has different significations, according to the different subjects to which it is applied.
1. It is understood of the collective body of Christians, or all those over the face of the whole earth who profess to believe in Christ, and acknowledge him to be the Saviour of mankind. This is what the ancient writers call the catholic or universal church. Sometimes the word church is considered in a more extensive sense, and divided into several branches; as the church militant, is the assembly of the faithful on earth; the church triumphant, that of the faithful already in glory; to which the Papists add the church patient, which, according to their doctrines, is that of the faithful in purgatory.
2. Church is applied to any particular congregation of Christians, who associate together and concur in the participation of all the institutions of Jesus Christ, with their proper pastors and ministers. Thus we read of the church of Antioch, the church of Alexandria, the church of Thessalonica, and the like.
3. Church denotes a particular sect of Christians distinguished by particular doctrines and ceremonies. In this sense, we speak of the Romish church, the Greek church, the Reformed church, the church of England, &c.
The Latin or Western church, comprehends all the churches of Italy, France, Spain, Africa, the north, and all other countries whither the Romans carried their language. Great Britain, part of the Netherlands, of Germany, and of the North, have been separated from hence ever since the time of Henry VIII.; and constitute what we call the Reformed church, and what the Romanists call the Western schism.
The Greek or Eastern church, comprehends the churches of all the countries anciently subject to the Greek or eastern empire, and through which their language was carried; that is, all the space extended from Greece to Mesopotamia and Persia, and thence into Egypt. This church has been divided from the Roman, ever since the time of the emperor Phocas.
The Gallican church, denotes the church of France, under the government and direction of their respective bishops and pastors. This church has always enjoyed certain franchises and immunities; not as grants from popes, but as derived to her from her first original, and which she has taken care never to relinquish. These liberties depend upon two maxims; the first, that the pope has no authority or right to command or order anything either in general, or in particular, in which the temporalities and civil rights of the kingdom are concerned; the second, that notwithstanding the pope's supremacy is owned in cases purely spiritual, yet in France his power is limited and regulated by the decrees and canons of ancient councils received in that realm.
4. The word church is used to signify the body of ecclesiastics, or the clergy, in contradistinction to the laity. See Clergy.
5. Church is used for the place where a particular congregation or society of Christians assemble for the celebration of divine service. In this sense churches are variously denominated, according to the rank, degree, discipline, &c. as Metropolitan church, Patriarchal church, Cathedral church, Parochial church, Collegiate church, &c. See Metropolis, Patriarch, &c.
Church-All. See Whitsun-All.
Church-Reeves, the same with Church-Wardens.
Church-Scot, or Church-set, a payment, or contribution, by the Latin writers frequently called primitive seminum; being, at first, a certain measure of wheat, paid to the priest on St Martin's day, as the first-fruits of harvest. This was enjoined by the laws of king Malcolm IV. and Canute, c. 10. But after this, Church-set came to signify a reserve of corn rent paid to the secular priests, or to the religious; and sometimes was taken in to general a sense as to include poultry, or any other provision that was paid in kind to the religious. See Tithe.
Church-Wardens, (ecclesiae guardiani), in the English ecclesiastical polity, are the guardians or keepers of the church, and representatives of the body of the parish. They are sometimes appointed by the minister, sometimes by the parish, sometimes by both together, as custom directs. They are taken, in favour of the church, to be, for some purposes, a kind of corporation at the common law; that is, they are enabled, by that name, to have a property in goods and chattels, and to bring actions for them, for the use and profit of the parish. Yet they may not waste the church goods, but may be removed by the parish, and then called to account by actions at common law: but there is no method of calling them to account but by first removing them; for none can legally do it but those who are put in their place. As to lands, or other real property, as the church, church-yard, &c. they have no sort of interest therein; but if any damage is done thereto, the parson only or vicar shall have the action. Their office also is to repair the church, and make rates and levies for that purpose: but these are recoverable only in the ecclesiastical courts. They are also joined with the overseers in the care and maintenance of the poor. They are to levy a sufficient forfeiture on all such as do not repair to church on Sundays and holidays; and are empowered to keep all persons orderly while there; to which end it has been held that a church-warden may justify the pulling off a man's hat, without being guilty of either an assault or a trespass. There are also a multitude of other petty parochial powers committed to their charge by divers acts of Parliament.
Church-Yard, a piece of ground adjoining to a church, Churchill, set apart for interment or burial of the dead.
In the church of Rome they are blest and consecrated with great solemnity. If a church-yard which has been thus consecrated, shall afterwards be polluted by any indecent action, or profaned by the burial of an infidel, an 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 blesting or consecration.