Catholic Church’ in its proper historical sense. As a consequence, in order to distinguish the unreformed Latin Church, its chosen epithet of ‘Catholic’ was further qualified by ‘Roman’; but see sense 7. On this analogy Anglo-Catholic has been used by some, since about 1835, of the Anglican Church.
5. Catholic Church, Church Catholic: the Church universal, the whole body of Christians.
1559Injunctions by Queens Majestie D iv, Ye shall praye for Christes holy Chatholique church, that is, for the whole congregation of Christian people, dispearsed throughout the whole worlde, and specially for the Church of England and Irelande. 1560–61Scotch Conf. Faith xvi, Whiche Kirk is Catholik, that is universall, becaus it conteanes the Elect of all aiges, all realmes, nationis, and tounges, be thai of the Jewis or be thai of the Gentiles, who have communioun and societie with God the Father, and with his Sone Christ Jesus. 1630Prynne Anti-Armin. 129 There is a holy Catholicke Church, to wit, the whole company of Gods Elect. 1645Ussher Body Div. (1647) 187 The Catholick Church, that is, God's whole or universall Assembly. 1651Baxter Inf. Bapt. 304, I hope this learned man doth not take the particular Romane Church, for the Catholick Church. 1685Ken Ch. Catech., ‘Holy Cath. Ch.’ 1839J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Ch. xi. (1847) 110 As members of the church catholic. Mod. In this sense many accept the article of the Creed, ‘I believe in the holy catholic church’.
b. Of or belonging to the church universal, universal Christian.
1579Fulke Heskins' Parl. 94 He can neuer prooue his reseruation to be catholike or vniversally allowed and practised of the Church. 1651C. Cartwright Cert. Relig. i. 10 That Church whose Doctrine is most Catholick and universall must be the Catholick Church. 1657Cromwell Sp. 3 Apr., Such a Catholic interest of the people of God. 1777Fletcher Reconcil. Wks. 1795 IV. 211 A great friend to a catholic gospel. 1807Knox & Jebb Corr. I. 370 A catholic liturgy must be formed on a catholic plan; that is, from a harmony of those dispersed and vital truths, which in different ages, different countries, and different churches, were popularly, and effectually embodied, in established liturgies. 1882Farrar Early Chr. I. 250 Christianity in all Churches was, and ever must be, in its essence Catholic—one and indivisible.
6. a. As an epithet, applied to the Ancient Church, as it existed undivided, prior to the separation of East and West, and of a church or churches standing in historical continuity therewith, and claiming to be identical with it in doctrine, discipline, orders, and sacraments. (a) After the separation, assumed by the Western or Latin Church, and so commonly applied historically. (b) After the Reformation in the 16th c. claimed as its exclusive title by that part of the Western Church which remained under the Roman obedience (see 7); but (c) held by Anglicans not to be so limited, but to include the Church of England, as the proper continuation in England, alike of the Ancient and the Western Church.
(Whatever the application, the implied sense is ‘the Church or Churches which now truly represent the ancient undivided Church of Christendom’.)
1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 690/1 The very name he sayth of catholike, yt is to sai vniuersal, gaue to ward y⊇ getting of hys credence y⊇ catholike church gret autoritye. c1534Abp. Lee in Lingard Hist. Eng. (1855) V. i. 18/1 note, So that..the unitie of the faiethe and of the Catholique Chyrche [be] saved. 1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 47 Quhilk catholike kirk is trewly represented in all general counsellis. 1651Hobbes Leviath. Wks. 1839 III. 517 The Christians of that time [before Constantine], except a few, in respect of whose paucity the rest were called the Catholic Church and others heretics. c1670Jer. Taylor Duty of Clergy ii. 4 The Catholic Church hath been too much and too soon divided..but in things simply necessary, God hath preserved us still unbroken: all nations and all ages recite the Creed..and all Churches have been governed by Bishops. 1704Nelson Fest. & Fasts vii. (1739) 538 The ancientest Fathers of the Catholick Church. 1834Tracts for Times No. 61, We [English Church] are a branch of the Church Catholic. 1854Hook Ch. Dict. s.v. Creed, There are three creeds recognized by the catholic church. Ibid. s.v. Tradition, The great deference paid by the Church of England as a branch of the Catholic Church to tradition. 1866Ld. Romilly in Law Rep. 3 Eq. 29 The Catholic Church of Christ, of which the Church of England is a branch. 1872Freeman Gen. Sketch vi. 111 The people of the Oriental provinces..putting forth or adopting doctrines which the Catholic Church, both of the Old and of the New Rome, looked on as heretical.
