High Commission court

(See extract.) "A court in causes ecclesiastical, erected in A. D. 1559, to vindicate the dignity and peace of the church, by reforming ecclesiastical persons, and all manner of errors, heresies, schisms, offenses, and enormities. Means were found to vest in the commi ioners almost despotic powers of fining and imprisoning, which they exerted much beyond the degree of the offense itself, and frequently over offenses by no means of spiritual cognizance. This court was abolished by statute 16 Car. I. c. 11; and the attempt to revive it, during the reign of James II., served only to hasten his ruin." - Black stone: Comment., bk. ii., ch. 3. high-day, s. & a. A. As substantive: 1. A feast, a festival. 2. Broad daylight. B. As adj .: Festival; jovial. "Thou spend est such high -day wit in praising him." Shakesp.: Merchant of Venice , ii. 9. High-Dutch, s. The cultivated German as opposed to the vernacular dialects.