Trilapse
- a third fall into sin. Walter Steuart in Collections concerning the Worship, etc. of the Church of Scotland (1709) decrees: Fornicators are to make profession of their repentance three several Sabbaths; who are guilty of a relapse therein, six Sabbaths; who are guilty of a trilapse, twenty-six Sabbaths. And if you think that’s bad, the Reliquiae Antiquae Scoticae edited by George Kinloch and Charles Baxter, gives from 1659 Ane extract of the old laird of Mains his faults - viz. sextulaps in fornication. Do we criticise or admire the old laird? The prize, however, goes to the sinner in Strathbogie who in 1653 was Excommunicat for octolapse in fornication.