CONSECRATION, the act of devoting anything to sacred uses. The Mosaic law ordained, that all the first-born both of man and beast should be consecrated to God. We find also that Joshua consecrated the Gibeonites, as Solomon and David did the Nethinims, to the service of the temple; and that the Hebrews sometimes consecrated their fields and cattle to the Lord, after which they were no longer in their own power.
In England, churches have always been consecrated with particular ceremonies, the form of which is left in a great measure to the discretion of the bishop.