Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Presbytery   Listen
noun
Presbytery  n.  (pl. presbyteries)  
1.
A body of elders in the early Christian church.
2.
(Presbyterian Ch.) A judicatory consisting of all the ministers within a certain district, and one layman, who is a ruling elder, from each parish or church, commissioned to represent the church in conjunction with the pastor. This body has a general jurisdiction over the churches under its care, and next below the provincial synod in authority.
3.
The Presbyterian religion of polity. (R.)
4.
(a)
(Arch.) That part of the church reserved for the officiating priest.
(b)
The residence of a priest or clergyman.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Presbytery" Quotes from Famous Books



... mounted on a brown horse, with a rosary in his right hand and a long two-handed sword jangling against his stirrup-iron. By his black robe and the eight-pointed cross upon his sleeve, Alleyne recognized him as one of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, whose presbytery was at Baddesley. He held up two fingers as he passed, with a "Benedic, fili mi!" whereat Alleyne doffed hat and bent knee, looking with much reverence at one who had devoted his life to the overthrow of the infidel. Poor simple lad! he had not learned ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle

... provoke him,—I will not suffer it in him. If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist shall be censuring the godly ministers of the nation who profess under that of Independency; or if those that profess under Presbytery shall be reproaching or speaking evil of them, traducing and censuring of them, as I would not be willing to see the day when England shall be in the power of the Presbytery to impose upon the consciences of others that profess faith in Christ,—so I will not endure any reproach to them." [Footnote: ...
— The Emancipation of Massachusetts • Brooks Adams

... many inconveniences and disadvantages inherent in that form of church government. It is of the nature of evil to make its presence much more keenly felt than the presence of good. So while keenly alive to the drawbacks of presbytery, you are hardly conscious of its advantages. You swing over, let us suppose, to the other end: you swing over from Scotland into England, from presbytery to episcopacy. For awhile you are quite delighted to find yourself free from the ...
— The Recreations of A Country Parson • A. K. H. Boyd

... the mortal remains of the Rev. Hezikiah J. Balch, first pastor of Poplar Tent congregation, and one of the original members of Orange Presbytery. He was licensed a preacher of the everlasting gospel, of the Presbytery of Donegal in 1766, and rested from his labors A.D. 1776; having been pastor of the united congregations of Poplar Tent and Rocky River, about seven years. He was distinguished as one of the Committee ...
— Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical • C. L. Hunter

... countenance, are wonderfully depicted. The great aisle was painted by order of Pius IX by Cesare Fracassini; in it are two pulpits of marble. A double staircase of marble conducts to that part of the Basilica of Constantine which by Honorius III was converted into the presbytery. It is decorated at the upper end by twelve columns of violet marble which rise from the level of the primitive basilica beneath. At the end is the ancient pontifical seat, adorned with mosaic and precious marbles. The papal altar is under a canopy in the Byzantine ...
— Italy, the Magic Land • Lilian Whiting

... bands of music waiting for us when Tommy brought us ashore, and after leaving Martin with his broken limb in his mother's arms at the gate of Sunny Lodge, he took me over to the Presbytery in order that Father Dan might carry me home and so stand between me and my father's wrath and Aunt ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine

... Gabriel de Puy-Herbault, who seems to have drawn his conclusions concerning the author from the book, and, more especially, in the regrettable satirical epitaph of Ronsard, piqued, it is said, that the Guises had given him only a little pavillon in the Forest of Meudon, whereas the presbytery was close to the chateau. From that time legend has fastened on Rabelais, has completely travestied him, till, bit by bit, it has made of him a buffoon, a veritable clown, a vagrant, a ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... been surprised with one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the moral world which, I dare say, had happened in the course of this half century. We have had a party of Presbytery relief, as they call themselves, for some time in this country. A pretty thriving society of them has been in the burgh of Irvine for some years past, till about two years ago, a Mrs. Buchan from Glasgow came among them, and began to spread some fanatical ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... rumour about Scotland, I can persuade Parliament about the Presbytery, I can convince the army of your good faith as to tolerance, if you will but give me the word. Let us together make Charles Rex the noblest name ...
— Oliver Cromwell • John Drinkwater

... Covenant he had forgotten the Gospel. To another, John Borland, we owe the best account of the voyage which is now extant. The General Assembly had charged the chaplains to divide the colonists into congregations, to appoint ruling elders, to constitute a presbytery, and to labour for the propagation of divine truth among the Pagan inhabitants of Darien. The second expedition sailed as the first had sailed, amidst the acclamations and blessings of all Scotland. During the earlier part of September ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 5 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... governor. In times of peace these militia officers in the parishes executed the orders of the governor and intendant in all matters affecting the King. In case it was considered necessary to build a church or presbytery, the intendant authorised the habitants to assemble for the purpose of choosing from among themselves four persons to make, with the cure, the seignior, and the captain of the militia, an estimate of the expense of the structure. It was the special care ...
— Canada • J. G. Bourinot

