| 释义 |
▪ I. church, n.|tʃɜːtʃ|
Forms: α. 1 cirice, cyrice, 2–3 chiriche, -eche, chyreche, 3 churiche |y|, -eche, chereche. β. 1–2 circe, cyrce, 2 chyrce, (cirke), 2–6 chirche, 3–6 chyrche, cherche, (4–6 chirch, chyrch, cherch), 3–6 churche, 6 church. North. 3 Orm. kirrke, 4–5 kirke, kyrke, 4–6 kyrk, 4–5 kirc, 4– kirk: see kirk.
[Church, earlier churche, cherche, is a phonetically-spelt normal representative of ME. chirche (ur = er = ir, e.g. birch, bird, first, chirm, churl, churn, kernel), the regular repr. of OE. circe; the fuller OE. cīrice, cirice gave the early ME. variant chereche, chiriche. (The form cyrice, often erroneously assumed as the original, is only a later variant of cirice (with y from i before r, as in cyrs-, fyren, etc.); c before original OE. y (umlaut of u) could not give modern ch-, but only k-, as in cyrnel, cyrtel, cýre, kernel, kirtle, ME. kire.)
OE. cirice, circe, corresp. to WGer. kîrika, OS. kirika, kerika (MLG. and MDu. kerke, Du. kerk, LG. kerke, karke, kark, with ar:–er:–ir); OFris. szereke, szurke, tzierka, tziurk; OHG. chī̌rihha, also chiriihha, chiricha, khirihha, kirihha, kiricha, later chircha, in Notker chîlihha, chîlecha, chîlcha (MHG. and mod.G. kirche, in Upper Ger. dial. kilche, chilche); also ON. kirkia, kyrkja, Sw. kyrka, Da. kirke (thence Finn. kirkko, Esth. kirrik, kirk, kerk; also OPruss. kîrkis). Cf. also the Slavonic forms: OSlav. crĭky, 10th c., crŭky fem., later crŭkŭve, cīrkovĭ, Russ. cerkov', Bulg. čerkova, Serbian crkva, Slovenish cerkev, Chekh cirkev (obs.), Pol. cerkiew (but only for ‘Greek church’), Lusat. cyrkej.
The OE. oblique forms cirican, -cean, circan, -cean, present four types, *kirika, *kirikja, *kirka, *kirkja, but the two last may result from later contraction, and -can, -cean may mean the same thing, viz. palatal c. The continental German forms point to *kirika, *kîrika. The Alemannic forms with l, chîlihha, kilche are on phonetic and other grounds admitted to have arisen out of the r type. The ON. is generally held to be derived from OE. (in the circean form). Although the notion has been advanced that all the continental forms originated in the OE., in connexion with the early missionary labours of Englishmen in Germany, this is philologically untenable; and the word is held on good grounds to be common WGer., and to go back at least to the 4th or 5th c. (Long before they became Christians, the Germans were naturally acquainted with, and had names for, all the striking phenomena of Christianity, as seen in the Roman provinces, and the missions outside.) In Slavonic, the word is generally thought to have been taken from Teutonic.
The ulterior derivation has been keenly disputed. The L. circus, and a Gothic word kêlikn ‘tower, upper chamber’ (app. originally Gaulish) have both been proposed (the latter suggested by the Alemannic chîlihha), but are set aside as untenable; and there is now a general agreement among scholars in referring it to the Greek word κῡριακόν, properly adj. ‘of the Lord, dominicum, dominical’ (f. κῡ́ριος lord), which occurs, from the 3rd century at least, used substantively (sc. δῶµα, or the like) = ‘house of the Lord’, as a name of the Christian house of worship. Of this the earliest cited instances are in the Apostolical Constitutions (ii. 59), a 300, the edict of Maximinus (303–13), cited by Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. ix. 10) a 324, the Councils of Ancyra 314 (Canon 15), Neo-Cæsarea 314–23 (Can. 5), and Laodicea (Can. 28). Thenceforward it appears to have been in fairly common use in the East: e.g., Constantine named several churches built by him κυριακά (Eusebius De Laud. Const. xvii).
The chief objections to this derivation of the Teutonic (and Slavonic) name are the following. The ordinary name for ‘church’ in Gr. was ἐκκλησία, and this (or βασιλική, basilica) was the name which passed into Latin and all the Romanic langs.; also, into all the Celtic langs., OIr. eclais, Ir. and Gael. eglais, Manx agglish, OWelsh ecluis, W. eglwys, Cornish eglos, -es, -is, Breton iliz. Hence, an à priori unlikelihood that any other Greek name should have passed into the Teutonic languages. Moreover, ἐκκλησία was actually adopted in Gothic, where as aikklêsjô it occurs in the N.T. many times. But as the sense here is not that of the place of public worship, but of the Christian society or assembly, it forms no evidence against the coexistence of a Gothic repr. of κυριακόν, in the sense of the‘Lord's house’. Besides, Ulphilas, as a native of Cappadocia, born a.d. 318, belonged to the very region and time for which we have the most weighty evidence of the use of κυριακόν, as mentioned above. And as to the other Teutonic tribes, the fact is certain, in spite of its à priori unlikelihood, that ecclesia was not accepted by them. At their conversion, Latin Christianity would naturally have given to them, as to others, the name ecclesia (or basilica), if kirika had not already acquired too firm hold of the field.
There are points of difficulty in the form of kirika and its gender. Its identification with κυριακόν assumes the representation of Gr. υ by i in Teutonic. Ulphilas did not so represent υ; nor did he use u, but retained the Gothic letter corresponding in alphabetic place and form to Gr. υ, which he otherwise used for v or w. But, before the development of umlaut, and consequent evolution of y as a Teutonic sound, i was really the nearest Teutonic sound to υ, and in point of fact is its usual representative. The change of grammatical form and gender has been variously explained: as εὐαγγέλιον became in Gothic a weak fem. aiwaggêljô, -jôn; so κυριακόν, if adopted in Gothic, or in the corresponding stage of WGer., would in the same way become kυrjakô, -ôn, whence regularly WGer. -ka, OE. -ce; but there are other instances in OHG. of feminines from L. -um, Gr. -ον, as martira, organa, modGer. orgel; and the form adopted may actually have been the Gr. pl. κῡριακά. (The use of κυριακή in Gr. appears too late to affect the question.) For the rest, a word adopted in Germanic as *kīrjak- would phonetically become *kīrjik-, and this normally in WGer kīrik-. Possibly also *kīrjika might, by metathesis, give the *kīrikja app. required for OE. ciricean; but the OE. palatalization might simply be due to the prec. i as in ic, ME. ich, I pron.
The main objections are historical: we do not know the actual circumstances in which this less usual Gr. name became so well known to all the Germanic tribes as to become practically the native name, and like austrôn- easter, resist all the influence of Latin Christianity to supplant it; this too at so early a date as to be brought to Britain (with many words expressing the outward apparatus of Christianity) by the heathen Angles and Saxons. The question was discussed already in the 9th c. by Walafrid Strabo (ob. 849) in a noteworthy passage (De Rebus Eccl. vii), where, after giving the Greek derivation, he ascribes German knowledge and use of the word to the German mercenaries who engaged in military service under the Empire, and refers particularly to the Goths in the Greek provinces. Beside that of the Goths, two other possible channels are indicated by Hildebrand, one of which, connected with the early penetration of Christianity from the Rhone valley into the Upper Rhine, is important, as tallying with a statement of Irenæus, Bp. of Lyons in the 2nd c. (Adv. Hær. i. x. §2), and as explaining the proved existence of place-names like Kiricheim, Chiricunuillare, in Elsasz, etc. before the days of Boniface. But it is by no means necessary that there should have been a single kirika in Germany itself; from 313 onward, Christian churches with their sacred vessels and ornaments were well-known objects of pillage to the German invaders of the Empire: if the first with which these made acquaintance, wherever situated, were called κυριακά, it would be quite sufficient to account for their familiarity with the word. The Angles and Saxons had seen and sacked Roman and British churches in Gaul and Britain for centuries before they had them of their own, and, we have every reason to believe, had known and spoken of them as cirican during the whole of that period.
The Latin equivalent of κυριακόν, dominicum, was also in use at least from the time of Cyprian (c 200–258), in the sense of ‘the house of God’ aedes sacra Domino. To a certain extent it was adopted in Old Irish, where domnach (mod. domhnach) became a frequent name of churches. The parallelism of Gr. κυριακόν church, κυριακή Sunday (in 11th c. also ‘church’), L. dominicum church, dominica, dies dominicus Sunday, Irish domhnach ‘church’ and ‘Sunday’, is instructive.
