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conventicle

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conventicle


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Conventicle  \Con*ven"ti*cle\,  n.  [L.  conventiculum  dim.  of 
  conventus:  cf  F.  conventicule.  See  {Convent},  n.] 
  1.  A  small  assembly  or  gathering;  esp.,  a  secret  assembly. 
 
  They  are  commanded  to  abstain  from  all  conventicles 
  of  men  whatsoever.  --Ayliffe. 
 
  2.  An  assembly  for  religious  worship;  esp.,  such  an  assembly 
  held  privately,  as  in  times  of  persecution,  by 
  Nonconformists  or  Dissenters  in  England,  or  by  Covenanters 
  in  Scotland;  --  often  used  opprobriously,  as  if  those 
  assembled  were  heretics  or  schismatics. 
 
  The  first  Christians  could  never  have  had  recourse 
  to  nocturnal  or  clandestine  conventicles  till  driven 
  to  them  by  the  violence  of  persecution.  --Hammond. 
 
  A  sort  of  men  who  .  .  .  attend  its  [the  curch  of 
  England's]  service  in  the  morning,  and  go  with  their 
  wives  to  a  conventicle  in  the  afternoon.  --Swift. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  conventicle 
  n  1:  a  secret  unauthorized  meeting  for  religious  worship 
  2:  a  building  for  religious  assembly  (especially  Nonconformists 
  (e.g.  Quakers))  [syn:  {meetinghouse}] 




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