Common

COMMON. By Common is meant sometimes profane, unclean. To eat with common hands; that is to say, without washing ones Hands. Communibus Mat. vii. 2, 5. Acts x. 4, 15.manibus, id est, non lotis manducare. I have never eaten any thing common, says S. Peter, but he heard a voice from Heaven saying unto him, What God hath purified, that call not thou common: Quod Deus purificavit, tu commune ne dixeris. And S. Paul, Rom. xiv. 14. There is nothing in its own nature common or profane: Nihil commune per ipsum, nisi ei qui existimat quid commune esse. Moses, almost in the same sense calls a Vineyard common or prophane, which all the World was permitted to eat of. What man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet made it common? If there be such an one, he may return to his Deut. xx. 6.House, because the first fruits of Trees and Vines were reckoned unclean, or rather were consecrated to the Lord, and the owner was not allowed to touch them, till after the fourth year. See hereafter Lev. xix. 24, 25.Profane.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages