sectarianadj.n.

1649 in Milton's Wks. (1738) I. 346 The Sectarian Party in England.

1650 Rec. Comm. Gen. Assembly (S.H.S.) III. 92 That Sectarian armie now infesting this Kingdome.

1664 H. More Apol. in Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity 545 Which is..to arm the Sectarian Rabbles, that phansy themselves such Inspiradoes, against the orderly-Reformed Churches.

1687 J. Dryden Hind & Panther iii. 114 But that unfaithfull Test, unfound will pass The dross of Atheists, and sectarian brass.

1822 A. Cunningham Trad. Tales I. 188 To all this answered Micah Meen, a sectarian mason.

1827 P. Cunningham Two Years New S. Wales II. xxx. 252 Drawling out the words of Scripture with deep sectarian drone.

1837 R. Southey Doctor IV. 69 When a hawker came he had no pestiferous tracts either seditious or sectarian for sale.

1796 E. Burke Two Lett. Peace Regicide Directory France in Wks. (1808) VIII. 237 They..have been taught to look on religious opinions as the only cause of enthusiastick zeal, and sectarian propagation.

1836 T. Arnold in A. P. Stanley Life & Corr. T. Arnold (1845) II. 23 All our education must be Christian, and not be sectarian.

1837 T. Arnold in A. P. Stanley Life & Corr. T. Arnold (1845) II. 91 A Christian, and yet not sectarian University.

1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes iii. 149 Dante does not come before us as a large catholic mind; rather as a narrow, and even sectarian mind.

1841 E. Miall in Nonconf. 1 1 A natural and invariable tendency..to fall into distinct bodies and become sectarian, both in spirit and in aim.

1876 J. Grant Hist. Burgh Schools Scotl. ii. 419 The burgh and parish Schools of Scotland were never Sectarian.

1877 Candlish in Encycl. Brit. VII. 338/2 There are some doctrines in every system that are merely sectarian, adopted by one particular branch of the church, but not recognized by others as correct expressions of Christian faith and life.

1884 H. P. Liddon in J. O. Johnston Life & Lett. H. P. Liddon (1904) 331 I am not at all frightened by the word ‘sectarian’. Christianity is sectarian as against the non-Christian world.

1903 Brit. Weekly 11 June 219/3 He was reluctantly compelled, for conscience sake, to refuse that part of the education rate which would go to the support of sectarian schools.

1903 Brit. Weekly 11 June 219/4 An audience who loudly cheered every declaration of determined resistance to the sectarian rate.

1654 R. Williams Let. in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. (1849) 3rd Ser. X. 2 Youre Father and all the people of God in England, formerly called the Puritanus Anglicanus, of late Round~heads, now the Sectarians (as more or lesse cut of from the Parishes) they are now in the sadle and at the helme.

1685 J. Bunyan Disc. Pharisee & Publicane 7 The Pharisee was a Sectarian, one that deviated..in his Worshipping from the way of God;..for such an one I count a Sectarian.

1807 R. Southey Lett. from Eng. III. 79 Charles willingly permitted this, because he dreaded the political opinions of these Sectarians.

1816 R. Southey Lay of Laureate liii The stern Sectarian in unnatural league Joins her to war against their hated foe.

a1834 S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains (1838) III. 197 The Ecclesia has been an eclipse to the intellect of both Churchmen and Sectarians.

1860 J. L. Motley Hist. Netherlands (1868) I. ii. 25 The Queen of England hated Anabaptists, Calvinists, and other Sectarians.

1819 Ann. Reg., Chron. (1820) 273 Shortly after it was agreed, that the family of the plaintiff should become his sectarians, and they accordingly joined the Baptist society and became a part of his congregation.

1828 J. F. Cooper Notions Amer. II. 328 The whole number of the sectarians [i.e. Shakers] is, however, far from great.

1836 E. Bulwer-Lytton Athens (1837) II. 416 A general feeling of alarm and suspicion broke out against the sage [Pythagoras] and his sectarians.

1875 C. Merivale Gen. Hist. Rome lxv. 522 The constancy of these sectarians inflamed, no doubt, the anger of rulers who were accustomed to more pliant submission.

1827 T. Carlyle Goethe in German Romance IV. 22 Shakspeare is no sectarian: to all he deals with equity and mercy.

1855 Punch 27 Jan. 34/2 Sectarians who believe that no good deed can be done, except by a votary of M'Howl and O'Muggins.

1867 R. W. Emerson Progr. Culture in Wks. (1906) III. 226 The narrow sectarian cannot read astronomy with impunity.