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.

Thomas, a poet who flourished in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, was born at Shrewsbury; and inherited a fortune which he soon exhausted in a fruitless attendance on the court, by which he only gained the favour of being retained a domestic in the family of Lord Surrey: when, by his lordship's encouragement, he commenced poet. Upon his patron's death, he betook himself to arms; was in many engagements; was frequently wounded, and was twice made prisoner. He published 12 pieces, which he afterwards printed together in one volume, under the title of Churchyard's Chips; and also the tragedy of Thomas Moubrey duke of Norfolk. He died in 1570.