Sacrilege
in a general sense, the violation or profaning of sacred things; more strictly the alienating to laymen, or common purposes, what was given to religious persons and pious uses. Church robbery, or the taking things out of a holy place is sacrilege, and by the common law was punished with more severity than other thefts, but it is now put by statute on the same footing with burglary or housebreaking.