The case for the derivation from κυριακόν gains largely by the fact that no other conjecture offered will bear scientific statement, much less examination. For example, the suggestion that cirice might arise out of L. crucea (which actually gave OE. crycc(e, now crutch), or some other derivative of L. crux, crucem cross, is at variance with the simple facts of phonetic history.]
A. Forms.
a. cirice, chiriche, chureche, etc.
c825Vesp. Psalter xxi. 23 [xxii. 22] In midle cirican ic herᵹo ðe. a850Lorica Prayer in O.E.T. 174 Fore alle godes cirican. 11..O.E. Chron. an. 874 On Sc̃a Marian ciricean [Laud MS. c 1122 cyrican]. 971Blickl. Hom. 197 Seo haliᵹe cirice Michaeles..on þære ciricean. a1000Edgar's Canons §26 in Thorpe Laws II. 250 (Bosw.) Ðæt preostas cirican healdan. 11..O.E. Chron. (MS. A⃩) an. 1031 In to Xp̃es Cyrican on Cantware byri. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 163 Of holie chireche. c1205Lay. 16270 Chiriches [c 1275 chirches] fur-barnde. Ibid. 22111 He rærde churechen [1275 cherches]. a1250Prov. ælfred 373 in O.E. Misc. 124 At chepynge and at chyreche. c1250Kentish Serm. ibid. 31 Fram holi chereche.
b. circe, chirche, churche, church, etc.
c870Codex Aureus Inscript. in O.E.T. 175 Inn to Cristes circan. c975Rushw. Gosp. Matt. xvi. 18 On þæm stane ic ᵹetimbre mine circae. c1000Ags. Gosp. ibid. (MS. A), Ofer þisne stan ic ᵹetimbriᵹe mine cyrcean. c1160Hatton Gosp. ibid., Ich ȝetymbrie mine chyrcan. a1132O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) 1127 Ofslaᵹen an ane circe. a1175An Bispel in Cott. Hom. 237 Þe hafedmen..in halie cyrce. c1175Lamb. Hom. 23 Þu gast to chirche. c1205Lay. 16280 Chirchen [c 1275 cherches] iche wulle arære. a1250Chart. Eadw. (a 1066) in Cod. Dipl. IV. 204 Mid cirke and mid milne. 1297R. Glouc. (1724) 41 Holi churche. c1340Cursor M. 17822 (Trin.) To her chirche þei gon hem lede. c1440Promp. Parv. 75 Chyrche. c1450Merlin xxv. 453 In to the chirche. Ibid. 467 At Cherche.
c. kirrke, kirke, kirk, etc.
960Bp. Theodred Will (Thorpe 513) Into Sancte Paules Kirke. 1050Ketel Will (Thorpe 581) Into þere Kyrke. c1200Ormin 3531 And tatt iss Cristess kirrke. a1300Cursor M. 8300 (Cott.) To wirke..to dright a crafti kyrke [Gött. and Fairf. kirke, Trin. chirche]. Ibid. 10248 (Cott.) I na kirck agh to cum in. c1325Metr. Hom. 5 Red in kirc on sundays. c1375Barbour Bruce iv. 12 Nothir off the kyrk, na seculer. c1400Apol. Loll. 57 Wan any auerous..is canonizid in þe kirk..þan may þe oþer chanouns of þe chirche sey, etc. 1442in E.E. Wills 131 That the kirkerevys of the parish chirch of Clerkenwell haue xiijs iiijd for to spend on the onourmentz of the same kirke. c1550Chaucer's Dreme 1296 That neither knew I kirke ne saint.
B. Signification.
While it results from what is stated above that kirika, cirice, was originally applied to the building, it is clear that with the conversion of the Teutonic nations, it was assumed as the naturalized equivalent of L. ecclēsia, and used for that word in all its senses. Naturally the first of these would be as the name of the then one great religious organization, the Catholic Church, and especially as represented by its ministers, the clergy or ecclesiastical order. The extension to other senses took place as these were practically recognized.
The history of the OE. cirice, or of the Teutonic kirika, is therefore not the history of the Church, or of its name in Christendom; this begins with the joint history of Gr. ἐκκλησία and its L. adoption ecclēsia; about which all that need be said here is that the Gr. word, meaning etymologically ‘the body of the ἔκκλητοι or select counsellors' was the name given by Solon to the public formal assembly of the Athenian people, and hence to the similar public assemblies of other free Greek cities. By the LXX. it was used to transl. the Heb. qāhāl the ‘congregation’ or assembly of Israel met before the Lord, or conceived in their relation to him. In the N.T. the word has a twofold sense: α. (after the LXX.) the whole congregation of the faithful, the Christian Society, conceived of as one organism, the body of Christ; β. (after classical Gr.), a particular local assembly of Christ's enfranchised met for solemn purposes: in this sense it has a plural. From these arose the later developments: the name of the assembly passed to that of the building set apart for it: the sense of ‘the congregation of the faithful’ sought visible embodiment in outward organization, which necessarily followed the lines of provincial, national, and linguistic distinctions. Thus arose the notion of provincial or national Churches, as parts or branches of the Church universal or Catholic; and, with widening differences, doctrinal or administrative, there came the revolt of some of these from the increasingly centralized organization of the Catholic Church, and the formation of rival churches, each claiming to be the church and rejecting the claim of the others. Thus arose the first great division of the Eastern and Western Church, the later separation of various national ‘reformed’ churches from the unreformed Western Church in the 16th c., the secession of various ‘free’ or ‘voluntary’ churches from the reformed national or ‘established’ churches in later times. Some of these voluntary bodies have refused the name of ‘church’ to any ‘denomination’ or organization of congregations, confining it to the two senses of the Church universal, and an individual local society. The name has even come to be used to denote types or tendencies of thought or expression, within the one communion, as in the modern High Church, Low Church, Broad Church.
I. The building, the Lord's house.
1. a. A building for public Christian worship. (Distinguished historically from a chapel or oratory, which is a building in some respect private, or not public in the widest sense.)
Ancient distinctions, retained more or less in the Churches of England and Scotland, are those of cathedral, collegiate, abbey, and parish or parochial, church. (See also metropolitan.) Any place of worship subordinate to the public church of the parish was formerly called chapel (q.v.); but parochial and district chapels are now usually called ‘Church’. In England the name has been only recently and partially extended to places of worship other than those of the national or ‘Established’ Church, as those of Roman Catholics (since c 1830–40) and some Nonconformist Protestants. At present, its application is partly a question of social or individual taste, or of ecclesiastical principle or theory, partly (in popular apprehension) of the size and architecture of the building. Thus, some would limit it to the historical place of worship of the parish, some extend it to all places of worship of that body which they recognize as ‘The Church’, and refuse it to all others; some would require the existence of certain features of ecclesiastical architecture. But, generally speaking, in England the question ‘Is this a church or a chapel?’ would at present be understood to mean ‘Does it belong to the Church of England or to some other religious denomination?’
In Scotland, church is applied to all Presbyterian places of worship, alike of the Established Church, and of the various voluntary bodies which have separated from it. Recently also extended to the chapels of Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Independents, and others generally.
In U.S. church is, in general use, applied to all places of worship. Episcopalians however sometimes claim it exclusively for their own; and other bodies in some cases use special names for their own buildings. In the British Commonwealth generally, the usage of England and Scotland is combined, with more or less extension as in the U.S.
