prelatismn.
/ˈprɛlətɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈprɛləˌtɪz(ə)m/ derogatory.
Adherence to a system of church government by bishops; prelacy, episcopacy.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > kinds of church government > episcopacy > [noun]
prelacya1500
prelatism1611
episcopality?c1622
prelatry1641
prelaty1641
episcopy1660
bishopry1665
cathedral1679
episcopacy1691
Episcopalianism1846
1611 H. Barrowe (title) Platform, which may serve as a preparative to purge away prelatisme.
1641 J. Milton Of Prelatical Episc. 4 500. years after Christ, the Councels themselves were fouly corrupted with ungodly Prelatisme.
1641 J. Milton Animadversions 12 The Prelatism of Episcopacy which began then to burgeon, and spread.
1850 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Oct. 322 Her [sc. the Edinburgh Review's] first broadside thundered in the ears of puling literature, corrupt politics, and bigoted prelatism.
1870 A. W. McClure Lives of Chief Fathers of New Eng. II. 269 The yoke of Dutch presbyterianism was nearly as insupportable as that of English prelatism.
1928 H. H. Henson Jrnl. 20 Aug. in Retrospect (1943) II. 220 The very embodiment of a hard & haughty prelatism.
1998 C. G. Martin Ruins of Allegory 352 The false traditions of inherited wisdom, which for him includes everything from conventional Aristotelianism and prelatism to the idea that the world reflects the remnants of an eternal, gradually decaying order.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1611