Bible Dictionaries
Sacrilege

　　The crime of profaning sacred things, or things devoted to God. The ancient church distinguished several sorts of sacrilege.

　　 The first was the diverting things appropriated to sacred purposes to ther uses.

　　 2. Robbing the graves, or defacing and spoiling the monuments of the dead.

　　 3. Those were considered as sacrilegious persons who delivered up their Bibles and the sacred utensils of the church to the Pagans, in the time of the Dioclesian persecution.

　　 4. Profaning the sacraments, churches, altars, &c.

　　 5. Molesting or hindering a clergyman in the performance of his office.

　　 6. Depriving men of the use of the Scriptures or the sacraments, particularly the cup in the eucharist. The Romish casuists acknowledge all these but the last.