Men of the cloth

Usage examples of ecclesiastics.

The mortmain of theorists extinct in science clings as close as that of ecclesiastics defunct in law.

Rome alone, were ecclesiastical possessions so rich, or their establishments more splendid than at Venice, nowhere were the lines of power so jealously defined and guarded as in the government of this Republic from which ecclesiastics were rigorously excluded,--although no least ceremonial was held complete without the presence of the Patriarch and priests who evidenced the devotion of Venice to the Holy Mother Church,--though every parish kept its festa, and the religion of Venice was an essential part of the life of its people.

Her husband, coming in late from the Council Chamber one evening, rallied her upon it, saying that her receptions might be mistaken for those of a lady abbess--there were so many friars and grave ecclesiastics among her guests.

Venice was at her feet, and she preferred the dull talk of a few ecclesiastics to the vivacious gallantry of the brilliant young nobles who thronged her salons--the more anxious to please this queen of the day, that their efforts won only the dignified and gracious, yet reserved, recognition that was extended to all her guests alike.

And for the value of these possessions--for nowhere is a government more generous to the ecclesiastics than the Republic hath been--it hath been rated that a fourth part of the entire realty of the dominion--nay, some count it a third part--is already the property of the Church.

Inquisition,--an army sixty thousand strong, one third of the entire population of Venice,--impressed from nobles, gondoliers, ecclesiastics, and people of every grade and profession, from every quarter of the city, and charged to lose nothing of any detail that might aid the dreaded chiefs of the Inquisition in their silent and fearful work--the power of Piero would have been virtually limitless.

But a sudden turmoil broke the spell when the ecclesiastics of Kofukuji found that the Enryakuji priests had occupied their position on the hill.