Laity
Defined in 8 dictionaries — Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Bouvier (1914), Black's (1910), Black's (1891), Anderson (1889), Stimson (1881), Abbott (1879)
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
Those persons who do not make a part of the clergy. In the United States the division of the people into clergy and laity is not authorized by law, but is merely conventional.
Ballentine's Law Dictionary
James A. Ballentine · 1916
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
Those persons who do not make a part of the clergy. They are divided Into three states: 1. Civil, Including all the nation, except the clergy, the army, and navy, and subdivided into the nobility and the commonalty. 2. Military. 3. Maritime, consisting of the navy. Whart. Lex. In the United States the division of the people into clergy and laity is not authorized by law, and is
Black's Law Dictionary
Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
(1) Civil, including all the nation, except the clergy, the army, and navy, and subdivided into the nobility and the commonalty;
(2) military;
(3) maritime, consisting of the navy. Wharton.
A Dictionary of Law
Henry Campbell Black · 1891
In Englishlaw. Those persons whodo not make a part of the clergy. They are divided into three states: (1) Civil, including all the nation, except the clergy, the army, and navy, and subdivided into the 7obility and the commonalty; (2) military; (3) maritime, consisting of thenavy. Wharton.
A Dictionary of Law
William C. Anderson · 1889
See Lay, 1.
Glossary of Technical Terms, Phrases, and Maxims of the Common Law
Frederic Jesup Stimson · 1881
The lay part of the people, v. lay.
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
In England, where clergymen of the established church are a distinct rank or class, in legal cognizance, the word laity has a definite legal meaning, as including all persons who are not of the clergy. And laic or layman signifies an individual who is not in orders; not a clergyman. In the United States, these words have no use as law terms; the employment of them is only conventional. Layman is probably here generally used to imply that a person is a member of or connected with a religious denomination, but not an ordained minister. Persons wholly unconnected with any religious body would not ordinarily be deemed embraced in the term the laity. The laity are divisible into three states; 1. Civil, which includes all the nation, except the clergy, the army, and the navy. It is subdivided into nobility, as dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons; commonalty, as knights of the garter, knightsbanneret, baronets, knights of the bath, knights-bachelors, esquires, gentlemen, yeomen, tradesmen, artificers, and laborers. 2. Military, consisting of the militia of each county, raised from among the people, officered by the principal land-owners, and commanded by the lord lieutenant. 3. Mari-