696Laws of K. Wihtræd 2 Ciricean mundbyrd sie L. scill., swa cinges. c900Laws of ælfred 6 Næbbe þon ma dura þonne sio cirice. 1066O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.), Þæs dæges forbearn Cristes cyrce [Parker MS. cyrc] on Cant⁓wara byriᵹ. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 23 Ich leue þat chireche is holi godes hus on eorðe . and is cleped on boc kiriaca i.e. dominicalis, þat is on englis louerdlich hus. a1280Saints' Lives, St. Michael 75 (Horstm.) To halewi churchene newe. 1297R. Glouc. (1724) 381 Chyrchen he let rere al so. a1300Cursor M. 29296 (Cott.) Þe..man þat kirkes brinnes. 1473J. Warkworth Chron. 17 To be layede in the chyrche of Paulis. c1550Sir J. Cheke St. Matt. xviii. 17 Yis word church into y⊇ which we torn eccl[es]ia, is y⊇ hous wheer y⊇ outcalled do meet, and heer goddes word, and vse co[m]mun praier..it co[m]meth of y⊇ greek κυριακὸν, which word served in y⊇ p[ri]mitiv church for y⊇ co[m]mons house of praier and sacramentes, as appeareth in Eusebius, which y⊇ latins called dominicu[m]. 1563Homilies ii. Right Use Ch. God i. (1859) 154 The materiall Church..is a place appointed..for the people of God to resort together unto. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 14 If to doe were as easie as to know what were good to doe, Chappels had beene Churches, and poore mens cottages Princes Pallaces. 1633Herbert Temple, Church-porch lxviii, When once thy foot enters the Church, be bare. 1712Prideaux Direc. Ch.-Wardens (ed. 4) 81 The Nave or Body of the Church. 1770Goldsm. Des. Vill. 12 The decent church that topp'd the neighb'ring hill. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Self-Reliance Wks. (Bohn) I. 30, I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
b. parish church; mother church, the cathedral church of a diocese, the original or principal church of a parish; under church, district church, etc. (See further under these words.)
c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 121 To the paryssh chirche..This goode wyf went on an haliday. 1556Chron. Gr. Friars (1852) 80 The belles ryngynge in every parych cherch. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 1228/1 Things belonging vnto parishchurches or chappels. 1765–74Blackstone Comm. I. 112 If any..great lord, had a church within his own demesnes, distinct from the mother-church, in the nature of a private chapel. 1771in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 277 The several Assistant or Under Churches or Chapels of this town. 1842Burn Eccl. Law (ed. 9) I. §5. 301 At the first there were many signs of the dependence of chapels on the mother church. Ibid. §8. 306 f, Whether a church be a parish church or only a chapel of ease. 1844Lingard Anglo-Saxon Ch. (1858) I. iv. 147 The chief minster was the cathedral or mother-church.
c. in church, out of church, to church, from church (without the) were in early times used in this sense; but now only of the service in the building, or of the building with the service going on in it. See 10.
2. Applied to public places of worship of any religion: as
†a. (formerly) to heathen temples, Muslim mosques.
c893K. ælfred Oros. ii. ii. §1 Þuss ᵹebletsade Romulus..mid þara sweora blode þa ciricean. c1250Gen. & Ex. 3196 Quane he ȝeden egipte fro, It wurðe erðe-dine, and fellen ðo fele chirches and ideles mide. c1400Destr. Troy 11675 Kepers of the kirke [i.e. the Palladium]. 1526–34Tindale Acts xix. 37 Men whiche are nether robbers of churches, nor yet despisers of youre goddes. [1535 Coverd., churchrobbers. 1881R.V. robbers of temples.] a1547Earl of Surrey æneid ii. 516 Cassandra..From Pallas church was drawn. 1569T. Underdown tr. Ovid's Ibis v. 597 Lesimachus..one of the bedels of Diana's church. 1600Holland Livy ix. xii. 321 The Fregellones within fought for their Church and chimney [pro aris ac focis]. 1601― Pliny II. 545 This stately Church of Iuno Queen. 1632Lithgow Trav. 141 The Turkes haue no Bels in their Churches.
†b. also to the Jewish temple. Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 8849 Þis kirc [v.r. kirke, chirche] was wroght o marbel stan..was þis temple salamon. Ibid. 10952 Zakari..preyed in þe chirche al one.
c. In U.S., of late applied to places of meeting and religious exercise of various societies called ‘churches’.
3. As an element in place names, church, cirice, is known from an early date.
837Badanoth Will (Sweet, O.E.T. 449), To ðere stowe æt Cristes cirican [Christchurch]. 880–85K. ælfred Will (Thorpe 488) æt Hwitan cyrican [Whitchurch].
II. The (or a) Christian community, and its ecclesiastical organization.
4. a. The community or whole body of Christ's faithful people collectively; all who are spiritually united to Christ as ‘Head of the Church’. More fully described as the Church Universal or Church Catholic.
(Sometimes its external organization, sometimes its spiritual nature, is chiefly considered.)
c890K. ælfred Bæda i. viii. §1 Seo cirice on Breotone hwæt hwugu fæc sibbe hæfde. Ibid. i. xxvi, To ðære annesse ðære halgan Cristes cirican. a1000Ags. Homilies (Thorpe) II. 580 (Bosw.) Ealle Godes cyrcan sind ᵹetealde to anre cyrcan, and seo in ᵹehaten ᵹelaðung. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xvi. 18 Þu eart Petrus, and ofer þisne stan ic timbriᵹe mine cyricean. a1300Cursor M. 19498 Þat cristen kirc began to wast. 1382Wyclif Eph. v. 23 Crist is heed of the chirche. 1380― Sel. Wks. III. 116 Ffurst we schul trow þat þer ys general chirche of angelys and seyntys in hevyn, and of alle þat schull be savyd. 1529More Dial. Heresy ii. Wks. 185/1 The chyrch therefore must nedes bee the comen knowen multitude of christen men good and bad togither, while y⊇ church is here in erth. 1560Conf. Faith Scotl. xvi, That from the begynning thair hes bein, now is, and to the end of the world salbe a Churche; that is to say, a company and multitude of men chosin of God, who rychtlie worschip and embrace him, by trew fayth in Christ Jesus, who is the only Head of the same Kirk..which Kirk is Catholik, that is universall, because it conteanes the Elect of all aiges, all realmes, nationis, and tounges. 1563Homilies ii. Repair. Ch. (1859) 275 The Church, which is the company of Gods people. 1606R. Field Of the Church (1628) i. i, This glorious Society of men and angels whom the most high God made capable of felicity and blisse is rightly named the Church of the living God. 1724Watts Logic (1736) 93 When one Man by the Word Church, shall understand all that believe in Christ; and another by the Word Church means only the Church of Rome; they may both assent to this Proposition, There is no Salvation out of the Church. 1837Newman Par. Serm. III. xvi. 245 The One Church is the whole body gathered together from all ages. 1851Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. ii. (1863) I. 14 The Church..is that Body of men in whom the Spirit of God dwells as the Source of their excellence, and who exist on earth for the purpose of exhibiting the Divine Life and the hidden order of Humanity. 1875Jowett Plato III. 186 The Christian Church is even more an ideal than the Republic of Plato, and farther removed from any existing institution. 1876E. Mellor Priesth. vi. 299 The Lord's Supper is an ordinance designed for the Church, that is, for those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and who have consecrated themselves to Him.
b. Church militant: the Church on earth considered as warring against the powers of evil. (Sometimes used jocularly in reference to actual warfare or polemics.) Church triumphant: the portion of the church which has overcome the world, and entered into glory.
1538Bale Thre Lawes 1395 Thys congregacion is the true Church mylytaunt. 1552Lyndesay Monarche 4972 Now lauboryng in to thy Kirk Militant, That we may, all, cum to thy kirk Tryumphant. 1552Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here in earth. 1633Herbert Temple (title), The Church Militant. 1817Scott Ivanhoe xx, A monk of the church militant [alluding to a knight]. 1878Black's Guide Hampsh. (ed. 7) 135 Hugh Peters..on this as on other occasions, proved his devotion to the church militant.
c. Visible Church: the church as visibly consisting of its professed members upon earth; contrasted with the Church Invisible, or Church Mystical: see quots.
1561Conf. Faith Scotl. xvi, This [the Catholik] Kirk is invisible, knowin onlie to God, who allone knoweth whome he hes chosin, and comprehendis alsweall the Elect that be departed, (commounlie called the Kirk Triumphant), as those that yit leve and feght against syne and Sathan. 1562Articles of Relig. xix, The Visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iii. i. §9 Observing the difference first between the Church of God Mystical and Visible, then between the Visible sound and corrupted, sometimes more, sometimes less. 1638Chillingworth Relig. Prot. Ans. iv. §53 The doctrine of Christ, the profession whereof constitutes the visible church, the belief and obedience the invisible. Ibid. Answ. v. §26 The visible church..a visible church..are very different things: the former signifying the church catholic or the whole church; the latter, a particular church or a part of the catholic. 1848Wardlaw Congreg. Independency 48 There is no such thing, in any strict propriety, as an invisible church. 1851Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. ii. (1863) I. 14 There is..a Church visible and a Church invisible; the latter consists of those spiritual persons who fulfil the notion of the Ideal Church—the former is the Church as it exists in any particular age, embracing within it all who profess Christianity. 1885Ch. Quart. Rev. Jan. 271 That wholly unscriptural figment, the Invisible Church..The only Invisible Church known to Christian theology consists of the angels and the faithful departed.
d. The church as a spiritual society ‘separated from the world’ is often opposed to the world.
