| 释义 |
▪ I. conventicle|kənˈvɛntɪk(ə)l|
Also 4–5 -icule.
[ad. L. conventicul-um assembly, meeting, association, also place of assembly; in form dim. of conventus assembly, meeting, but not having in cl. L. any diminutive or depreciatory sense.
It was applied, app. by the Roman Christians themselves, to their meeting-houses, or places of worship, and is so used in the edict of Galerius, a.d. 311, permitting them to be rebuilt. In med.L. the word began to receive a derisive or contemptuous, and hence bad sense; according to Du Cange ‘de hæreticis proprie dicitur’. The 4th Council of Carthage has ‘conventicula hereticorum non ecclesia sed conciliabula appellantur’(Du Cange), where, however, the word itself is merely = ‘assembly’, or ‘little assembly’; but assemblies of separatists, heretics, or reformers, being usually small and private, in comparison with the great public assemblies of the popular church, were naturally designated by the diminutive form, which gradually acquired from this association an unfavourable connotation. In English, the word has been used in the good or neutral sense received from ancient Latin; also, in the opprobrious sense in reference to private or clandestine meetings, first of a civil or political, and afterwards of a religious character. Although the ecclesiastical application arose directly out of the political, and was never thoroughly distinct from it in English Law, it was in common use largely affected also by the mediæval association with meetings of sectaries or heretics. Cf. F. conventicule, 16th c. in Littré, ‘prohibition des conventicules [pour le protestantisme]’. In all the early verse quotations, from Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Daniel, Crowne, Butler, Dryden, etc., it is accented ˌconvenˈticle or ˈconvenˌticle (rhyming in Hudibras iii. ii. 1388 with ‘stickle’); Bailey's folio, 1730–6, accents ˈconventicle; and Cowper, Task ii. 437, originally wrote ‘the nasal twang, At ˈconvenˌticle heard’, but altered it in ed. 3 (1787) to ‘Heard at conˈventicle’.]
I. A meeting secular or religious.
†1. An assembly, a meeting; esp. a regular meeting of any society, corporation, body, or order of men. Obs. [L. conventus and conventiculum.]
1382Wyclif Ps. xv[i]. 4, I shal not gadere to gidere the conventiculis [1388 ethir litle couentis] of hem of blodis [Vulg. conventicula eorum de sanguinibus, after LXX συναγωγὰς]. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VIII. 149 Þis William..made openliche conventicles and counsailes and gadrynge of men. a1483Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. 49 Item [The Deane of the Chappell] ought every Friday to kepe a conventicle with them all [chanters, etc.] and there to reherse the fautes. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. x. 63 Will plucke you as yll doers into theyr counsels and conuentycles [ver. 17, ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς]. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 75 He caused a convocation of Bishops to be holden at Westmynster... In which conventicle, then being present all the Bishoppes and Abbottes. 1590Greene Never too late Wks. 1882 VIII. 161 He [the Mayor] called a Conuenticle of his Brethren. 1611Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. ii. (1614) 4/1 What could not be there decided, was referred to a societie or conventicle of greater jurisdiction. a1619Beaum. & Fl. Knt. Malta i. iii, To you, and all this famous conventicle, Let me with modesty refuse acceptance Of this high order. 1637–50Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 392 Not by a..Conventicle of bishops and doctors.
†b. The action of assembling, assembly. Obs.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xiii. (Arb.) 46 They had yet no large halles or places of conuenticle.
†2. A little assembly, a meeting of a private character. Obs.
1613R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3) Conuenticle, a little assembly. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. Pref. ⁋34 The societies of Christians growing up from Conventicles to Assemblies..little by little turned the Common-wealth into a Church. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. iii. §4 No disgrace is imported in the notation of the word Conventicle, sounding nothing else but a small Convention... However Custome (the sole mint-master of currant words) hath took of Conventicles from signifying a small number, to denote the meeting of such (how many soever) in a clandestine way, contrary to the commands of the present lawfull Authority. 1656Blount Glossogr., Conventicle, a little or private Assembly.
†3. A meeting or assembly of a clandestine, irregular, or illegal character, or considered to have sinister purpose or tendency. Obs.
In many of the quotations conventicle is associated with other terms, as congregation, gathering, assembly, the unfavourable sense being conveyed by the context; but it is evident that the term came to be considered as specially fitted to express disapprobation. (Cf. sense 2, quot. 1655.)
[Cf. Edict John I. of France (1316) III. Ordin. p. 63 (Du Cange) Colligationes aut conventiculas factas aut initas in castro.] 1383in Riley Mem. Lond. 480 That no man make none congregaciouns, conventicules, ne assembles of poeple. c1400Apol. Loll. 50 Foul spechis..or conuenticlis purposing iuel, as þeft or manslawt, or swilk oþer. [1422Act 1 Hen. VI, c. 3 Pur tant qe diverses homicides murdres rapes roberies & autres felonies riotes conventicles & malefaitz jatarde ount estez faitz en diverses countees dEngleterre par gentz neez en Irlande.] c1438Hen. VI. in Halliw. Royal Lett. 118 Not suffering privy gatherings, or conventicles to be had or made by night or by day thereabout. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. 350 Dyuers conuenticulis and gaderynges were made of the cytezeyns and other, that robbyd in dyuers places of the cytie and dyd moche harme. 1512Act 4 Hen. VIII, c. 14 Preamb., Confederycies, riotys, routys, conventicles, unlawfull lyeng in wayte. 1548Hall Chron. 176 The erles of Marche and Warwicke..had knowledge of all these doynges, and secrete conventicles. 1581Lambarde Eiren. ii. v. (1588) 183. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 166, I, all of you haue lay'd your heads together, My selfe had notice of your Conuenticles, And all to make away my guiltlesse Life. 1616Bullokar, Conuenticle, a little assembly, most commonly for an ill purpose. 1643Prynne Sov. Power Parl., App. 26 The Commons..drew them to Conventicles and Companies. a1718Penn Wks. 1726 I. 465 Conventicle is a diminutive private Assembly, designing and contriving Evil to particular Persons, or the Government in general.
4. A religious meeting or assembly of a private, clandestine, or illegal kind; a meeting for the exercise of religion otherwise than as sanctioned by the law.
In the statutes of Henry IV and V, not distinct from sense 3; the special sense begins under Henry VIII.
[1400–1Act 2 Hen. IV, c. 15 De hujusmodi secta nefandisque doctrinis & opinionibus conventiculas & confederationes illicitas faciunt scolas tenent & exercent. 1414Act 2 Hen. V, Stat. i. c. 7 Denquerer de toutz yceux qi teignent ascuns errours ou heresies come lollardes..si bien de lour sermons come de lour escoles conventicles congregations & confederacies.] 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 223 b, He sente a flode after her, by the whiche is vnderstanded the conuentycle of heretykes. 1550Ridley in E. Cardwell Ann. Reformed Ch. Eng. (1844) I. 91 Whether any of the Anabaptists' sect, or other, use notoriously any unlawful or private conventicles..separating themselves from the rest of the parish? 1579Fulke Confut. Sanders 586 The Nouatians kept conuenticles from the Catholiks. 1625Bacon Ess., Unity in Relig. (Arb.) 425 When some Men seeke Christ, in the Conuenticles of Heretikes, and others, in an Outward Face of a Church. 1638Chillingw. Relig. Prot. i. vii. §27. 401 Yet are not to be sought for in the Conventicle of Papists. 1656Evelyn Diary 3 Aug., I went to London to receive the B. Sacrament, the first time the Church of England was reduced to a chamber and conventicle, so sharp was the persecution. 1676W. Hubbard Happiness of People 40 The Conventicles or meetings of the Arrians. 1750Chesterfield Lett. III. 9 You..preferred the established Italian assemblies to the English conventicles set up against them by dissenting English ladies. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. III. 25 The rigorous prohibition of conventicles..in which the [Arian] heretics could assemble with the intention of worshipping. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. xi. 316 [Under Cromwell] episcopalian conventicles were openly kept in London. 1872Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lxxiv. 8 One object of persecutors has always been to put an end to all conventicles, as they have called them.
b. spec. in Eng. Hist. A meeting of (Protestant) Nonconformists or Dissenters from the Church of England for religious worship, during the period when such meetings were prohibited by the law.