b. Hence, Of or belonging to this Church; of the true apostolic Church, orthodox: (a) Of belief, doctrine, etc.
c1500Melusine (1888) 31 My byleue is as a Catholique byleue oughte for to be. a1556Cranmer Wks. (1844) I. 9 An explication and assertion of the true catholic faith in the matter of the sacrament. 1549Bk. Com. Prayer, Athan. Crede, And the Catholike faithe is this: That we worship one God in trinitie, and trinitie in unitie. 1634Habington Castara (Arb.) 112 The Catholique faith is the foundation on which he erects Religion. 1840Tracts for Times No. 85 vi, The Catholic or Church system of doctrine and worship. 1854Hook Ch. Dict. s.v. Image worship, Protesting against Roman corruptions of the Catholic Faith.
(b) Of persons: Holding the faith of this Church; rightly believing, orthodox. (This and sense a appear to be the earliest uses in English. The n. is in 1425.)
c1500Melusine (1888) 32 A man very catholoque & of good feith. 1531Elyot Govt. iii. xxiii, Wherein no good catholyke man wyll any thynge doute, though they be meruaylous. 1552Huloet, Catholyke or perfect Christian, orthodoxus. 1854Hook Ch. Dict. s.v., In ecclesiastical history..a catholic Christian denotes an orthodox Christian. 1881Freeman Hist. Geog. Eur. I. iv. 101 The lands ruled either by the Catholic Frank or by the Arian Goth.
(c) Of the writers, fathers, or antiquity, of the ancient undivided church, or accepted by the orthodox historical church.
1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Pref. 14 Whatsoeuer in any catholike wryter is conteyned. 1593Bilson Govt. Christ's Ch. xi, What Presbytery the primitiue Churches and Catholike fathers did acknowledge. 1842Tracts for Times No. 86 v. §3 What is popularity when it is opposed to Catholic Antiquity?
(d) Of a particular body: Forming part of, or in communion with, this church. (Cf. Anglo-Catholic.)
1833Cruse Eusebius vi. xliii. 265 One bishop in a catholic church. 1854Hook Ch. Dict. s.v. Lights, We of the Anglo-Catholic Church. Ibid. s.v. Catholic, A Catholic Church means a branch of this one great society, as the Church of England is said to be a Catholic Church: the Catholic Church includes all the Churches in the world under their legitimate Bishops.
7. As applied (since the Reformation) to the Church of Rome (Ecclesia apostolica catholica Romana) = Roman Catholic, q.v. (Opposed to Protestant, Reformed, Evangelical, Lutheran, Calvinistic, etc.)
Roman Catholic is the designation known to English law; but ‘Catholic’ is that in ordinary use on the continent of Europe, especially in the Latin countries; hence historians frequently contrast ‘Catholic’ and ‘Protestant’, especially in reference to the continent; and, in familiar non-controversial use, ‘Catholic’ is often said instead of Roman Catholic.
