PURGATION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Purgation

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noun

Purgation n.

The act of purging; the act of clearing, cleansing, or putifying, by separating and carrying off impurities, or whatever is superfluous; the evacuation of the bowels.

(Law) The clearing of one's self from a crime of which one was publicly suspected and accused. It was either canonical, which was prescribed by the canon law, the form whereof used in the spiritual court was, that the person suspected take his oath that he was clear of the matter objected against him, and bring his honest neighbors with him to make oath that they believes he swore truly; or vulgar, which was by fire or water ordeal, or by combat. See Ordeal. "Let him put me to my purgation."

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Etymology of 'Purgation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Purgation" Quotes from Famous Books

... about them with a spirit not wholly removed from the old ecclesiastical rancor which would kill where it could not convince. And taking it for granted that it is the mission of the intellect to rectify what is wrong in the world, fruition seemed to answer their efforts. Society was put to its purgation in very plausible fashion. Songs about Temperance and various desirable perfections of the outward man were shouted in bar-rooms hired for the purpose at considerable expense. Then there was dimly seen a further "progress," ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 72, October, 1863 • Various

... old fellow;—I didn't mean to put you on your purgation. I want you to look at that sketch. Do you know for whom it is intended?" Johnny took up a scrap of paper, and having scrutinised it for a minute or two declared that he had not the slightest idea who was represented. "You know the subject,—the story ...

— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope

... the great tidings, and to startle, if possible, a careless and unbelieving generation into preparation for the day of the Lord and for that blessed millennium,—the restored paradise,—when, renovated and renewed by its fire-purgation, the earth shall become as of old the garden of the Lord, and the ...

— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... was in force until the seventeenth century, but Bishop Wilson judged it un-Christian, and never practised it. The old Roman canon law of Purgation, a similar ordeal, he used not rarely. It was designed to meet cases of slander in which there was no direct and positive evidence. If a good woman had been accused of unchastity in that vague way of rumour which is always more damaging and devilish than open accusation, she might ...

— The Little Manx Nation - 1891 • Hall Caine

... who are deposed befor them for subscribing of the Declinator, & reading of the Service book and for no other grosse cause, That upon their true repentance & submission to the Constitutions of this Kirk & upon their purgation and clearnesse from any grosse Faults laid to their charge in any new processe against them, they may be found by the Synod as capable of the Ministrie, when God grants them an ordinary and lawful calling by admission from the Presbyterie, either in the Church they ...

— The Acts Of The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland

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