prelaticaladj.n.

1614 W. Bradshaw Unreasonablenesse of Separation sig. B Their Prelaticall or Episcopall office or Ministery is not the proper Ministery of any of our Church Assemblies.

1660 A. Wood Life & Times (1891) I. 355 The most exact prelaticall garb that might be.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) i. 58 Of the Prelatical Clergy, we have Francis Godwin a Bishop, the Son of a Bishop, and Doctor Henry King Son to his Reverend Father the Bishop of London.

1760 T. Smollett Roderick Random (ed. 5) I. ix. 54 He rose, and moved, with prelatical dignity, to the door.

1786 Daily Universal Reg. 19 Oct. 2/4 The prelatical Mrs.—..dressed now and then like a Bishop.

1842 J. Foster Let. 22 Dec. in Life & Corr. J. Foster (1846) II. 451 We dissenters..having no high prelatical authorities over us, may sectarianize and fight as much as we please.

1877 W. Smith & H. Wace Dict. Christian Biogr. I. 96 Gibbon..represents the behaviour of Ambrose as marked by a prelatical pomposity.

1902 E. Wharton Let. 16 May (1988) 63 I wish I could join one of those prelatical afternoons at your bedside!

1947 W. Lowrie Art in Early Church 3 Before I went to Rome, however, Wilpert had written several important works which gained for him a high prelatical distinction.

1993 Guardian 4 Sept. 19/3 He had decided he wouldn't be the sort of bishop most people expected—‘..some almost prelatical father in God, someone they could depend upon’.

1641 R. Bernard (title) A Short View of the Prælaticall Church of England.

1641 J. Milton (title) Of prelatical episcopacy.

1651 R. Baxter Plain Script. Proof Infants Church-membership & Baptism 272 That the Papists and Prelaticall party do..urge Infant Baptism to be a tradition, is no wonder.

1733 D. Neal Hist. Puritans III. 415 They insisted peremptorily on the establishment of the Presbyterian church government upon the ruins of the Prelatical.

1785 Daily Universal Reg. 21 July 3/1 Two other Bishops, appointed for the prelatical chairs in New York and Rhode Island.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 184 The government resolved to set up a prelatical church in Scotland.

1887 C. M. Yonge Under Storm xvi. 185 If ever I hear of seditious or prelatical doings in yonder gulley again, off you go.

1927 Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. 42 907 Scholarly divines who attempt..to make out a case for the prelatical form of Church-discipline.

1992 Hist. Jrnl. 35 570 The prelatical party had lost their state props.

1643 W. Greenhill Ἀξινη προς την Ῥιζαν 13 It's feared we stick too much to Mosaicalls, Prelaticalls, and Traditionalls.

1658 S. Rutherford Surv. of Surv. Church-discipline vii. 425 The same is objected by Papists, and by Prelaticals, as Tilenus and others.

1723 F. Bugg Holy Gospel of Blessed Jesus Defended 32 Therefore hear and consider ye Bishops, Deans, Prebends, Doctors, Vicars and Curates and all Prelaticals.

1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Prelaticalness.