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1611 G. Downame Def. Serm. Consecr. Bishop of Bath iii. iii. 67 There was vnitie and communion betweene all the Bishops in Christendome, whose course to preserue vnitie in the Churches and to auoid Schisme, was to communicate the confessions of their faith one with an other by their communicatorie, pacificall or formed letters.

1646 S. Bolton Arraignment of Errour 294 They writ letters to the churches, which were called literæ communicatoriæ, or Communicatory letters.

1686 J. Scott Christian Life: Pt. II II. vii. 911 In the Primitive Churches there were..communicatory Letters, by which the holy Bishops gave an account to each other of the state and condition of their respective Churches.

1691 Let. 12 May in Mem. Life J. Kettlewell (1718) App. v. p. ix He was neither to receive any to Communion, on the communicatory Letters of Schismaticks, nor to give communicatory Letters to them.

1722 J. Bingham Ecclesiæ Primitivæ Notitia iii. 127 The Epistles and Tracts of pious Men, and the Letters Communicatory of one Church to another.

a1773 A. Butler Lives Saints (1780) IX. 399 Rufinus..obtained communicatory letters of pope Siricius, and with them went to Aquileia.

1830 G. S. Faber Diffic. Romanism (ed. 2) ii. iii. 310 The Patriarch elect..did..write letters communicatory to the Patriarch of Rome.

1875 Irish Eccl. Rec. Oct. 36 By means of these communicatory letters, bishops were..associated with the successor of St. Peter, and distinguished from heretical and schismatical prelates.

1958 F. R. Bolton Caroline Trad. Church Ireland 77 External communion..consists in the same Creeds, Sacraments, Liturgical forms, rites, and ceremonies, communicatory letters between Churches, and the same discipline and episcopal government.