1610Jn. Robinson Wks. (1851) II. 132 A company consisting though but of two or three, separated from the world, whether unchristian or antichristian, and gathered into the name of Christ..is a Church. 1651Baxter Inf. Bapt. 82 All Divines in their definition of Church are agreed; that it is a Society of persons separated from the World, to God, or called out of the World. 1845Pattison Greg. of Tours, Ess. (1889) 1. 4 Into the dust and heat of the Church's war with the world. 1882Med. Temp. Jrnl. I. 135 The Church and the world are now only just waking up to a just sense of responsibility. 1888Farrar Everyday Chr. Life viii, We look round us on the so-called religious and the so-called irreligious world, on what calls itself the Church and on what is called the World.
5. a. A particular organized Christian society, considered either as the only true representative, or as a distinct branch, of the Church universal, separated by peculiarities of doctrine, worship, or organization, or confined to limits territorial or historical: e.g. the primitive church, the Latin Ch., Greek Ch., Orthodox Ch., Gallican Ch., Nestorian Ch., Ancient British Ch., Anglo-Saxon Ch., Lutheran Ch., Reformed Ch., Waldensian Ch., Ch. of England (see b.), of Scotland, Free Ch. of Scotland, United Presbyterian Ch., American Episcopal Ch., Methodist Episcopal Ch., etc.
c890K. ælfred Bæda i. xiii, Fram ðam biscope ðære Romaniscan cirician. Ibid. ii. xx, On Norþanhymbra þeode and cirican. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 138 And þe Kirke of Scotland to Canterbirie ore se Obliged þam and band, as to þer primalte. c15111st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 30/1 Ye moost deyle is ketters and kyt of, of the holy Romes chyrche. 1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 8 Legatnait and primat of the kirk of Scotland. 1580General Conf. Faith (Dunlop) II. 104 The trew christian faith..received believed and defendit by monie and sundrie notabil kirkis and realmes, but chiefly be the Kirke of Scotland. 1611Bible Pref. 1 b, The Church of Rome—then a true Church. 1641R. Brooke Eng. Episc. 62 That Antichristian Mock-Church. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. i. vi. §13 A Nationall Church being a large Room, it is hard to count all the Candles God lighted therein. 1819W. J. Fox Lect. ii. Wks. 1865 I. 169 The charge of persecution was applied alike to Catholic and Nonconformist Churches. 1844Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. App. 339 The British church formed an integral part of the universal church, agreeing in doctrine and discipline with the other Christian churches. 1887Hutton in Contemp. Rev. Apr. 485 In the hands of all the great missionary churches, Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Quaker, Wesleyan, and Unitarian. 1889New Ch. Mag. May 233 A list of the Ministers of the New Church [Swedenborgian].
b. Church of England, English or Anglican Ch. (ecclesia Anglicana): the English branch of the Western Church, which at the Reformation repudiated the supremacy of the Pope, and asserted that of the Sovereign over all persons and in all causes, ecclesiastical as well as temporal, in his dominions.
[1169Becket in Mat. Hist. T. Becket (1885) VII. 33 Audivit ecclesia Gallicana vos in causa ecclesiæ Anglorum mutasse sententiam. 1213Promissio Comitum et Bar., etc., Lit. Cantuar. No. 27 (Rolls) I. 21 Negocium quod inter Ecclesiam Anglicanam et ipsum Regem versatum est. 1390in J. Malverne Contn. Higden (Rolls) IX. 225 Touchant lestate de seint esglise d'Engleterre.] 1532–3Act Restraint Appeals, 24 Hen. VIII, c. 12 That Part of the said Body politick, called the Spirituality, now being usually called the English Church. 1534Act of Supremacy, 26 Hen. VIII, c. 1 That the King our Sovereign Lord..shall be taken, accepted and reputed the only supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia. 1548Act Uniformity, 2 & 3 Edw. VI, c. 1 The Book of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the Use of the Church of England. a1600Hooker Eccl. Pol. viii. i. 2 We hold that there is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is also a member of the Commonwealth; nor any man a member of the Commonwealth, which is not also of the Church of England. 1661Corporation Act, 13 Chas. II, st. 2, c. 1 §12 The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the Rites of the Church of England. 1687Jas. II in Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) 91 Those who call themselves Church-of-England men. 1688T. Tramallier ibid. 256 That illegal anti-Church-of-England Court. 1688–9Toleration Act, 1 Will. & Mary c. 18 §5 Any Assembly of Persons dissenting from the Church of England. 1844Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xviii. (1862) 296 The Church of England consists, strictly speaking, of the lay as well as the clerical members of that communion. 1886Ld. Selborne (title), Defence of the Church of England.
c. Established Church: the Church as by law established in any country, as the public or state-recognized form of religion. Chiefly used of the Churches of England and Scotland respectively. So State Church.
1660Chas. II Decl. Eccles. Affairs 25 Oct. in Cobbett Parl. Hist. (1808) IV. 135 We need not profess the high affection and esteem we have for the Church of England, as it is established by law. 1700–1Act Settlement, 12 & 13 Will. III, c. 2. s. 3 Shall join in Communion with the Church of England, as by Law established. 1731E. Calamy Life (1830) I. i. 72 It cannot be said of me..that I left the Established Church, because I was never joined to it. 1840Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 69 The oppressive sect which calls itself the established church. 1843Candlish in Life xi. (1880) 303 A document which makes us..no longer ministers of the Established Church of Scotland. 1886Ld. Selborne Def. Ch. Eng. iii. xvii. 295, I should say, that Established Churches are now in much more danger of being persecuted, than of persecuting.
d. Used as adj., = of the Church of England (opp. chapel a.). Cf. church people.
1853Mrs. Gaskell Ruth II. iii. 43, I never think on them as Church or Dissenters, but just as Christians. 1861― Let. 16 Apr. (1966) 648 He speaks a great deal about religion always on the supposition we are Church, & I feel shy of telling him we are not.
6. a. The ecclesiastical and clerical organization of Christianity, or of a great Christian society, international, national, or other; esp. The clergy and officers of this society collectively or as a corporation having a continuous existence, and (in former times especially) as an estate of the realm. (In this sense ‘Church’ is often opposed to ‘State’ or the political organization, the civil government.)
(In early times holy church was the common phrase in this sense: see 7.)
c696Laws of K. Wihtrœd Preamb. ælc had ciricean. 805–831Charter of Oswulf (O.E.T. 443), Þe hiora lond to þære cirican saldon. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 84 Þe Chirche [B. þe kirke] schal haue my Careyne And kepe mi Bones. c1440Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. xi. (1885) 135 Þe possescions off þe chirche. c1450Merlin 95 Assembled the barons and the prelates of the cherche, and toke counseile. 1621Bk. Discipl. Ch. Scot. i, The Kirk of God..is takin sumtymes for them that exercise spiritual function amongis the congregation..The Kirke in this last sense hes a certaine power grantit be God. 1724Watts Logic i. iv. §6 A church..sometimes..means a synod of bishops or of presbyters; and in some places it is the pope and a general council. 1726Ayliffe Parerg. 167 The word Church..in these latter Days..is put for the Persons that are ordain'd for the Ministry of the Gospel, that is to say, the Clergy. Ibid. 169 Sometimes 'tis taken for the Prelacy thereof. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 94 Lands belonging to the church. 1837Newman Par. Serm. III. xvi. 246 Speaking politically, we talk of the Clergy as the Church. 1851Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. App. 355 What we ridiculously call a separation of ‘Church and State’ (as if the State were not, in all Christendom, necessarily also the Church), but ought to call a separation of lay and clerical officers.
b. The clerical order or profession. Hence to go into the Church, to take holy orders, become a clergyman; so to be in the Church, to leave the bar for the Church.
1590H. Swinburne Treat. Test. 148 If his sonne shall goe to the Church. 1591F. Sparry tr. Cattan's Geomancie 179 The person..was a man of the Church. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. xxi. 249 The Church feeds most on Fish, but not miraculously, for the poor Fishers dare sell none till the Priesthood is first served. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Prudence Wks. (Bohn) I. 93 The merchant breeds his son for the church or the bar. 1865Mrs. J. H. Riddell World in Ch. iv. 59 You have really entered the church: I mean, done duty, preached, and so forth?
