l church is, however, in
Greek the _Catholicon_.

An isolated use of the word "catholic" as a secular legal term survives
in Scots law; a _catholic creditor_ is one whose debt is secured over
several or over all of the subjects belonging to the debtor.

CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH, THE, a religious community often called
"Irvingites," though neither actually founded nor anticipated by Edward
Irving (q.v.). Irving's relation to this community was, according to its
members, somewhat similar to that of John the Baptist to the early
Christian Church, i.e. he was the forerunner and prophet of the coming
dispensation, not the founder of a new sect; and indeed the only
connexion which Irving seems to have had with the existing organization
of the Catholic Apostolic body was in "fostering spiritual persons who
had been driven out of other congregations for the exercise of their
spiritual gifts." Shortly after Irving's trial and deposition (1831),
certain persons were, at some meetings held for prayer, designated as
"called to be apostles of the Lord" by certain others claiming prophetic
gifts. In the year 1835, six months after Irving's death, six others
were similarly designated as "called" to complete the number of the
"twelve," who were then formally "separated," by the pastors of the
local congregations to which they belonged, to their higher office in
the universal church on the 14th of July 1835. This separation is
understood by the community not as "in any sense being a schism or
separation from the one Catholic Church, but a separation to a special
work of blessing and intercession on behalf of it." The twelve were
afterwards guided to ordain others--twelve prophets, twelve evangelists,
and twelve pastors, "sharing equally with them the one Catholic
Episcopate," and also seven deacons for administering the temporal
affairs of the church catholic. The apostles were the channels of the
Holy Ghost and the mysteries of God, and the authoritative interpreters
of "prophetic utterance"; their teaching was brought home to the people
by the "evangelists." The function of the prophets was to explain
scripture and exhort to holiness, that of the "pastors" is explained by
their title. The central episcopacy of forty-eight was regarded as
"indicated by prophecy," being foreshown in the forty-eight boards of
the Mosaic tabernacle. For ecclesiastical purposes the church universal
is under their charge in twelve tribes; for Christ