1554(March) Q. Mary's Injunct. in Wilkins Concilia (1737) IV. 90 To remove them, and place catholic men in their rooms. a1555J. Bradford in Foxe A. & M. (1583) 1647 This Latine seruice is a playne marke of anti⁓christs Catholike Synagoge. 1563Ibid. 1844 The Catholike prelates of the Popes band. 1588Allen Admon. in Lingard Hist. Eng. (1855) VI. 358 She [Q. Eliz.] hath abolished the Catholic religion. 1602Carew Cornwall 71 a, A matter practised..as well by the reformed as Catholike Switzers. 1620Fr. Hunt (title), Appeal to the King, proving that our Saviour was Author of the Catholic Roman Faith. 1622Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 287 His Majesties Roman Catholick-Subjects. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 215 If the Pope would be Head of the Catholique Church, the King would be Head of the Church of England. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 60 Whether..the catholick heir [gave way] when the protestant was preferred. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 513 What was begun by the evangelical governments, was carried on in an analogous manner by the catholic. 1845Bright Sp. Maynooth Grant 16 Apr., A Protestant soldiery, who, at the beck and command of a Protestant priest, have butchered and killed a Catholic peasant. 1872Freeman Gen. Sketch xiii. 252 That the government of each German state might set up which religion it pleased, Catholic or Protestant. 1873Morley Rousseau I. 229 A Catholic country like France.
†b. Catholic Seat: = apostolic See. Obs.
In ancient times the καθολικοὶ θρόνοι or catholic sees, were those of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
1563Foxe A. & M. (1583) 798 The proud, cruell, and bloudy rage of the Catholique Seat.
c. Catholic King, his Catholic Majesty: a title given to the kings of Spain.
(In much earlier times the title belonged to the kings of France, Pipin being so called a.d. 767.)
1555Eden Decades W. Ind. To Rdr. (Arb.) 50 By the moste catholyke & puissaunt kynge Ferdinando. Ibid. 288 Wheruppon I wente into Spayne to the Catholyke kynge. 1588Allen (title), Admonition to the Nobility and People of England..by the high and mightie kinge Catholike of Spaine. 1627Sanderson Serm. I. 281 He that..hath better title to the stile of most catholick king than any that ever yet bare it..I mean the devil, the prince of this world. 1636Massinger Bashf. Lover iv. i. 1704Lond. Gaz. No. 3987/3 To wait upon his Catholick Majesty. 1725De Foe Voy. round W. (1840) 280 Does not his Catholic majesty claim a title to the possession of it?
d. See also B.
8. Recognizing, or having sympathies with, all Christians; broadly charitable in religious matters. (Cf. 3 b. which differs only in not being restricted to things ecclesiastical or religious.)
1658Baxter in H. Rogers J. Howe iii. (1863) 59 The Lord Protector is noted as a man of a catholic spirit, desirous of the unity and peace of all the servants of Christ. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. vii. 158 If such a temper was universal, we might be all Catholic Christians, whatever church or particular profession we joined to, or joined in. 1734Watts Reliq. Juv. (1789) 155 To see all the disciples of Christ grown up into such a catholic spirit, as to be ready to worship God their common Father..in the same assembly. 1874Blackie Self-Cult. 80 A spirit of deep and catholic piety.
†9. transf. Orthodox (applied e.g. to orthodox Muslims). Obs.
1613Purchas Pilgr. vii. vii. 575 They are not all Catholike Mahumetans. 1625― Pilgrimes vi. i. §3 By some they are accounted Catholique or true Mahumetans, and by others they are holden for heretiks.
10. Catholic (and) Apostolic Church: the religious body otherwise called Irvingites. (See quots. 1861, 1867.)
[1837Testimony to Bps., etc. 32 That no section of the baptized bears the character of the one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church.] 1861Norton Restor. Apostles and Proph. in Cath. Apostolic Ch. 159 In assuming, as our only title and name, that of ‘the Catholic and Apostolic Church’—we arrogate to ourselves nothing, for we do not appropriate it in any exclusive sense. 1867Address in Miller Irvingism i. 5 Catholic and Apostolic Churches, a name which we have not assumed, and to which we have no exclusive right..But it is the only name by which we can, without protest, suffer ourselves to be called. 1888Whitaker's Almanac, Relig. Sects, Places..certified to the Registrar-General on behalf of persons described as..Catholic Apostolic Church.
11. Comb., as Catholic-minded adj.
1879Dublin Rev. Jan. 95 The learned, irresolute, yet pious and Catholic-minded men at the head of whom was Fisher's friend, Cuthbert Tunstal. 1964P. F. Anson Bishops at Large xi. 534 An alternative to Roman Catholicism to a catholic-minded people.