7. holy church: a title commonly given to the Church Catholic, regarded as a divinely instituted and guided institution, speaking with authority, through its accredited organs. In early times often = the clergy or ecclesiastical authority, as in 6.
c897K. ælfred Cura Past. 115 He onfeng ðone ealdordom ðære halᵹan ciericean [v.r. ciricean]. c1175Lamb. Hom. 17 Gif he him nule rihtlechen for preoste na for halie chirche? c1225Creed in Rel. Antiq. I. 234, I leve on ðe hali gast, Al holi chirche stedefast. c1230Hali Meid. 21 For þi was wedlac ilahet in hali chirche. 1297R. Glouc. (1724) 471 That holi churche he ssolde nouȝt the Chateus there lette. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 2139 In stedfast trouthe of haly kyrk. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 73 Holi churche Icham..þou ouhtest me to knowe. c1450Merlin xxv. 466 Acursed be the centense of holy cherche. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. vi. 37 Till holy Church incorporate two in one. 1642Perkins Prof. Bk. v. §354 Reconciled againe unto him..without the constraint of holy Church.
8. Mother Church: a favourite appellation of the Catholic church and its recognized branches. In allusion to this, to Song of Solomon, to Rev. xxi. 2, etc., the Church as an institution or corporation is often personified, and spoken of poetically and rhetorically as she.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. I. 32 Alle men þat God ordeyneþ to blis ben ful breþeren..siþ God is þer fadir, and his Chirche is þer moder. 1382― Song. Sol. i. 4 marg. The Chirche, of hir tribulaciouns. 1595Shakes. John iii. i. 255 Or let the Church our mother breathe her curse, A mothers curse, on her reuolting sonne. 1611Bible Song Sol. vi. (heading), 1 The Church professeth her faith in Christ. 4 Christ sheweth..his loue toward her. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. iii. 117. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Lent i, The Scriptures bid us fast; the Church sayes, now: Give to thy Mother, what thou wouldst allow To ev'ry Corporation. 1656Evelyn Diary 29 May, The poor Church of England breathing as it were her last. 1827Keble Chr. Y., SS. Simon & Jude i, The widowed Church is fain to rove..Make haste and take her home. ― Holy Comm. vi, To feel thy kind upholding arm, My mother Church. c1833J. H. Newman, I felt affection for my Church, but not tenderness. I felt dismay at her prospects, anger and scorn at her do-nothing perplexity. 1836Gen. P. Thompson Lett. Representative 94 If the Scottish Kirk won't behave herself with moderation..we won't look after her wants the next time she comes for a grant. 1838J. G. Dowling Eccl. Hist. iv. §6. 233 The church has expressed her sense of their errors.
9. High Church, Low Church, Broad Church: see these words.
Although church is here practically equivalent to ‘church party’, ‘section of the church’, it has acquired this force only contextually or by unthinking analysis of phrases in which high church-, low church- were used attributively, as in high church-man and the like. Broad church is a modern formation on the model of the other two, starting not from their starting-point, but from their current use.
III. 10. A congregation of Christians locally organized into a society for religious worship and spiritual purposes, under the direction of one set of spiritual office-bearers.
(The early examples of this, before 16th c., are perhaps all in translations of the N.T. or references thereto.)
1382Wyclif 1 Cor. iv. 17 As I teche euerywhere in ech chirche [so Geneva 1560, Rheims 1582, 1611, 1871; Tindale, Coverd., Cranmer 1539, Geneva 1557 congregations]. ― Philemon 2 And to the chirch that is in thin hous [so Geneva 1557, Rheims 1582, 1611, and 1871; Tindale, Coverd., and Cranmer congregacyon]. a1564Becon New Catech. (1844) 41 Father. What meanest thou by this word ‘church’? Son. Nothing else than a company of people gathered together, or a congregation. 1625Jn. Robinson Wks. 1851 III. 16 A particular Congregation rightly instituted and ordered [is] a whole, entire and perfect Church immediately and independently, in respect of other Churches, under Christ. 1692Locke Toleration Wks. 1727 II. i. 235 A Church then, I take to be a voluntary Society of men, joining themselves together of their own accord, in order to the publick worshipping of God, in such manner as they judge acceptable to him. 16..in Coke & Moore Wesley i. i. (1792) 9 Bp. By whom were you sent? W. By a Church of Jesus Christ. Bp. What Church is that? W. The Church of Christ at Melcomb. 1726Ayliffe Parerg. 167 The word Church is also taken for any particular Congregation or Assembly of Men, as the Church which was at Corinth. 1888Times 2 Oct. 7/2 The Yorkshire Association of Baptist Churches. Ibid. 12 Oct. 4/5 They [Congregationalists] should, he suggested, group together some of their small churches under one pastor, with lay helpers.
IV. Elliptically and in phrases.
11. Used contextually (and sometimes otherwise) for the public worship of God (in a church); divine service in a religious building. So to attend church, go to church, be at church, in church, out of church, after church, between churches, early church, church-time, etc.
a1175Lamb. Hom. 23 Þu gast to chirche. a1300Cursor M. 28246. a 1375 in Lay Folks Mass Bk. 136, I rede we go to chirche. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. xii. (1495) 196 Thappostle sayth I suffre not a woman to teche in chyrche. c1450Merlin iii. 45 The Kynge come fro chirche on a day. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 128 We will perswade him To put on better ere he goe to Church. 1642Rogers Naaman 206 It is tedious to our old age to keepe our Church. 1712Steele Spect. No. 503 ⁋2 As soon as church was done, she immediately stepp'd out. 1722De Foe Rel. Courtsh. App. (1840) 285 Whether I went to the church, the meeting-house, to the quaker's meeting, or to the mass-house. 1732Law Serious C. ii. (ed. 2) 26 When he should be at Church. 1870G. W. Dasent Annals Eventful Life (ed. 4) II. 287 Between the churches..Auntie used to go down to the school and see the children. 1883Lloyd Ebb & Flow I. 3 Went to church on Sundays.
12. Phrases and Proverbs. to go to church: see 11; famil. = to get married. to talk church (colloq.): cf. to talk shop.
a1450MS. Douce 52. 15 (N.) The nerer the chyrche the fer fro Crist. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 17 The nere to the churche, the ferther from God. 1599Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 371 Counte Claudio, when meane you to goe to Church? 1644Jessop Angel of Eph. 31 Hath verified the Proverbe, The neerer the Church the further from God. 1851Newland Erne 217 Looking at those wretched people and talking Church.
V. In senses not distinctively Christian.
13. The congregation or company of God's people in pre-Christian times.
a. orig. merely a translation of L. ecclēsia, Gr. ἐκκλησία, of the Vulgate and LXX., applied in its pre-Christian sense to the ‘congregation’ of Israel: see above.
b. In later times, a retrospective use of the Christian sense, applied to the Israelites as God's chosen people, or to the faithful among them, and the worshippers of the true God or ‘Old Testament saints’ generally, as the analogue of the church under the Christian dispensation.
a.c825Vesp. Psalter xxi[i]. 26 (25) Mid ðe lof me in cirican micelre. c1000Ags. Ps. ibid., Beforan þe byð min lof on þære myclan cyrcan. c1382Wyclif ibid., Anent thee my preising in the grete chirche [Coverd. in the great congregacion]. ― Numb. xx. 4 Whi han ȝe ladde out the chirche of the Lord into wilderenes. 1609Bible (Douay) ibid. Why have you brought forth the Church of our Lord into the wildernesse? 1611Bible Acts vii. 38 This is he that was in y⊇ Church in the wildernesse with the Angel.
b.1388[See Wyclif, Song. Sol. i, (margin.)]
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iii. i. §8 Not only amongst them [Israel] God always had His Church because He had thousands which never bowed their knees unto Baal; but whose knees were bowed unto Baal, even they were also of the Visible Church of God. 1610R. Field Of the Church (1628) v. i, The primitive and first Church of God in the house of Adam. Ibid. v. ii, Sem governed the Church in his time. 1611Bp. Hall Serm. v. 52 The Church was an embryo, till Abraham's time: in swathing-bands, till Moses; in childhood, till Christ; a man, in Christ; a man full-grown, in glory. 1672Gale (title), The Court of the Gentiles: or a Discourse touching the Original of Human Literature..from the Scriptures and Jewish Church. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil i. xi. (1840) 169 The Church of God was now reduced to two tribes. 1862Stanley (title), History of the Jewish Church.
14. Applied to other (chiefly modern) religious societies and organizations (e.g. the Church of Humanity, the Positivists or Comtists; the Church of the Latter-day Saints or Mormons, etc.); and sometimes, more vaguely, to any ‘school’ or party having the bond of a common ‘creed’, social, æsthetical, or other, or who are combined in any movement which furnishes them with principles of life or duty.
