Conventicle : n 1: a secret unauthorized meeting for religious worship
2: a building for religious assembly (especially
Nonconformists, e.g., Quakers) [syn: meetinghouse]
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Conventicle : \Con*ven"ti*cle\, n. [L. conventiculum, dim. of
conventus: cf. F. conventicule. See Convent, n.]
1. A small assembly or gathering; esp., a secret assembly.
They are commanded to abstain from all conventicles
of men whatsoever. --Ayliffe.
2. An assembly for religious worship; esp., such an assembly
held privately, as in times of persecution, by
Nonconformists or Dissenters in England, or by Covenanters
in Scotland; -- often used opprobriously, as if those
assembled were heretics or schismatics.
The first Christians could never have had recourse
to nocturnal or clandestine conventicles till driven
to them by the violence of persecution. --Hammond.
A sort of men who . . . attend its [the curch of
England's] service in the morning, and go with their
wives to a conventicle in the afternoon. --Swift.