B. n.
1. A member of a church recognized or claiming to be ‘Catholic’ in sense A. 6; e.g. an orthodox member of the Church before the disruption of East and West, as opposed to an Arian or other ‘heretic’; of the Latin Church as opposed to the Greek or any separating sect or community (e.g. the Lollards); of a church or churches now taken to represent the primitive Church.
c1425Wyntoun Cron. ix. xxvi. 63 He was a constant Catholike All Lollard he hatyt and Heretike. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. §5 Let the Church of Rome be what it will,..hold them for Catholics, or hold them for Heretics, it is not a thing..in this present question greatly material. 1597J. Jones Preserv. Bodie & Soule Ded., It is..of the faithfull, Christian, and Catholike certainly beleeued. 1609Bible (Douay) Proemial Annot., Some of these bookes..were sometimes doubted of by some Catholiques, and called Apochryphal. 1702tr. Le Clerc's Prim. Fathers 241 An Edict bearing date the 27th of February (380)..That those who would profess it should be called Catholics, and the others Hereticks. 1854Hook Ch. Dict. s.v., Let the member of the Church of England assert his right to the name of Catholic, since he is the only person in England who has a right to that name. The English Romanist is a Roman Schismatic, and not a Catholic. 1860Froude Hist. Eng. VI. 39, I must again remind my readers of the distinction between Catholic and Papist. Three quarters of the English people were Catholics; that is, they were attached to the hereditary and traditionary doctrines of the Church. 1872Freeman Gen. Sketch v. 102 He [Chlodwig] became..not only a Christian but a Catholic..all the other Teutonic Kings were Arians.
2. a. spec. A member of the Roman Church. English Catholic = English Roman Catholic.
1570B. Googe Pop. Kingd. iv. (1880) 60 Accounting here for Catholickes, themselves & all their traine. 1581(title) A Checke or Reproofe of M. Howlet..with an answere to the Reasons why Catholikes (as they are called) refuse to goe to Church. 1584in Foley Rec. Eng. Prov. S.J. (1880) VI. 740 He said..that all English Catholics were bound to pray for the King of Spain. 1588Allen Admon. in Lingard Hist. Eng. (1855) VI. 358/1 Not tolerable to the masters of her [Q. Eliz.] own sect, and to all Catholics in the world most ridiculous. 1602Bp. J. Rider (title), A caveat to Irish Catholicks. 1602Warner Alb. Eng. ix. xlix. (1612) 226 Euen Catholiques (that erred name doth please the Papists). 1611Bible Pref. The Catholicks (meaning Popish Romanists). 1636Featly Clavis Myst. xxxiv. 483 Other of the Pope his stoutest champions..[say] we are sirnamed catholikes, therefore we are so. 1641J. Louth in A. H. Mathew Convers. Sir T. Matthew (1904) 176 The innocency and loyalty of English Catholics towards others. 1650Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (1886) I. 180 That which has been proposed concerninge the Catholics. 1715in Estcourt & Payne Eng. Cath. Nonjurors of 1715 (1885) 8, I, Henry Englefield, do declare that I am, by the grace of God, an English Catholic. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. vi. 155, I am a Catholic of the Roman Church. 1800C. Butler Life Alban Butler xvi, A person would deserve well of the English Catholics who should translate it into English. 1845Bright Sp. 16 Apr., The Irish Catholics would thank you infinitely more if you were to wipe out that foul blot. 1872Freeman Gen. Sketch xiii. 254 The religious wars between the Catholics and Protestants within the country [France]. 1876Green Short Hist. vii. §4 The last hopes of the English Catholics were dispelled by the Queen's refusal to take part in the Council of Trent. 1889J. O. Payne (title) Records of the English Catholics of 1715.
b. Old Catholic, a term introduced after the secession of John Henry Newman and others to distinguish members of Catholic families in England since the Reformation from Catholic immigrants and converts.
