?1536 R. Copland sig. Ciiv Fayn they may Chyefly syth theyr fals popery was knowen And theyr bullysh indulgence ouerthrowen.
1551 T. Cranmer Pref. sig. Aiij But what auaileth it to take away beades, pardons, pilgremages, and suche other lyke Popery, so long as .ii. chief rootes remayn vnpulled vp?
1593 R. Hooker iv. iv. 176 The name of Popery is more odious then very Paganisme amongst diuers of the more simple sorte.
1638 in (1880) I. 32 All discipline and seramonies..to haue beine estimed and damned as poyntes of poprie.
1686 J. Evelyn (1955) IV. 510 All engines being now at worke to bring in popery.
1689 c. 2 His highness the Prince of Orange (whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious Instrument of delivering this Kingdom from Popery and arbitrary Power).
1744 J. Wesley 5 Mar. (1931) II. 18 We are still traduced as inclined to Popery, and consequently disaffected to your Majesty.
1783 S. Johnson Garth in 514 It is observed by Lowth, that there is less distance than is thought between scepticism and popery, and that a mind wearied with perpetual doubt, willingly seeks repose in the bosom of an infallible church.
1802 S. T. Coleridge (1956) II. 893 Surely, religious Deism is infinitely nearer the religion of our Saviour, than the gross Idolatry of Popery, or the more decorous, but not less genuine, Idolatry of a vast majority of Protestants.
1841 T. Carlyle iv. 221 The cry of ‘No Popery’, is foolish enough in these days.
1942 S. O'Casey 270 The Orangemen..spoke the creed when it was being intoned by the choir, shouting out Popery!
1991 70 68 The purging of all ‘popery’ after the Reformation.