Mensa synonyms

The grounds for a divorce a mensa et thoro, which may be granted for ever or for a limited time only, are cruelty, excessively vicious conduct, or desertion; for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii the chief grounds are impotence at the time of marriage, adultery or deliberate abandonment for three years.

Af ter the 4th century other names or expressions come into use, such as mensa tremenda, sedes corporis et sanguinis Christi.

In the Roman Catholic Church, which preserves in this respect the tradition that had become established during the middle ages, the component parts of a fixed altar in the liturgical sense are the table (mensa), or super-altar, consisting of a stone slab; the support (stipes), consisting either of a solid mass or of four or more columns; the sepulchrum, or altar-cavity, a small chamber for the reception of the relics of martyrs.