Catholic

Catholic, kath′ol-ik, adj. universal: general, embracing the whole body of Christians: orthodox, as opposed to heterodox and sectarian—applied esp. to the Christian Church before the great schism between the East and the West: liberal, the opposite of exclusive: relating to the name claimed by its adherents for the Church of Rome as the alleged sole visible representative of the church founded by Christ and His apostles—the characteristic marks of the Catholic Church being universality, antiquity, unity: relating to the Roman Catholics.—n. an adherent of the R.C. Church.—v.t. Cathol′icise, to make Catholic.—ns. Cathol′icism, Catholic′ity, universality: liberality or breadth of view: the tenets of the R.C. Church; Cathol′icon, a universal remedy or panacea; Cathol′icos, the Patriarch of Armenia.—Catholic creditor (law of Scot.), one whose debt is secured over several or the whole subjects belonging to the debtor—e.g. over two or more heritable estates; Catholic emancipation, the relief of the Roman Catholics from certain vexatious penal regulations and restrictions, granted in 1829; Catholic or General epistles, the name given to certain epistles in the canon addressed not to particular churches or individuals, but either to the Church universal or to a large and indefinite circle of readers—originally only 1 John and 1 Peter, but, as early as the 3d century, also James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John; Catholic king, a title given specially to the king of Spain.—Old Catholics, the title assumed by a number of Catholics who at Munich protested against the new dogma of the personal infallibility of the pope in all ex cathedrâ deliverances proclaimed by the Vatican Council in 1870—now a considerable communion or church in Germany and Switzerland. [Gr. katholicos, universal—kata, throughout, holos, the whole.]