| 释义 |
mother-church
(See also mother n.1 2 c.)
1.
†a. A parish church, as distinguished from a chapel of ease. Obs.
c1325Chron. Eng. (Ritson) 923 Fifti moder chirchen ant mo He lette falle, ant chapeles bo. c1450Godstow Reg. 649 Except the tethys of wolle & lambys of the modur⁓churche of Bloxham. 1546Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees) II. 228 The same chauntery is distaunt from the parysshe church..whych they calle the mother church, ij myles. 1712Addison Spect. No. 452 ⁋7 We are informed from Pankridge, that a dozen Weddings were lately celebrated in the Mother Church of that Place. 1778Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Weymouth, Some of the inhabitants go to Radipole church,..others to Wyke-Regis the mother-church.
attrib.1688R. Holme Armoury iii. xiii. 473 A Square Steeple, or Parochiall, or Mother Church Steeple.
b. The principal church of a country, region, or city; sometimes a cathedral or a metropolitan church. Now rare.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 77 Þe þridde chirche was þe chief moderchirche of al Wales. 1513Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 464 Whiche churche was principall to all the citie, And the mouther-church called withouten doubt. 1738J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. ix. (ed. 8) 106 St. Paul's, the Mother Church of London Diocese. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 125 The mother church of the whole land, the church of Christ at Canterbury.
2. The church (i.e. organized body of Christians) of which another church is a ‘daughter’ or offshoot; also, the oldest or original church from which all others have sprung.
1574G. Scot Treat. agst. Err. Rom. Ch. A iij b, Herein that wicked mother-churche We may to witnes call. 1667Poole Dial. betw. Protest. & Papist (1735) 31 Not Rome, but Jerusalem should be the Mother-Church. 1882Farrar Early Chr. I. 94 In reading St. James we can realise the sentiments of the Mother-Church of Jerusalem. |