This specific application gradually became distinct after 1593, and may be said to have been recognized by the ‘Conventicle Act’ of 1664; for although the word there occurs in constant conjunction with assembly and meeting, and always with qualification, it was entitled ‘An Act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles’, by which title it is cited in the Act of Toleration of 1689. The application to Nonconformist worship after its legalization or ‘establishment’ in 1689, and esp. after the repeal of the Conventicle Act in 1812, comes, according to circumstances, from a historical survival of the idea of illegality or from a living idea of schism or heresy.
1593Act 35 Eliz. c. i. To..be present at any unlawful Assemblies, Conventicles or Meetings, under Colour or Pretence of any Exercise of Religion. 1631High Commission Cases (Camden) 200 Mr. Viccars preacheth at Stamford and blesseth some and curseth others that doe not frequent his conventicles. 1663Pepys Diary 27 May, The first [bill]..is, he [Roger Pepys] says, too devilish a severe act against conventicles. 1664Act 16 Chas. II, c. 4 (Conventicle Act) Any Assembly Conventicle or Meeting under colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion in other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy or practise of the Church of England. 1664Pepys Diary 7 Aug., Came by several poor creatures carried by constables, for being at a conventicle. 1678Butler Hud. iii. ii. 1388 Take all religions in, and stickle From Conclave down to Conventicle. 1682Dryden Medal 284 A Conventicle of gloomy sullen Saints. 1711Act 10 Anne c. 6 (Occasional Conformity Act) Present at any Conventicle Assembly or Meeting..for the Exercise of Religion in other Manner than according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England..at which Conventicle Assembly or Meeting there shall be Ten Persons or more assembled together over and besides those of the same Houshold. 1711Addison Spect. No. 127 ⁋7, I wish it may not drive many ordinary Women into Meetings and Conventicles. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. iv. 185 When..even those who voluntarily renounced the temporal advantages of the establishment were hunted from their private conventicles. 1878Lecky Eng. in 18th C. II. v. 39 It was made a capital offence to preach in any conventicle.
c. In Sc. Hist. more especially associated with the field preaching (field-conventicles) of the Presbyterian ministers during the reigns of Charles II and James II, which was often attended by large numbers of armed men (armed conventicles).
1667in Wodrow Hist. Ch. Scotl. (1721) I. ii. v. 319 Upon Notice of any numerous Conventicle..you shall do your utmost endeavour to seize the Minister. 1678Let. 6 Aug. in J. Dodds Sc. Covenanters vii, On Sunday last there was a conventicle in the west country in Carrick that the like hath not been seen in Scotland, for there were, as is said, above 600 well-appointed men in arms, and above 7000 common people. a1715Burnet Own Time I. ii. 506 House conventicles, crowded without the doors, or at the windows, were to be reckoned and punished as field conventicles. 1828Scott Tales Grandf. Ser. ii. (1841) l. 223 The custom of holding field conventicles was adopted. Ibid., The number of armed conventicles increased. 1888M. Morris Claverhouse vi. 106 News..of an unusually large and well-armed conventicle to be held at Blacklock [in 1684].
transf.1679Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 10 Wizards and Witches have sometimes their field Conventicles.
†5. Applied controversially or opprobriously, to any assembly of which the public or regular character is denied: a ‘hole-and-corner’ meeting.
1626Bernard Isle of Man (ed. 10) 259 Wee have long desired a Free Generall Councill, but not a gathering together like the lewd Conventicle of Trent. 1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. i. iii. (1636) 130 Against this assembly Francis the French King protested and helde it but for a private Conventicle. 1682G. Topham Rome's Trad. 216 Things look now with another face than they did before the Conventicle of Trent.
II. A place of meeting or assembling.
6. gen. Also fig. rare.