[1382Wyclif Eccl. iii. 1 The sonus of wisdam, the chirche of riȝtwis men.] 1528More Heresyes ii. Wks. 178/2 Ye doo persecute them as the churche of the Paynims did. 1726W. Penn Maxims in Wks. I. 842 As good, so ill men are all of a Church. 1859Sat. Rev. VII. 304/2 In all that makes religion objective, as he would say, the Church of Humanity is more churchish than the Church. 1867Hepworth Dixon New America I. xxv. (ed. 6) 270 The new church established in Utah, though it is called the Church of America, is free and open to all the world. Ibid. II. xix. (The Revolt of Woman), One school of writers, a school which is already a church..soars into what is said to be a region of yet nobler truths. 1875Jowett Plato III. 186 Plato's Republic has been said to be a church and not a state; and such an ideal of a city in the heavens has always hovered over the Christian world. 1877Johnson Cyclopædia s.v. Mormon III. 622 The supreme power [among the Mormons]..rests with the first presidency, elected by the whole body of the Church.
VI. attrib. and in Comb.
15. attrib. There being no adjective from church in general use, and the genitive church's being restricted to the notion of possession (usually with more or less personification), as in ‘the church's claims, revenues, ministrations’, the place of both is supplied by using church attributively or with the function of an adjective, signifying ‘of the church, of a church, of churches, ecclesiastical’. In such a use, the word is often hyphened, though the value of the hyphen is merely grammatical, in no way affecting the signification, and it may usually be omitted.
Church may be thus used in most of the senses above explained: in England it has specifically the sense ‘of the Church of England’.
1579Fenton Guicciard. xii. (1599) 590 Censures and Church⁓paines. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxix. §16 Whereas the usual saw of old was ‘Glaucus his change’, the proverb is now ‘A Church bargain’. 1600Holland Livy ii. ii. 44 They [first Consuls] went in hand with religion and church matters. 1622T. Scott Belg. Pismire 58 The Pope..hath gotten Church-Courtiers to uphold his Regalitie. 1622Donne Serm. V. 88 To see who comes and to hear a Church-comedy. a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Jas. IV, Wks. (1711) 71 A stout defender of the church-patrimony. ― Consid. to Parl. ibid. 187 That the church-race marry only among themselves, ministers sons upon ministers daughters. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vi. §69 Conformity in the Church-behaviour of men. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 159 Let the Church-tribute of every Church be paid out of the lands of all Freemen. 1663Butler Hud. i. iii. (1694) 190 The beastly rage of Church-rule. 1670Baxter Cure Ch. Div. 112 Profession of Christianity is every man's Church-title. 1670Walton Life Hooker 39 The regulation of church-affairs. 1692Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 354, 2 church conventicles were discovered in London where the non-juring parsons preached to their Jacobite auditory. 1701Ibid. (1857) V. 111 The church party have agreed to putt up Sir William Gore. 1710Palmer Proverbs 141 This is both a court and a church-game. 1719Swift To Yng. Clergym. Wks. 1755 II. ii. 7 In esteem..among some church-divines. 1784Cowper Tiroc. 381 Church-ladders are not always mounted best By learned Clerks and Latinists profess'd. 1853Rock Ch. Fathers III. ii. 96 For church-use at least. 1886Circular Comm. Church House, Both clergy and laity often need information concerning Church societies, Church charities, Church action generally.
16. The following have somewhat more of the character of permanent combinations:
a. with sense ‘of the church as an institution, ecclesiastical’: church-acts, church-assembly, church-association, church-benefice, church-betrustment (= -trust), church-catechism, church-censure, church-censurer, church-coffer, church-consistory, church-dignitary, church-dignity, church-discipline, church-doctrine, church-due, church-expenses, church-festival, church-formula, church-holiday, church-hymn, church-law, church-music, church-musician, church-order, church-preferment, church-polity, church-procession, church-property, church-rent, church-revenue, church-society, church-song, church-steward, church-tippet, church-vestments, etc.
b. ‘Of divine service in the church, of public worship’: church-day, church-hours, church-time.
c. ‘Of the material building and its precincts’: church-bench, church-chime, church-clock, church-floor, church-furniture, church-gate, church-glass, church-hatch, church-organ, church-organist, church-pale, church-pillow, church-porch, church-spire, church-steeple, church-stile, church-stool, church-tower, church-walk, church-wall, church-window, etc.
d. To these may be added those in which the meaning is that of some actor or action in connexion with, or in reference to, the church; such as church-chatterer, church-covenanting, church-gesticulation, church-juggler, church-masker, church-pluralist, church-sleep, church-sleeper (cf. Ger. kirchenschlaf, -schläfer), church-sleeping, etc.
1680Allen Peace & Unity 87 To assemble together for publick Worship: which are the ends of particular *Church-association.
1599Shakes. Much Ado iii. iii. 95 Let vs go sit here vpon the *Church bench till two.
a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Jas. III, Wks. (1711) 47 Promoted to some *church-benefice.
1702C. Mather Magn. Chr. v. ii. (1852) 255 To make over *church-betrustments ‘unto faithful men’.
c1460Towneley Myst. 313 Yit of thise *kyrkchaterars here ar a menee.
1653Baxter Chr. Concord 14 Those that are most against *Church-Covenantings.
1805–6Coleridge Three Graves iii. xix, Ellen..kept her church All *church-days during Lent. a1600Hooker Eccl. Pol. viii. vii. §7 They hold that no *church-dignity should be granted without consent of the common people.
1574Whitgift Def. Aunsw. ii. Wks. 1851 I. 201 What *church-discipline would you have? 1872Morley Voltaire (1886) 175 Consequences, entirely apart from theology and church discipline.
c1200Ormin 9015 Ȝuw birrþ uppo *kirrkeflor Beon fundenn offte.
1784Cowper Tiroc. 425 A piece of mere *church-furniture at best.
1513in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's (1882) 33 The stondyngs at the *cherche gate letyn.
1642Howell For. Trav. (Arb.) 85 In these kinds of *Church-gesticulations, they differ from all other people.
1633Herbert Temple, Church-porch xxxiii, A herauld..Findes his crackt name..in the *church-glasse.
1530Palsgr. 484/1 It is *churche holyday to morowe.
1787Wesley Wks. (1872) IV. 357 You may have your service in *church-hours.
1780Cowper Progr. Err. 109 A mere *church-juggler, hypocrite, and slave.
a1600Hooker Eccl. Pol. viii. vi. §1 Power also to make *church-laws.
1640–4Thomas in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 285 *Church-Musick, it shall have here the first place.
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. (1617) 146 In defence of our *Church-orders, to bee as good as theirs.
1706Lond. Gaz. No. 425/5 A *Church-Organ, containing 10 Stops in the great Organ.
1878Newcomb Pop. Astron. ii. i. 126 A *church-organist and teacher of music.
1659Milton Civ. Power Wks. (1851) 314 Worse then any lord prelat or *church-pluralist.
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iii. i. §14 *Church Polity..is a form of ordering the public spiritual affairs of the Church of God.
c1440Gesta Rom. xlvii. 200 Only the kniȝte in the *chirche-porche. 1526Tindale Acts xiv. 13 Brought oxen and garlondes unto the Churche porche. 1633G. Herbert Temple, (title) The Church-porch.
1632B. Jonson Magn. Lady ii. i, For any *church-preferment thou hast a mind to.
1693W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 335 To go on perambulation on *Church procession.
1506in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's Bp. Stortford (1882) 30 Resceyved..for the seid *chirch Rente iiijd. 15782nd Bk. Discipl. (1621) xii. §12 As for the kirk rents in generall.
1676Marvell Mr. Smirke Wks. 1875 IV. 60 These are the great Animadverters of the times, the *church-respondents in the pew.
a1600Hooker Eccl. Pol. vii. xxiii. §9 Making partition of *church-revenues.
1672Cave Prim. Chr. iii. v. (1673) 360 Re-admitted into *Church-society.
a1250Owl & Night. 984 Singe..At rihte time *chirchesong.
1548–9Bk. Com. Prayer, Offices 24 The priest metyng the Corps at the *Churche style.
1633G. Herbert Temple, Church-porch lxx, Who marks in *church-time others symmetrie. a1716Bp. O. Blackall Wks. (1723) I. 159 Those that..spend the Church-time at Home. 1843Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxvi, On Sunday morning, before church-time.
1813Scott Rokeby i. xii, Some for *church-tippet, gown and hood, Draining their veins.
a1225Ancr. R. 418 Ne underuo ȝe þe *chirche uestimenz.
1628Earle Microcosm., Formall Man (Arb.) 31 Like one that runnes to the Minster walke [ed. 1629 *Church-walk], to take a turne, or two.
1509in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's Bp. Stortford (1882) 31 A stondyng undernethe the *Chirche wall.
1599Shakes. Much Ado iii. iii. 144 Like god Bels priests in the old *Church window.
