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 unfavorable 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 co:nventi·cle or co·nventi:cle (rhyming in Hudibras, III. ii. 1388 with ‘stickle’); Bailey’s folio, 1730–6, accents co·nventicle; and Cowper, Task, II. 437, originally wrote ‘the nasal twang, At co·nventi·cle heard,’ but altered it in ed. 3 (1787), to ‘Heard at conve·nticle.’]
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.]
1382. Wyclif, 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].
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 149. Þis William … made openliche conventicles and counsailes and gadrynge of men.
a. 1483. Liber 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.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. x. 63. Will plucke you as yll doers into theyr counsels and conuentycles [ver. 17, ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς].
1568. Grafton, 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.
1590. Greene, Never too Late, Wks. 1882, VIII. 161. He [the Mayor] called a Conuenticle of his Brethren.
1611. Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit., II. (1614), 4/1. What could not be there decided, was referred to a societie or conventicle of greater jurisdiction.
a. 1619. Beaum. & Fl., Knt. Malta, I. iii. To you, and all this famous conventicle, Let me with modesty refuse acceptance Of this high order.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 392. Not by a … Conventicle of bishops and doctors.
† b. The action of assembling, assembly. Obs.
1589. Puttenham, 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.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Conuenticle, a little assembly.
1649. Jer. 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.
1655. Fuller, 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.
1656. Blount, 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 unfavorable 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.]
1383. in Riley, Mem. Lond., 480. That no man make none congregaciouns, conventicules, ne assembles of poeple.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 50. Foul spechis … or conuenticlis purposing iuel, as þeft or manslawt, or swilk oþer.
[1422. Act 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.]
c. 1438. Hen. VI., in Halliw., Royal Lett., 118. Not suffering privy gatherings, or conventicles to be had or made by night or by day thereabout.
1494. Fabyan, 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.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., c. 14 Preamb., Confederycies, riotys, routys, conventicles, unlawfull lyeng in wayte.
1548. Hall, Chron., 176. The erles of Marche and Warwicke … had knowledge of all these doynges, and secrete conventicles.
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., II. v. (1607), 174. Though otherwise they be sinable offences vnder the name and calling of Conuenticle.
1593. Shaks., 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.
1616. Bullokar, Conuenticle, a little assembly, most commonly for an ill purpose.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., App. 26. The Commons … drew them to Conventicles and Companies.
a. 1718. Penn, 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.
[1400–1. Act 2 Hen. IV., c. 15. De hujusmodi secta nefandisque doctrinis & opinionibus conventiculas & confederationes illicitas faciunt scolas tenent & exercent.
1414. Act 2 Hen. V., Stat. 1. 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.]
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 223 b. He sente a flode after her, by the whiche is vnderstanded the conuentycle of heretykes.
1550. Ridley, 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?
1579. Fulke, Confut. Sanders, 586. The Nouatians kept conuenticles from the Catholiks.
1625. Bacon, 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.
1638. Chillingw., Relig. Prot., I. vii. § 27. 401. Yet are not to be sought for in the Conventicle of Papists.
1656. Evelyn, 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.
1676. W. Hubbard, Happiness of People, 40. The Conventicles or meetings of the Arrians.
1750. Chesterf., Lett., III. 9. You … preferred the established Italian assemblies to the English conventicles set up against them by dissenting English ladies.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 25. The rigorous prohibition of conventicles … in which the [Arian] heretics could assemble with the intention of worshipping.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), II. xi. 316. [Under Cromwell] episcopalian conventicles were openly kept in London.
1872. Spurgeon, 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.
1593. Act 35 Eliz., c. 1. To … be present at any unlawful Assemblies, Conventicles or Meetings, under Colour or Pretence of any Exercise of Religion.
1631. High Commission Cases (Camden), 200. Mr. Viccars preacheth at Stamford and blesseth some and curseth others that doe not frequent his conventicles.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 27 May. The first [bill] … is, he [Roger Pepys] says, too devilish a severe act against conventicles.
1664. Act 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.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 7 Aug. Came by several poor creatures carried by constables, for being at a conventicle.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. ii. 1388. Take all religions in, and stickle From Conclave down to Conventicle.
1682. Dryden, Medal, 284. A Conventicle of gloomy sullen Saints.
1711. Act 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.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 127, ¶ 7. I wish it may not drive many ordinary Women into Meetings and Conventicles.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), I. iv. 185. When … even those who voluntarily renounced the temporal advantages of the establishment were hunted from their private conventicles.
1878. Lecky, 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).
1667. in 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.
1678. Lett., 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.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, I. II. 506. House conventicles, crowded without the doors, or at the windows, were to be reckoned and punished as field conventicles.
1828. Scott, Tales Grandf., Ser. II. (1841), l. 223. The custom of holding field conventicles was adopted. Ibid. The number of armed conventicles increased.
1888. M. Morris, Claverhouse, vi. 106. News … of an unusually large and well-armed conventicle to be held at Blacklock [in 1684].
transf. 1679. Plot, 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.
1626. Bernard, 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.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., I. iii. (1636), 130. Against this assembly Francis the French King protested and helde it but for a private Conventicle.
1682. G. 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.
1596. Edward 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.
1865. Masson, 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.
[311. Edict 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.]
1563. Homilies, II. Idolatry, III. (1859), 255. In Maximinian and Constantias 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.)
1550. Bale, 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.
1682. Dryden, Medal, Ep. to Whigs. I hear the conventicle is shut up.
1688–9. Luzancy, in Pepys, Diary & Corr. (1879), VI. 164. A conventicle set up here since this unhappy Liberty of Conscience.
1793. Copper-Plate Mag., No. 22. Though five only of the parishes have churches, there are six conventicles, or meeting-houses.
1830. D’Israeli, Chas. I., III. xi. 229. These new levellers would have converted a cathedral into a conventicle.
1845. Bright, Sp. Irel., 16 April. Not through the portals of the cathedrals and the parish churches but from the conventicles.
1891. Anti-Jacobin, 21 March, 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.]
1550. Acts 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.
1603. Adv. 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.’
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., viii. (1839), I. 77. All true purification is in the light: corner purity, clandestine purity, Conventicle Purity is not purity.
1820. Southey, Life Wesley, II. 536. His friends advised that an application should be made to Parliament for the repeal of the Conventicle Act.
1837. Hist. 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.
1884. Statutes, Index (ed. 9), 234. Conventicles Act (repealed by 52 Geo. 3. c. 155. s. 1).