1596Edward III, ii. i, In the summer arbour sit by me, Make it our council-house, or cabinet; Since green our thoughts, green be the conventicle. 1865Masson Rec. Brit. Philos. ii. 33 On this ground of Consciousness..as the repository, storehouse, or conventicle of all knowledge.
†7. Used to render L. conventiculum applied to the early Christian places of worship in Rome. Obs.
[311Edict of Galerius in Lactantius De Morte Persec. xxxiv, Promptissimam in his quoque indulgentiam nostram credidimus porrigendam, ut denuo sint christiani, et conventicula sua componant. See also ibid. v. 11. 10, xxxvi. §3.] 1563Homilies ii. Idolatry iii. (1859) 255 In Maximinian and Constantius the Emperors' proclamation the places where Christians resorted to public prayer were called ‘Conventicles’.
8. A nonconformist or dissenting meeting-house. Hence put for nonconformity as a system or practice. (Now rhetorical or opprobrious.)
1550Bale Apol. 118 Every where appoynted they howses of prayer..called conventycles or places of assembly for sober honest men and not for prestes and nunnes. 1682Dryden Medal Ep. to Whigs, I hear the conventicle is shut up. 1688–9Luzancy in Pepys Diary & Corr. (1879) VI. 164 A conventicle set up here since this unhappy Liberty of Conscience. 1793Copper-Plate Mag. No. 22 Though five only of the parishes have churches, there are six conventicles, or meeting-houses. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. xi. 229 These new levellers would have converted a cathedral into a conventicle. 1845Bright Sp. Irel. 16 Apr., Not through the portals of the cathedrals and the parish churches but from the conventicles. 1891Anti-Jacobin 21 Mar. 182/2 His intellectual faculties, when not engaged in the mill or the counting-house, have free course in the conventicle.
†9. A small convent. Obs. [Cf. conventicula monachorum, a.d. 962 in Du Cange.]
1550Acts Privy Council Eng. (1891) III. 73 All monasteries and religiouse houses, and all conventicles and conventes of monkes, freeres, nonnes..and other persons called religiouse. 1603Adv. Don Sebastian in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 406 A gentleman of Venice..came to the town to the conventicles of St. Francis..where the King lay concealed.
10. attrib. and Comb., as conventicle preacher, etc. Conventicle Acts, the acts 16 Chas. II, c. 4 and 22 Chas. II, c. 1 ‘to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles’.
a1631Donne Serm. viii. (1839) I. 77 All true purification is in the light: corner purity, clandestine purity, Conventicle Purity is not purity. 1820Southey Life Wesley II. 536 His friends advised that an application should be made to Parliament for the repeal of the Conventicle Act. 1837Hist. Eng. (Lardner) VII. ii. 39 footn., The English protestantism which inspired the conventicle act has little right to reproach French popery with intolerance and persecution. Ibid. VII. x. 360 That the conventicle preacher should be hunted down. 1884Statutes Index (ed. 9) 234 Conventicles Act (repealed by 52 Geo. 3. c. 155. s. 1).
▪ II. conˈventicle, v.
[f. prec. n. Formerly accented ˈconvenˌticle.]
†1. trans. To form (persons) into a conventicle or irregular assembly, to band together. Obs.
1597–1602W. Riding Sessions Rolls (Yorks. Archæol. Assoc.) 76 Uprore of people..raised and conventicled within the saide towne.
†2. To convert (a place) into a conventicle. Obs.
1683O. U. Par. Ch. No Conventicles 34 Their little Variations about Modes..will not be of validity to conventicle or disconventicle Parochial Churches.
3. intr. To meet in a conventicle; to hold or frequent conventicles.
1659Fuller App. Inj. Innoc. (1840) 343 If factious people should, in peaceable times, against lawful authority, conventicle in a barn or stable. 1670Marvell Corr. cxxxvii. Wks. 1872–5, II. 307 That one Fox, a teacher of some fanaticall people in Wiltshire, did conventicle there. 1680G. Hickes Spirit of Popery 69 They [the Scotch] began to Conventicle in..formidable numbers..in the Fields. |