Am asking again, because it's still annoying me...
1 Down. Church once again trimmed reliquary (4) c?ef
I want it to be 'cref', but it doesn't seem to exist!
The 'f' comes from 14 A - This,nothing less,could be representing Cain for us? (10) ?acin?r?us
I solved this as 'facinorous' - devilish,evil - and it's an anagram of 'cain for us'+ 'o' (nothing).
In 1 D, the 'c' and 'e' seem 1005 correct - so I ended up with c?ef.
Horrible!
I came across 'feretory' - a portable shrine containing relics, but having C for church, RE for once again + F for feretory 'trimmed' seemed an awful jump, I felt I was just trying to make it fit.
I can not see the problem. Chambers gives as a meaning of CHEF, "a medieval reliquary in the shape of a head". I would be interested in an explanation of the "once again trimmed" part of the word-play.