... tearing into sight at a headlong rate of speed. Amid the shouts of the madly scattering people, it made straight for the church, swerved, just as it seemed about to dash itself to pieces against the steps, grazed the wall of the presbytery, regained the continuation of the national road, dashed along, turned the corner and disappeared, without, by some incomprehensible miracle, having so much as brushed against any of the ...
— The Confessions of Arsene Lupin • Maurice Leblanc

... scarcely a cathedral or abbey that does not owe some beautiful portion of its structure to the builders of the same period, the transepts and lady chapel of Hereford Cathedral, the eastern transepts of Durham, the nave and transepts of Wells, the transepts of York, the choir presbytery, central and eastern transepts of Rochester, the eastern portion of the choir of Ely, the west front of Peterborough, the choir of Southwell, the nave and transepts of Lichfield, and the choir of S. David's being a few of our most characteristic examples ...
— Our Homeland Churches and How to Study Them • Sidney Heath

... all noises were extinguished, like the lamps illuminating the humble nave. The minister bowed for the last time to the altar and the still fresh graves; then, followed by his assistant, he slowly took the road back to the presbytery. D'Artagnan, left alone, perceived that night was coming on. He had forgotten the hour, thinking only of the dead. He arose from the oaken bench on which he was seated in the chapel, and wished, as the priest had done, to go and bid a last adieu to the double grave which ...
— The Man in the Iron Mask • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... matter, on exactly the same level. Nor have ten, twenty, a hundred, a thousand, twenty thousand, or a hundred thousand lay parents, or yet ten, twenty, a hundred, or a thousand clerical parents, whether existing as a congregation or hundreds of congregations on the one hand, or as a Presbytery, Synod, or General Assembly on the other, rights in this matter that in the least differ in their nature from the rights possessed by the single clergyman, Dr. Guthrie, or by the single layman, the Editor of the Witness. The sole right which ...
— Leading Articles on Various Subjects • Hugh Miller

... As Leader of the Unified All Souls Baptismal Presbytery, it is my duty to visit the widows and orphans ...
— The Lion and The Mouse - A Story Of American Life • Charles Klein

... to be established, was formally organized November 21, 1841, in a little frame school house located on H Street near 14th Northwest. The moving spirit in this undertaking was John F. Cook.[18] He had been received as a licentiate by the Presbytery of the District of Columbia on the twenty-first of October of that same year. Eighteen persons took part in this organization. Of these John F. Cook and Alfred A. Cook had been official members of the ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 7, 1922 • Various

... the Trianons claimed their attention, and they visited the farm and the dairy, and the Temple of Love, and the Swiss Cottage, and the Presbytery, and the Music Pavilion, and the Mill, until they were all mixed up, and Patty declared that her mind was nothing but a kaleidoscope full of ...
— Patty in Paris • Carolyn Wells

... just back from church. Captain Keller said at breakfast this morning that he wished I would take Helen to church. The Presbytery would be there in a body, and he wanted the ministers to see Helen. The Sunday-school was in session when we arrived, and I wish you could have seen the sensation Helen's entrance caused. The children were so pleased to see her at Sunday-school, ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller

... on one side from the real sentiments of the English people on the other. Looking forward to independence, they might possibly receive you for their king; but, if ever you retire to America, be assured they will give you such a covenant to digest as the presbytery of Scotland would have been ashamed to offer to Charles the Second. They left their native land in search of freedom, and found it in a desert. Divided as they are into a thousand forms of policy and religion, there is one point in which they all agree: they equally ...
— English Satires • Various

... to the Most High, and whenever they were to set about any further piece of reformation in their advancing state, they always set about the renovation of these covenants.—They strenuously asserted the divine right of presbytery, the headship of Christ, and intrinsic rights of his church in the reign of James VI. and suffered much on that account—lifted arms once and again in the reign of Charles I.; and never ceased until they got an uniformity in doctrine, worship, discipline, and church-government, ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie

... one of the latter Lairds of Ellangowan to prevent presumptuous strangers from incurring the dangers of the haunted vault—that door, supposed to be always locked, and the key of which was popularly said to be deposited with the presbytery—that door, that very door, opened suddenly, and the figure of Meg Merrilies, well known, though not seen for many a revolving year, was placed at once before the eyes of the startled Dominie! She stood immediately before him in the footpath, confronting him ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott

... Presbytery—'That, in the opinion of this Presbytery, the holding of slaves, so far from being a SIN in the sight of God, is no where condemned in ...
— A Visit To The United States In 1841 • Joseph Sturge

... in the midst of their oppositions. For he continued Lecturer a part of his time; Mr. Travers being indeed a man of competent learning, of a winning behaviour, and of a blameless life. But he had taken Orders by the Presbytery in Antwerp,—and with them some opinions, that could never be eradicated,—and if in anything he was transported, it was in an extreme desire to set up that government in this nation; for the promoting of which he had a correspondence with Theodore Beza ...
— Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert, - &C, Volume Two • Izaak Walton

... David Brewster, a distinguished physicist, was born at Jedburgh, on December 11, 1781. He was educated at Edinburgh University, and was licensed as a clergyman of the Church of Scotland by the Presbytery of Edinburgh. Nervousness in the pulpit compelled him to retire from clerical life and devote himself to scientific work, and in 1808 he became editor of the "Edinburgh Encyclopaedia." His chief scientific interest was optics, and he invented the kaleidoscope, and ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol IX. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton

... it best as unto point of time, because many of the soldiers were wholly for it, and many of the Independant party; and I had abundance of worthy men in the House of Commons, my assured friends, no lovers of Presbytery, which then were in great esteem, and able to protect the art; for should the Presbyterian party have prevailed, as they thought of nothing less than to be Lords of all, I knew well they would have silenced my pen annually, and committed the ...
— William Lilly's History of His Life and Times - From the Year 1602 to 1681 • William Lilly

... open and Frank considered an instant. But he thought that could wait for a few minutes as he glanced at the next house. This was obviously the presbytery. ...
— None Other Gods • Robert Hugh Benson

... choir (see p. 52). It was about the year 1080 that he began his church. The plan was cruciform, but not of the usual northern type. The eastern arm was six bays long, and had aisles of the same length as the presbytery; its four easternmost bays stood on an undercroft, of which a portion still remains in the present crypt. The excavations there, in 1881, uncovering the old foundations, proved that the shape of this end of the church used to be rectangular and not apsidal. It had been concluded ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Rochester - A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See • G. H. Palmer

... the presbytery, he found the cure installed in a small room, which he used for working in, and which was littered up with articles bearing a very distant connection to his pious calling: nets for catching larks, hoops ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... early History of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory the Presbytery of Kiamichi, Synod of Canadian, and the Bible in the Free Schools of the American Colonies, but suppressed in France, previous to the American and ...
— The Choctaw Freedmen - and The Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy • Robert Elliott Flickinger

... "there came up to him a stranger, in habit like a minister, in black coat and band, and who addressed the youth very courteously." He was mighty inquisitive, and at length wormed out the secret grief. "I have got a text from the Presbytery. I cannot for my life compose a discourse on it, so I shall be affronted." The stranger replied—"Sir, I am a minister; let me hear the text?" He told him. "Oh, then, I have an excellent sermon on that text in my pocket, which you may ...
— The Book-Hunter - A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author • John Hill Burton

... Discipline which organized the Church on the pure Calvinistic model and advanced the full Calvinistic claim to its spiritual independence and supremacy within the realm. When the Estates refused to sanction this book the Assembly sent it to every presbytery, and its gradual acceptance secured the organization of the Church. It was at this crisis that the appearance of Esme Stuart brought about the first reaction towards a revival of the royal power; and the Council under the guidance of the favourite struck at once at the preachers ...
— History of the English People, Volume V (of 8) - Puritan England, 1603-1660 • John Richard Green

... Melville, one of the Scotch ministers, had plucked him by his royal sleeve and called him "God's silly vassal" right to his face. So, when some one said "Synod" it brought the King up standing. He burst out: "If that is what you mean, if you want what the Scotch mean by their Synod and their Presbytery, then I tell you at once that I will have none of it. Presbytery agrees with monarchy very much as God agrees with the devil. If you have no bishop, you will soon have no king." He was perfectly right, with reference ...
— The Greatest English Classic A Study of the King James Version of • Cleland Boyd McAfee

... future Hope—I am resolv'd. Let Politicians plot, let Rogues go on In the old beaten Path of Forty one; Let City Knaves delight in Mutiny, The Rabble bow to old Presbytery; Let petty States be to confusion hurl'd, Give me but Woman, I'll despise ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II • Aphra Behn

... the last straw to Hinpoha. After sitting still a whole afternoon getting her school lessons, she longed to move about after supper, but then Aunt Phoebe expected her to sit still the entire evening and entertain her with the activities of the Early Presbytery. After nearly a week of this deadly dullness Hinpoha was ready to fly. And yet Aunt Phoebe was not conscious that there was anything wrong in the way she was treating Hinpoha. She cared for her in her frozen ...
— The Camp Fire Girls at School • Hildegard G. Frey

... advance of those of many European towns of equal population, that can trace back their history considerably further than Auckland's thirty-and-odd years. In matters ecclesiastical and educational the young city is indeed well endowed. There are two bishops, Roman and Anglican, a Presbytery, and governing bodies of other denominations. There is a College and Grammar School of the New Zealand University, common schools in the city, private schools of all sorts and sects, a training ...
— Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) - or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand • William Delisle Hay

... family now devolved upon him, to continue his studies privately at home, under the friendly direction of the late Dr. Duffield. An ardent and pronounced disciple of the "New School" of Presbyterians, belonging to a strongly Old School Presbytery; he was able to secure license and ordination only by transfer to another; and, in October, 1835, he accepted a pulpit in Womelsdorf, Berks County, Pa., where he preached for one year, to a Presbyterian congregation, to what ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still

... congregation, was to appoint certain well-known religious men, as anciens or elders. These were very important officers. They formed the church in the first instance; for where there were no elders, there was no church. They were members of the consistoire or presbytery. They looked after the flock, visited them in their families, made collections, named the pastors, and maintained peace, order, and discipline amongst the people. Though first nominated by the pastors, they were elected by the congregation; and the reason for their election was their known ability, ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles

... crossed the {98} ice, and was on the point of coming to close quarters with the volunteers when the main body of the loyalists appeared to the east. Thereupon Chenier and his men beat a hasty retreat, and made hurried preparations for defending the village. The church, the convent, the presbytery, and the house of the member of the Assembly, Scott, were all occupied and barricaded. It was about the church that the fiercest fighting took place. The artillery was brought to bear on the building; but the stout masonry resisted the battering of the cannon balls, and is still standing, dinted ...
— The 'Patriotes' of '37 - A Chronicle of the Lower Canada Rebellion • Alfred D. Decelles

... the fort of St. Louis, first erected by Champlain on the historic height always associated with his name. The best buildings in the towns were generally of one story and constructed of stone. In the rural parishes, the villages, properly speaking, consisted of a church, presbytery, school, and tradesmen's houses, while the farms of the habitants stretched on either side. The size and shape of the farms were governed by the form of the seigniories throughout the province. M. Bourdon, the first Canadian surveyor-general, originally mapped out ...
— Canada under British Rule 1760-1900 • John G. Bourinot

... supposed that he wished to conceal himself because warrants were out against him for field preaching. The Chief Justice began to storm. "But I will tell you. There is not one of those lying, snivelling, canting Presbyterians but, one way or another, had a hand in the rebellion. Presbytery has all manner of villany in it. Nothing but Presbytery could have made Dunne such a rogue. Show me a Presbyterian; and I'll show thee a lying knave." He summed up in the same style, declaimed during an hour against Whigs and Dissenters, and reminded the jury that the prisoner's ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 1 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... example of the word "servant" brings us to that epoch in relation to which the Harmony Presbytery of South Carolina says, "Slavery has existed from the days of those good old slaveholders Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (who are now in the kingdom of heaven,) to the time when the apostle Paul sent a runaway home to his ...
— Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? • Isaac Allen

... which brought before my eyes your heroic tranquillity, inflexible to the rude jests and serious violences of the insolent soldiery, republican or royalist, sent to molest you—for ye sate betwixt the fires of two persecutions, the out-cast and off-scowering of church and presbytery.—I have seen the reeling sea-ruffian, who had wandered into your receptacle, with the avowed intention of disturbing your quiet, from the very spirit of the place receive in a moment a new heart, and presently sit among ye as a lamb amidst lambs. And I remembered Penn before his accusers, and ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Volume 2 • Charles Lamb

... the ministry for this heinous offence, which raised a fearful turmoil at the time among Synods and Presbyteries. The Glasgow Presbytery published a declaration (Feb. 14, 1757) on the "melancholy but notorious fact, that one, who is a minister of the Church of Scotland, did himself write and compose a stage play intitled the Tragedy of Douglas;" and to this declaration various ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine—Vol. 54, No. 333, July 1843 • Various

... amphitheatre in Rome. His execution in this manner took place Dec. 20, A.D. 107. He wrote a number of epistles, a few extracts from which I will give. "Wherefore it is fitting that ye should run together in accordance with the will of your bishop, which thing also ye do. For your justly renowned presbytery, worthy of God, is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to the harp." To the Ephesians, Chap. 4. "See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father.... Let no man ...
— The Revelation Explained • F. Smith

... of miscarriage, we mentioned instances, recorded by physicians of skill and probity, proving beyond a shade of doubt that a woman may give birth to a living child long before the expiration of the forty weeks. The Presbytery of Edinburgh, Scotland, some time since decided in favor of the legitimacy of an infant born alive, within twenty-five weeks after marriage, to ...
— The Physical Life of Woman: - Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother • Dr. George H Napheys

... that Mr. Soulis had been ower lang at the college. He was careful and troubled for mony things besides the ae thing needful. He had a feck o' books wi' him—mair than had ever been seen before in a' that presbytery; and a sair wark the carrier had wi' them, for they were a' like to have smoored in the Deil's Hag between this and Kilmackerlie. They were books o' divinity, to be sure, or so they ca'd them; but the serious were ...
— The Merry Men - and Other Tales and Fables • Robert Louis Stevenson

... he had been greatly respected, notwithstanding the rumour that he was a "stickit minister," that is, one who had failed in the attempt to preach; and when the presbytery dismissed him on the charge of heresy, there had been many tears on the part of his pupils, and much childish defiance ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald

... Archbishop of York, from Ripon to Canterbury, and had "worthily placed it in a more lofty receptacle, to use his own words, that is to say, in the great Altar which was constructed of rough stones and mortar, close to the wall at the eastern part of the presbytery. Afterwards another altar was placed at a convenient distance before the aforesaid altar.... In this altar the blessed Elphege had solemnly deposited the head of St. Swithin ... and also many relics of other saints. To reach these altars, a certain crypt which the Romans call ...
— The Cathedral Church of Canterbury [2nd ed.]. • Hartley Withers

... See a case of this prohibition in the Ecclesiastical Records of the Presbytery of St. Andrews for September 1643. "It is manifest by experience," says Upton, "that the seventh male child by just order, never a girle or wench being borne betweene, doth heall only with touching, by a natural gift, the king's evil; which is a speciall ...
— Archaeological Essays, Vol. 1 • James Y. Simpson