17. Comb.
a. objective (and obj. genitive), as church-breaker, church-destroyer, church-deviser, church-divider, church-forsaker, church-founder, church-reformer, church-revolutionist, church-tearer, etc.; also church-believing, church-building, church-looking (= churchlike), church-razing, church-ruinating, church-spoiling, etc., adjs.; church chaffering, church-spoiling, etc., ns.
1708Motteux Rabelais iv. xlviii. (1737) 192 Some Robber..or *Church-breaker.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. (1641) 101/1 False-contracting, *Church-chaffering, Cheating, Bribing and Exacting.
1842Cambr. Camden Soc., Few Words to Churchw. i. 12 The *church-destroyers of other days.
1680Allen Peace & Unity 49 The Weapons in which *Church-Dividers do usually put their trust.
1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. (1617) 203 Whether Emperours or Bishops..were *Church-founders.
1822in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) I. 93 Some *church-looking windows.
1599Sandys Europæ Spec. 97 *Church-robbing Politicians and *Church-razing Souldiers.
1826E. Irving Babylon II. 391 *Church-reforming statesmen.
1824Southey Bk. Ch. (1841) 414 The principles of these *church-revolutionists were hostile to monarchy.
1645Liberty of Consc. Pref. A iij, Their pernicious, God-provoking, Truth-defacing, *Church-ruinating, and State-shaking toleration.
1604Hieron Wks. I. 575 Men, that do *church-spoyling loue.
1685Baxter Paraphr. N.T. 1 Peter iv. 8 The Papal *Church-tearers, that persecute all that consent not to their Canons.
b. instrumental and advb., as church-begotten, church-bidden, church-commissioned, etc.
1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 462 The Martyn..A *church-begot, and church-believing bird.
1811W. Spencer Poems 136 The *church-bidden bride.
1851Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi W. ii. 513 Lost breath and heart in these *church-stifled places.
18. Special combs.: † church-acre, a churchyard; Church and King, the motto of the adherents of the Stuarts in the 17th and 18th c., hence a phrase for high ecclesiastical and monarchical sympathies combined; thence Church and Kingism, Church and King man; Church and State, the ecclesiastical and political organizations, especially as united; hence Church and Stateism; Church Army, an imitation, in connexion with the Church of England, of the Salvation Army; Church Assembly, short title of the National Assembly of the Church of England, a body established by statute in 1919 (the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act); church-bug, a species of wood-louse, said to be found often in churches; † church-catholic, in 17th c. = church-papist; † church-clerk, a parish clerk; Church Commissioner, a member of one of the boards or commissions created to manage church matters; Church Congress (see congress n. 6); † church-earth, a churchyard; † church-errant, a humorous formation after knight-errant; hence † church-errantry; Church Estates Commission, Commissioners, a board appointed to control the management of the property of the Church of England; church-fair U.S., a bazaar held in connection with a church; church-father, a Father of the Church; church-festival, a feast-day of the church, a holy-day; † church-feuar Sc., a leasehold tenant of the church; church-flag, a flag hoisted on board a ship during divine service; church-folk, people at church, church-goers; adherents of the established church, as distinguished from ‘chapel-folk’; church-grate, † (a) a grated door or gate of a church or churchyard; (b) a kind of apparatus for warming a church; † church-holy, consecration of a church; church-lease, a lease of church property; church-mode, one of the modes in mediæval church-music; church-office, an office in the church; the form prescribed for the conduct of a church-service; † church-outed a., put out of the church; church parade, (a) divine service performed as part of the routine of military duty; (b) a turn-out of fashionable church-goers after the Sunday morning service; (c) the attendance of the members of a society, etc., in a body at divine service; hence church-parader; church-path, a public, and usually ancient, footpath across fields, leading to, or shortening the way to, the parish church; church people, people belonging to the Church of England; church-piece, a piece of ground belonging to the church; church-register, a parish register; church-renter, one who holds a lease under the church; also, † one who makes a rent or division in a church; church-ring, a wedding-ring; church school, a school founded by or associated with a church, normally of the Church of England; Church Slavic, Slavonic (see quot. 1954); church-social (U.S.), a social meeting in connexion with a church; church-state, status in a church; † a theocracy; † church-strewing, the strewing of the church-floor with rushes on particular festivals; church-town, the church village, the place where the parish church of a number of hamlets is situated (Sc. kirk-town); † in OE. (cirictún) and ME., the enclosure of a church, a churchyard; † church-tympanite, some obsolete sect (see quot.); † church-vassal, a vassal of the church; † church-wort, Penny-royal.
1596Stanford Churchw. Acc. in Antiquary May (1888) 212 For earinge of the *church acre.
1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv, The honest Cavalier..was to be true to *Church and King.
1803W. Taylor in Robberd Mem. I. 459 The loyalty of it—nay worse, the *Church-and-kingism..will divert you.
1850Thackeray Pendennis (1885) III. 25 A staunch, unflinching *Church-and-Kingman.
1732Berkeley Alciphr. i. §7 The combination between *Church and State, of religion by law established. 1822Edin. Rev. XXXVII. 420 The Church-and-State class.
1853Lytton My Novel xi. ii, Men pretending to aristocracy..and *Church-and-Stateism.
1919Act 9 & 10 Geo. V, c. 76 §1 ‘The National Assembly of the Church of England’ (hereinafter called ‘the* Church Assembly’). 1957Oxf. Dict. Chr. Ch. 285/2 Church Assembly... Its most important function is to prepare ecclesiastical measures for transmission to Parliament.
1627Let. fr. Jesuit in Rushworth Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 475 We give the honor to those which merit it, which are the *Church-Catholicks.
1535in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's Bp. Stortford (1882) 42 Item rec. clerely for the *cherch clerkis mede..iijs. xjd. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Church-clerk, the parish-clerk. Long in use.
1842Tennyson Epic 15, I heard The parson..Now harping on the *church commissioners, Now hawking at Geology and schism.
1861Rep. Ch. Congress (1862) p. v, A circular addressed to eminent Churchmen of all parties requesting their attendance at a *Church Congress in Cambridge. 1862(title) Report of the proceedings of the Church Congress held in the Hall of King's College, Cambridge: November 27th, 28th, and 29th, 1861. 1957Oxf. Dict. Chr. Ch. 286/1 Church Congresses..have been held from 1861 onwards (annually down to 1913, and less regularly since).
1672N. Riding Rec. VI. 176 The fence in the *church-earth wall.
1784New Spect. xx. 3/1 He..resembles a modern *church-errant in quest of a tithe pig.
1793W. Roberts Looker-on No. 58 The age of *church-errantry is over; missionaries, legates, crusaders, and reformers have long gone off the stage.
1885Whitaker's Almanack 137 *Church Estates Commissioners, Earl Stanhope, etc.
1872Newton Kansan 5 Sept. 4/1 At a certain *church-fair, a set of Cooper's works was promised to the individual who should answer a set of conundrums. 1876Church fair [see fair n. 1 c]. 1890Congress Rec. 8 May 4343/2 Certain entertainments and church fairs, which I have attended, when the admission was free. 1907Mulford Bar-20 vi. 63 All kinds of excitement except revival meetings and church fairs.
1856R. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 109 The locality in which this great *church-father passed most of his days.
Ibid. I. 112 To write a sermon..against the next *church-festival. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits xiii. Relig. Wks. (1881) II. 96 Respite from labour..on the Sabbath, and on church festivals.
1820Scott Monast. i, The habitations of the *church-feuars were not less primitive than their agriculture.
1862Lond. Rev. 16 Aug. 139 With one eye fixed on the *church-flag at the peak.
c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 155 In chirche, þer al *chirche folc ohg to ben gadered. 1871Holme Lee Her Title of Hon. i, Zeal that some of the church-folk wonder at and deride.
1519in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's Bp. Stortford (1882) 36 For tymber for the *chirche grate xiiijd. 1846Ecclesiologist VI. 179 The church-grate consists of a light, circular, open fire-basket, raised on legs, and portable by means of an iron bar.
c1440Promp. Parv. 75 *Chyrcheholy, encennia.
1727Swift What passed in Lond. Wks. 1755 III. i. 185 He got a *church-lease filled up that morning.
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. iii. (1617) 93 Sundry *Church-offices, Dignities, and Callings, for which they found no Commandement in the Holy Scripture. 1698R. Lassels Voy. Italy I. 43 The ancient Church-Office here relates all this.
1641Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Introd., Thus *Church-outed by the Prelates, hence may appear the right I have to meddle in these matters.
