CHURCHYARD, a piece of ground adjoining to a church, set apart for the interment or burial of the dead.—In the church of Rome they are blessed or consecrated with great solemnity. If a churchyard, which has been thus consecrated, shall afterwards be polluted by any indecent action, or profaned by the burial of an infidel, a heretic, an excommunicated or unbaptized person, it must be reconciled; and the ceremony of the reconciliation is performed with the same solemnity as that of the blessing or consecration.