... call me Mr. Barton," replied he, "a minister of the church by the laying on the hands of the presbytery. My immediate call among these men in arms, arises from my being tutor to the young officer, to whom ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West

... a' your Whiggery,' re-echoed the Jacobite heroine; 'that's a' your Whiggery, and your presbytery, ye cut-lugged, graning carles! What! d'ye think the lads wi' the kilts will care for yer synods and yer presbyteries, and yer buttock-mail, and yer stool o' repentance? Vengeance on the black face o't! Mony an honester ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott

... formally repealed until 1736. In Scotland the last witch legally executed was in 1722. Captain Ross, Sheriff of Sutherland, has the doubtful honour of having condemned her to the stake. But fifty years later than this—1773—the Associated Presbytery passed a resolution deploring the fact that witchcraft was falling into disrepute. In Germany the last witch was executed in 1749, by decapitation. The last trial for witchcraft in Massachusetts was as late as 1793. ...
— Religion & Sex - Studies in the Pathology of Religious Development • Chapman Cohen

... direct them from time to time as to the agricultural operations. The Church of England undertook the establishment of a mission and erected buildings there, while the Presbyterians opened a mission at Bird Tail Creek, and obtained the services of a native ordained Sioux minister, from the Presbytery of Dakotah. The number of these Sioux is estimated at about fifteen hundred. Both settlements give promise of becoming self-sustaining, and in view of the rapid settlement of the country, some disposition of them ...
— The Treaties of Canada with The Indians of Manitoba - and the North-West Territories • Alexander Morris

... Quaking, another a Ranting. One again runs after the Baptism, and another after the Independency. Here is one for Free-will, and another for Presbytery. And yet possibly most, of all these sects, run quite the wrong way; and yet every one is for his life, his soul, either for ...
— The Heavenly Footman • John Bunyan

... 1835.—To-morrow I undergo my trials before the Presbytery. May God give me courage in the hour of need. What should I fear? If God see meet to put me into the ministry, who shall keep me back? If I be not meet, why should I be thrust forward? To thy service I desire to dedicate myself ...
— The Biography of Robert Murray M'Cheyne • Andrew A. Bonar

... campaign in France in 1814, Napoleon arrived one day, unheralded, in a country presbytery, where the good cure was quietly turning his hand coffee-roaster. The emperor asked him, "What are you doing there, abbe?" "Sire", replied the priest, "I am doing like you. I am burning the colonial fodder." Charlet (1792-1845) made a ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... "Roi" also was not heard of; but, in his place, I found a minutely-defined social organization, which, if it ever came into practice, would exert a despotic authority such as no sultan has rivalled, and no Puritan presbytery, in its palmiest days, could hope to excel. While, as for the "culte systematique de l'Humanite," I, in my blindness, could not distinguish it from sheer Popery, with M. Comte in the chair of St. Peter, and the names of ...
— Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews • Thomas Henry Huxley

... its Church. In October 1796 Mr. A. Johnstone, thirty years elder in Lady Yester's congregation, beside the University of Edinburgh, began a prayer meeting for Carey's work and for foreign missions. He was summoned to the Presbytery, and there questioned as if he had been a "Black-neb" or revolutionary. This meeting led to the foundation of the Sabbath School and Destitute Sick Societies in Edinburgh. See Lives of ...
— The Life of William Carey • George Smith

... three years. Their return to Greece was in the autumn of 1867, and the missionary was happy to find some of his former pupils actively engaged in labors not very dissimilar to his own. Two were preachers of the Gospel; Mr. Kalopothakes, from the New York Union Theological Seminary, ordained by a Presbytery; and Mr. Constantine, from Amherst College and Andover Seminary, and ordained by a Congregational body. A third, Mr. Sakellarius, a printer, studied for a while in the Baptist Seminary at Newton, and had charge ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson

... pieces, smashed and defaced the monuments and the altars, broke open the poor-box, and carried off all that was worth stealing. The stone slabs from the graves were sold, a saltpetre factory was established in the church, the presbytery was made a town-hall, and the 'worship of Reason,' in the person of a young woman of Chauny, was solemnly inaugurated at Anizy! The chateau and the park were sold by the self-constituted dictators of Anizy to one M. Orry de Sainte-Marie ...
— France and the Republic - A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces - During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 • William Henry Hurlbert

... parental wishes, I consented, in 1738, to become a student of divinity, and pursued my studies in Edinburgh and, from 1743, in Glasgow, passing my trials in the presbytery of Haddington in the summer of 1745. Early in September I was at Moffat, when I heard that the Chevalier Prince Charles had landed in the north. I repaired to Edinburgh, and joined a company of volunteers for the defence of the city. Edinburgh ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol IX. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton

... party was hopeless. This custom was of late much curbed and restrained; but since the discovery of many medicinal fountains near to the place, the vulgar, holding that it may be as medicinal as these are, at this time begin to re-assume their former practice."—Account of Presbytery of Penpont, in ...
— Minstrelsy of the Scottish border (3rd ed) (1 of 3) • Walter Scott