1846United Service Jrnl. Aug. 383 While the troops were assembled on *church parade. 1869Porcupine 13 Nov. 317/3 There will be a Church Parade [of Volunteers] on Sunday next. 1883Peel City Guardian 29 Sept. 3/2 The friendly societies..have had their first public church parade. 1887Ibid. 5 Mar. 7/1 The Church parade organised by the Social Democratic Federation, which was held at St. Paul's Cathedral. 1891Ibid. 30 May 6/1 The Sunday before the Derby is..looked forward to as the best ‘Church parade’ of the season in Hyde-park. 1922C. E. Montague Disenchantment v. 66 It brought with it no perceptible revival of church parades.
1907Adderley Behold the Days Come 18 The *Church-paraders whom he takes to be typical Christians.
1842W. Palmer Lett. Prot.-Cath. 53 They are *Church people like ourselves at heart. 1928Daily Tel. 15 May 13/2 Church-people throughout the dioceses.
1827Hone Every-Day Bk. II. 374 Football was..played..and the *church-piece was the ground chosen for it.
1846S. W. Singer in Herrick's Wks. (1869) Introd. 24 In the *church-register of Dean Prior.
1651Baxter Inf. Bapt. 193 Only against such *Church-renters, and gross errors.
1856Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh vi. 665 Sets her darling down to cut His teeth upon her *church-ring.
1862Borrow Wales III. xxv. 279, I met a number of little boys belonging to the *church school. 1944W. Temple Church looks Forward vi. 49 In the past the main instrument of the Church in upholding its principles has been the Church School.
1850‘Talvi’ Lang. & Lit. Slavic Nations i. 25 (heading) History of the Old or *Church Slavic (commonly called Slavonic) language and literature. 1876Church Slavic [see Slavic n.].
1853J. S. C. de Radius Lang. Slavic Nations i. 14 The *Church Slavonic proved to be an older branch of the original Slavic. 1954Pei Dict. Linguistics 39 Church Slavonic, the South Slavic language into which Kyrillos and Methodos translated the Gospels in the ninth century A.D.; it is extinct as a vernacular, but has remained the official language of the Slavic Greek Orthodox Church. (Also called Old Church Slavic and Old Bulgarian.)
1888Milnor (Dakota) Teller 18 May 6/5 [To] tackle a wash⁓tub as quickly as a *church-social.
1614Selden Titles Hon. 252 The Missi, whom hee compares in *Church-state to Suffragans. 1676Owen Worship God 97 Thus did God take the Children of Israel into a Church-state.
1506in Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's Bp. Stortford (1882) 31 Brede and drink to the carters for the *chirch strowyng.
a1000Edgar's Canons §26 in Thorpe Laws II. 250 (Bosw.) Ne binnan *cirictune æniȝ hund ne cume. 1340Ayenb. 41 Þet vleþ to holy Cherche, oþer into cherch tounes vor to by yborȝe.
1680Baxter Cath. Commun. Pref. A ij, Even before the *Church-Tympanites, many score several Sects rose up.
1820Scott Abbot i, A peasant, the son of a *church-vassal.
c1450Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 130 Origanum, *chirchewrt. 1597Gerarde Herbal App., Church⁓wort, Pennyroyal.
▸ Church of the East n. (collectively) the Christian Churches originating from, or chiefly found in, the areas east and south-east of Europe, esp. those with a liturgical rite differing from the Latin (Roman) rite; (now chiefly) spec. an autocephalous branch of the Christian church, sometimes called Assyrian or Nestorian, based mainly in Iraq, Iran, and Syria and having a Syriac liturgy. Cf. Eastern Church at eastern adj. 1a.
1619W. Cowper Pathmos vii. 297 That most ancient Church of the East, composed of Grecians..Syrians, in which tongue the Son of God pronounced his Oracles: of Slauonians, Russians, Muscouites and others, in whose bosome are almost all the Apostolike Seas. 1821Times 29 Oct. 3/2 Honour to God the Almighty! and to the Holy Church of the East! 1944Geogr Rev. 34 261 The Nestorian Church, or, as its members prefer to call it, the Church of the East, broke off from the main body of Christianity partly because of the wars between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanid kings of Persia and partly because of the adherence..of the Eastern Christians to the teachings of Nestorius. 1991S. G. Hall Doctrine & Practice in Early Church (2003) xxiii. 238 One consequence was the split between the Greek-speaking Church of the East and the Latin-speaking Church of the West. 1999Independent on Sunday 31 Oct. (Rev. Suppl.) 32/2 The Church of the East, as China's Nestorians are also known, achieved enormous power and influence without ever becoming a state religion.
▸ church planting n. orig. U.S. the practice of sending members of a thriving congregation to found a new one elsewhere, or (now) esp. (freq. among charismatics) to worship in a church with an otherwise dwindling congregation.
[1644J. Etherington (title) The Anabaptists Ground-Work for Reformation or New Planting of Churches.] 1871D. P. Kidder Christian Pastorate xix. 509 Sometimes *church planting is accomplished by detaching a small number of Church members to serve as the nucleus of a new organization. 1932W. E. Hocking Re-thinking Missions i. 26 In the era of church-planting, it was natural that many persons of various degrees of equipment should be sent from abroad, aggressively promoting the local church. 1994Sunday Tel. 19 June 5 ‘Church planting’..whereby members of the congregation colonise other run-down churches to give them a new lease of life.
▪ II. church, v.|tʃɜːtʃ|
[f. prec. n.]
1. To bring, take, or conduct to church, in order to receive its rites or ministrations. Commonly in the passive, the person concerned being said to be churched.
†a. Said of a child at baptism. Obs.
1340–70Alex. & Dind. 941 Huo wole a cherched child chese for hardy.
b. Said of a woman after child-birth, when thanks are publicly offered for her safe delivery, esp. in accordance with the prescribed service in the Book of Common Prayer; the officiating clergyman is said ‘to church’ her. Cf. church-gang, churching.
[1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 311, I schal offre hym a þowsand candelles when I schal go to cherche of childe [post partum]. c1440Promp. Parv, Chyrchyn, or puryfyen, Purifico. c1470Harding Chron. cxxii. ii, Kyng Wyllyam in Gesine had lyen long, And tyme hym wer been kyrked with good songe. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 16 [William the Conqueror] sayd, when I am churched I wyll offer unto him a thousand candelles light, with the which heshall holde himselfe smally contented. Ibid. II. 244 The Queene who then was newly churched of a sonne called John of Gaunt. 1629Sir R. Boyle Diary (1886) II. 114 In the same house my wife was churched and my daughter xtned. 1737Byrom Jrnl. & Lit. Rem. (1856) II. i. 101 A lady or two were churched after prayers. 1837Thackeray Ravenswing vi, Ladies are confined and churched.
c. Said (esp. in Scotland) of a newly-wedded pair, and particularly of the bride, on first attendance at church after marriage; also of the Judges, members of a civic corporation, and the like, when they attend church in state; also more generally of any one being taken to or appearing at church.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden 111 For seauen and thirtie weekes..neuer stirring out of dores or being churched all that while. 1843A. Bethune Sc. Fireside Stor. 282 That day a young and bonny bride Was ‘kirkit’, as they say. 1865Even. Standard 24 Apr., Yesterday afternoon being the first Sunday in Easter term, her Majesty's Judges and the Corporation of London attended in state at St. Paul's Cathedral, for the purpose of taking part in the ceremony well known in civic language as ‘Churching the Judges’.
d. To call to account in church. U.S. local.
1829Western Monthly Rev. III. 114 It is notorious, that a woman was churched there, for cutting off the ends of the fingers of her gloves, and exposing the tips of her dainty and delicate fingers. 1901Harben Westerfelt x. 136 He..said some'n about folks bein' churched in his settlement fer the mistreatment o' widows. 1902H. L. Wilson Spenders xii. 132 Only I hope the First M.E. Church of Montana City never hears of her outrageous cuttin's-up... They'd have her up and church her, sure.
†2. To place or set up in church. Obs.
1565J. Jewel Repl. Harding (1611) 373 This Image was neither Churched, nor Adored, or Worshipped.
†3. To form or organize into a church. Obs.
1659Gauden Tears Ch. 39 (D.) Strange methods of new churching men and women.
†4. to church it: to play the church. Obs.
1619Sacrilege Handl. Ep. Ded. 2 It goeth neuer better, then when the Church Courteth it, and the Court Churcheth it.
5. slang. Cf. christen v. 6.
1868Doran Saints & Sin. II. 290 The [thieves] ‘church their yacks’ when they transpose the works of stolen watches to prevent identification. 1873in Slang Dict. |