1846J. H. Newman Let. 14 July in Gasquet Ld. Acton (1906) p. xiii, It will be one of your collisions with old Catholics. 1909Dublin Rev. Jan. 56 The friction between converts and old Catholics..was inevitable. 1918L. Strachey Emin. Victorians i. v. 56 It seemed as if the harvest was to be gathered in by a crowd of converts, who were proclaiming on every side as something new and wonderful the truths which the Old Catholics..had not only known, but for which they had suffered, for generations. 1962V. A. McClelland Cardinal Manning i. 3 If one is to understand the opposition to Cardinal Manning and to the Oxford converts, one has to appreciate the feelings and position of the ‘Old Catholics’.
3. Defined or limited by a word prefixed, as † English Catholic, † Popish Catholic, Anglo-Catholic, Roman Catholic, q.v.
(See a different use of English Catholics, in sense 2 quot. 1876.)
1577Fulke (title), Two Treatises..Answere of the Christian Protestant to the proud challenge of a Popish Catholicke. 1585Sir W. Harbert (title), Letter to a Roman pretended Catholike. 1598Hakluyt Voy. I. 597 Many rebels against her maiestie and popish catholiques. 1837J. H. Newman Par. Serm. (1840) III. xiv, The Holy Church throughout all the world is broken into many fragments..we are the English Catholics, abroad are the Roman Catholics..elsewhere are the Greek Catholics, and so on. 1854Hook Ch. Dict. s.v. Protestant, We tell the Papist that with respect to him we are Protestant; we tell the Protestant Dissenter that in respect to him we are Catholics; and we may be called Protestant or Protesting Catholics, or as some of our writers describe us, Anglo-Catholics.
b. German Catholic, Old Catholic: names taken by religious parties who separated from the Roman Catholic communion in Germany, the former under Ronge in 1845 (reunited 1848), the latter after the Vatican Council in 1870–71. Old Catholic is also applied to members of other churches separated from Rome, and united by acceptance of the Declaration of Utrecht of 1889.
1871Sunday Mag. Nov. 84/1 The Old Catholics have great hopes of support from the High Church party in England. 1871Union Rev. 273 For German Catholics to succumb to the Vatican decrees, would be an act of moral suicide. 1931W. Temple Thoughts on Probl. of Day iv. 92 The Conference..was concerned with advances towards union in two directions—on the one hand towards union with the Orthodox and the Old Catholic Churches, and on the other hand with the non-episcopal Churches. 1948C. B. Moss Old Catholic Movement i. 1 The Old Catholic Churches are a group of self-governing national churches, united by their acceptance of the Declaration of Utrecht (1889) as their dogmatic basis. Ibid. xxviii. 348 Eight Dutch Old Catholic priests came to England to see the English Church for themselves. 1969D. W. D. Shaw tr. Heyer's Catholic Church vi. 149 Political factors had produced an initial wave of interest in the ‘German Catholic’ movement.
†4. = Catholicos. Obs.
1612Brerewood Lang. & Relig. xxiv. 213 The Catholick of Armenia. Ibid. 210 They acknowledge obedience..to two Patriarchs of their own: whom they term Catholicks. 1735Johnson tr. Lobo's Abyssinia 307 Catholick like Patriarch is no more than an empty Title without the Power.
C. attrib. Of, relating to, affecting, or on the side of (Roman) Catholics. In Catholic Emancipation, etc. [In construction not distinct from the adj.]
1791J. Milner (title), A short Pamphlet on the Catholic Question. 1795Duigenan (title), Speech on the Catholic Bill in the Irish House of Commons. 1805Ld. Hawkesbury (title), Speech in the House of Lords, 10th of May on the Catholic Petition. 1809Southey Ess. (1832) II. 301 For these people Catholic Emancipation can do nothing. 1878Spencer Walpole Hist. Eng. II. vii. 145 The anti-Catholic members of the Cabinet [in 1826] were as much opposed to their Catholic colleagues as to their regular opponents. Ibid. note, Persons in favour of emancipation were classed as Catholic statesmen. |