... a place in the Catalogue of the celebrated Century White;—and worse than being shown up by that fanatic, among the catalogues of scandalous and malignant priests admitted into benefices by the prelates, his opinions occasioned the loss of his living of Woodstock by the ascendency of Presbytery. He was Chaplain, during most part of the Civil War, to Sir Henry Lee's regiment, levied for the service of King Charles; and it was said he engaged more than once personally in the field. At least it is certain that Doctor Rochecliffe was repeatedly in great danger, as will appear from more passages ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... straggling village of Soulaines is one long street, a little stream running behind the picturesque, timbered houses, many of these have outer wooden staircases leading to grange or storehouse. Church and presbytery, convent and Mairie ...
— East of Paris - Sketches in the Gatinais, Bourbonnais, and Champagne • Matilda Betham-Edwards

... but I noted it, even in the gravity of the occasion. The next thing I observed was M. le Cure, who, as I have already indicated, is a man of great composure of manner and presence of mind, coming out of the door of the Presbytery. There was a strange look on his face of astonishment and reluctance. He walked very slowly, not as we did, but with a visible desire to turn back, folding his arms across his breast, and holding himself as if against the wind, resisting some gale which ...
— A Beleaguered City • Mrs. Oliphant

... symbol or ceremony, together with the opposition of the hierarchy, led to the rejection of the traditional usages of the Church and the previously universal interpretation of Scripture in favour of three orders in the ministry. The elders, or presbytery, were deemed sufficient; and when, after having for many years been carried along, acquiescing, in the stream of the Reformation, the English Episcopacy tried to make a stand, the coercion was regarded as a ...
— Pioneers and Founders - or, Recent Workers in the Mission field • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... nane could flee, and nane daur'd break the jail, And still the sobbing o' the sea might mix wi' their warlock wail, But then came in black echty-echt, and bluidy echty-nine, Wi' Cess, and Press, and Presbytery, and a' the dule sin' syne, The Saints won free wi' the power o' the key, and cavaliers maun pine! It was Halyburton, Middleton, and Roy and young Dunbar, That Livingstone took on Cromdale haughs, in the last fight of the war: And they were warded in the Bass, till the time they ...
— Ban and Arriere Ban • Andrew Lang

... accorded with the general strain of the Case of Conscience. The object of his tractate was to expose and counteract the purposes and proceedings of the Resolutioners. This was likewise Binning's object in the part he acted, on different occasions, in the presbytery of Glasgow. In the Minutes of that ecclesiastical court, he is always found opposed to the Resolutioners, and co operating with Principal Gillespie, and the other Protesters. This will account for the ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning

... preserved from oblivion in this our own. Now I chanced to have contracted for teaching the lower classes with a young person called Peter, or Patrick, Pattieson, who had been educated for our Holy Kirk, yea, had, by the license of presbytery, his voice opened therein as a preacher, who delighted in the collection of olden tales and legends, and in garnishing them with the flowers of poesy, whereof he was a vain and frivolous professor. For he followed not the example of those strong poets whom I proposed to him as a pattern, but formed ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... thought was to enter the medical profession, but afterward he abandoned this idea and began seriously to consider the call to the ministry. After teaching school for a short period he returned to the seminary and took the full course in theology. He was licensed and ordained by the Presbytery of Catawba and was called to the pastorate of Seventh Street Presbyterian Church, at Charlotte, N. C. The degree of A. M. and the honorary degree of D. D. were conferred upon Rev. R. P. Wyche by Biddle University. He is at this time ...
— Twentieth Century Negro Literature - Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating - to the American Negro • Various

... wall closest to the river ran a spring of water, perfectly clear, and, no doubt, used for the wants of the church and of the presbytery. Several other streams of excellent water run down the hill and intersect the grounds in all directions. No misconception can exist as to where the chapel stood, as there are still (in 1855) living several persons who saw the walls standing, ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... sustained the relation of pastor to the First Presbyterian church until 1858, when he resigned, leaving the Rev. Dr. Goodrich sole pastor. The whole extent of his ministry from the time of his license by the Londonderry Presbytery, 1817, to the present time, March, 1869, has been about fifty-three years. During forty-three years of this period he has been a pastor in only two congregations. The other portion of this time he has preached and labored in vacant churches and where ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin

... possibly throw away a valuable opportunity and content himself with a simple five minutes of plain talk. It was not until Father McCormack rose from his chair with a sigh and began to make his way towards his presbytery that the people understood that the meeting was really at an end. Then they cheered quite heartily. Mr. Billing crossed the square and walked over towards the hotel. He smiled and nodded right and left as he went. An outburst of cheering pursued ...
— General John Regan - 1913 • George A. Birmingham

... this, I could scarcely believe that these men had ever been Indians in paint, feathers, dances and on the war path. Thus I spent my first four days among Indians. And even if preaching, prayers, discussions were in an unknown tongue, I perhaps, understood as much as I would at many a Presbytery or Conference meeting. And I got as much good from the Dakota sermon as I have from many ...
— American Missionary, Volume 44, No. 1, January, 1890 • Various

