as also used for the lodge or habitation of a common prostitute, as being anciently under ground, and hence also denominated fornix.

CELLA was also applied to the bed-chambers of domestics and servants, probably as being low and narrow. Cicero, inveighing against the luxury of Antony, says, the beds in the very cells of his servants were spread with pompous purple coverlets.

CELLA is further applied to the members or apartments of baths. Of these there were three principal ones, called frigidaria, tepidaria, and caldaria, to which may be added a fourth, called cella assa, and sometimes sudatoria.

CELLA likewise signified the adyta or most retired parts of temples, in which the images of the gods to whom the edifices were consecrated were preserved. In this sense we meet with cella Jovis, cella Concordiae.

CELLA is also used for a lesser or subordinate sort of monastery dependent on a great one, by which it was erected, and continues still to be governed. The great abbeys in England had most of them cells in places distant from the mother abbey, to which they were accountable, and from which they received their superiors. The alien priories in England were cells to abbeys in Normandy, France, or Italy. The name of cell was also given to rich and considerable monasteries not dependent on any other.

CELL signifies also a small apartment or chamber, such as those in which the ancient monks, solitaries, and hermits, lived in retirement. Some derive the word from the Hebrew כֶּלֶב, meaning a prison, or place where anything is shut up. The same name is still retained in different monasteries. The dormitory is frequently divided into so many cells or lodges. The Carthusians have each a separate house, which serves them as a cell. The hall in which the Roman conclave is held is divided by partitions into different cells, for the several cardinals to lodge in.