... London at the head of a commission of the church, to oppose the bills while in dependence. His biographer has justly remarked, that these enactments considered at the time as fatal to the interests of Presbytery in Scotland, have, upon ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift

... one of his brethren of the Presbytery, even of those who suffered like himself, he repaired to Lossie House, and laid before the marquis the whole matter from his point of view—that the tabernacles of the Lord were deserted for dens and caves of the earth; that fellows so void of learning ...
— Malcolm • George MacDonald

... that the choir once extended over the tower-space, and was separated from the nave by a screen, with a parish-altar on its western side for public worship, while the chancel was reserved for the monastic services, with a raised presbytery for the high altar at its eastern end—a threefold division providing ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Priory Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield • George Worley

... infidels, or the Archbishop of Canterbury. They held up to ridicule and abhorrence such of their brethren as considered mere toleration as a boon worth accepting. Every thing, according to these fervent divines, which fell short of re-establishing presbytery as the sole and predominating religion, all that did not imply a full restoration of the Solemn League and Covenant, was an imperfect and unsound composition between God and mammon, episcopacy and prelacy. The following extracts from a printed sermon by one of them, on the subject of "soul-confirmation," ...
— Famous Reviews • Editor: R. Brimley Johnson

... his days—his Master's work; none the less worthy that it was done in no public manner, and had met with no public reward. Beyond his own Presbytery the name of the Reverend Alexander Cardross was scarcely known. He was not a popular preacher; he had never published a book, nor even a sermon, and he had taken no part in the theological controversies of the time. He was content to let other men fight about Christianity; he only ...
— A Noble Life • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

... organize in America as a Presbyterian denomination. They were especially strong in the counties of Princess Anne and Norfolk; and the first Presbyterian congregation in Virginia was organized in 1692 in that area. It is also of interest to note that the Reverend Francis Makemie, who organized the first presbytery in Philadelphia about 1705 and later the first Synod of the Presbyterian Church in America, lived for many ...
— Religious Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century - The Faith of Our Fathers • George MacLaren Brydon

... Constitution of the Presbyterian Church. The book forbids you to put such questions; the book forbids you to begin discipline; the book forbids your sending this committee to help common fame bear testimony against us; the book guards the honour of our humblest member, minister, church, presbytery, against all this impertinently-inquisitorial action. Have you a prosecutor, with his definite charge and witnesses? Have you Common Fame, with her specified charges and witnesses? Have you a request from the South that you send a committee to inquire ...
— Slavery Ordained of God • Rev. Fred. A. Ross, D.D.

... in the following lines occurred thus:—At a meeting of Presbytery appointed to deal with the case of the Reverend David Macrae, of Gourock, Scotland, one of the members of the Court had stolen out to enjoy his pipe and the quiet of his own thoughts for a few minutes before engaging in the ...
— Verses and Rhymes by the way • Nora Pembroke

... lay-patrons to present ministers to parishes be well founded; and supposing it to be well founded, whether it ought to be exercised without the concurrence of the people? That Church is composed of a series of judicatures: a Presbytery, a Synod, and finally, a General Assembly; before all of which, this matter may be contended: and in some cases the Presbytery having refused to induct or settle, as they call it, the person presented by the patron, it has been found necessary to appeal to the ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... Fifeshire families. Many other small Scottish colonies were settled on the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, particularly in Accomac, Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties. To minister to them the Rev. Francis Makemie and the Rev. William Traill were sent out by the Presbytery of Laggan in Ulster. Upper Marlborough, Maryland, was founded by a company of Scottish immigrants and were ministered to by the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, ...
— Scotland's Mark on America • George Fraser Black

... gets very old," continued the Story Girl, "the Presbytery thought it was time he was retired. HE didn't think so; but the Presbytery had their way, because there were so many of them to one of him. He was retired, and a young man was called to Carlisle. Mr. Scott went to live in town, but he came out to Carlisle very often, and visited ...
— The Story Girl • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... have an opportunity of judging," said my Uncle Drummond; "for this gentleman has come to Selkirk, and has asked leave of the presbytery to preach in certain kirks of this neighbourhood. There was some demur at first to the admission of a Prelatist; but after some converse with him this was withdrawn, and he will preach next Sabbath morning at Selkirk, and in the afternoon at Monks' Brae. You can ...
— Out in the Forty-Five - Duncan Keith's Vow • Emily Sarah Holt

... was to place in the old Norman choir the magically lovely choir stalls (1245-1315) which happily still remain to us. Perhaps it was their enthusiastic loveliness which led about 1320 to the rebuilding of the Presbytery and the lovely tabernacle in the back of the wall of the Feretory. When all this was done there remained of the old Norman church only the transepts and the nave. The transepts remain to us still, but the nave was transformed, in the very beginning of the Perpendicular time. ...
— England of My Heart—Spring • Edward Hutton

... he was reading a recipe for pickled gherkins. He had the presence of mind, however, to continue, '—was offered to the Saviour, who said, "It is finished."' And on that text he extemporized a discourse that astounded the entire presbytery." ...
— The Nameless Castle • Maurus Jokai

... a minister much in request for church soirees, where he amused the congregations so greatly with personal anecdote about himself that they never thought much of him afterwards. There is one such minister in every presbytery. ...
— Sentimental Tommy - The Story of His Boyhood • J. M. Barrie

... battle of Poitiers, and was one of the first Knights of the Garter. On his death at Cardiff in 1375 his body was brought to Tewkesbury, and his effigy is to be seen on the roof of the Trinity Chapel on the south side of the high altar. He was buried close to the presbytery, and his wife was, in ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury - with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst Gloucestershire • H. J. L. J. Masse

... The Privy Council was not ashamed to issue a Commission for the trial of twenty-two of these poor creatures. [796] The shops of the booksellers of Edinburgh were strictly searched for heretical works. Impious books, among which the sages of the Presbytery ranked Thomas Burnet's Sacred Theory of the Earth, were strictly suppressed. [797] But the destruction of mere paper and sheepskin would not satisfy the bigots. Their hatred required victims who could feel, and was not appeased till they had perpetrated a crime such as ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 4 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... had united their churches in this State and southern Virginia, in 1765, in a body which was called the "Kehukee Association." In 1770 the Presbyterians had formed the Presbytery of Orange; and in 1788 they set off the Synode of the Carolinas. The Quakers and Moravians were flourishing in certain sections, but as yet the Methodist missionaries had effected but little in the way of planting churches in ...
— School History of North Carolina • John W. Moore

... the Charlottetown call to Mr. Allan is up before the Presbytery," said Mrs. Bell. "That means we'll be ...
— Anne Of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... early seventeen hundred and thirties when Allan Ramsay, 'in fear and trembling of legal and clerical censure,' lent out the plays of Congreve and Farquhar from his famous High Street library. In 1756 it was, that the Presbytery of Edinburgh suspended all clergymen who had witnessed the representation of Douglas, that virtuous tragedy written, to the dismay of all Scotland, by a minister of the Kirk. That the world, even the theological world, moves ...
— Penelope's Experiences in Scotland • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... intend that the evangelist was to act alone. In those days there was no occasion for the services of a diocesan bishop, inasmuch as the Christian community was governed by the common council of the elders, and ordination was performed "with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery." [61:2] Titus was a master builder, and Paul believed that, proceeding in concert with the ministers in Crete, he would render effectual aid in carrying forward the erection of the ecclesiastical edifice. And what proof has Dr. Lightfoot ...
— The Ignatian Epistles Entirely Spurious • W. D. (William Dool) Killen

... headmastership of a school recently established by that nobleman at Charleville, Co. Cork, and soon after he became private chaplain to Lady Mervin, near Dublin. There he was [v.04 p.0814] ordained by the local presbytery, and on returning to England was imprisoned for preaching at Marlborough. He soon regained his liberty, and went to London, where he speedily gathered a large and influential congregation, as much by the somewhat excessive fervour of his piety ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various

... intimated, is Calvinistic, and that is a sufficient definition of it. They believe in a sort of universal suffrage, so far as the election of their pastors is concerned; and if they have grievances on hand they nurse them for a short time, then appeal to "the presbytery." and in case they can't get consolation from that body they go to "the synod." We could give the history of this sect, but in doing so we should have to quote many "figures" and numerous "facts"—things which, according to one British ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus

... Good Old Cause, ycleped Hewson, Rous'd by strange Scandal from th' eternal Flame With noise of Plots, of wondrous Birth and Name, Whilst the sly Jesuit robs us of our Fame. Can all their Conclave, tho with Hell th' agree, Act Mischief equal to Presbytery? Look back on our Success in Forty One, Were ever braver Villanies carried on, Or new ones now more hopefully begun? And shall our Unsuccess our Merit lose, And make us quit the Glory of our Cause? No, hire new Villains, Rogues without Remorse, And let no Law nor Conscience stop ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I (of 6) • Aphra Behn

... and his people? Weariness, full as much as loyalty, was the operative cause of the mood that brought about the Restoration. Only a few weeks before, the gaunt and serried ridges of national conflict stood out as threatening as ever. The grim rocks of Episcopalianism and Presbytery, of Independence and Anabaptism, of divine right and republicanism, stood opposed to one another. Suddenly, almost like a dream, the wave of a new and over-mastering impulse had risen and submerged them all. For the moment it was strong and deep enough to overpower all other currents. ...
— The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2 • Henry Craik

... her joy. She is tormented; I will give her peace again. She knows not liberty; through me she will know its rapture. Once already she has been snatched from death, but, on that day, while they were carrying Rose to the presbytery, her long, golden tresses wept along the wayside. But I will carry her where she pleases. She shall be free and happy; and her hair shall laugh around her face. It shall help me to light her destiny, for beauty is a beacon for benighted ...
— The Choice of Life • Georgette Leblanc

... made up his mind, and he proceeded towards the presbytery, thinking in what manner he would speak ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume IV (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant



Words linked to "Presbytery" :   edifice, church building, church



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com