Also 3 edit, 5 edycte, 6 Sc. edik. [ad. L. edictum (the earliest form a. OFr. edit), f. ēdicĕre, f. ē out + dīcĕre to say. In 16th and 17th c. accented on the last syllable.]
1. That which is proclaimed by authority as a rule of action; an order issued by a sovereign to his subjects; an ordinance or proclamation having the force of law; esp. the edicts of the Roman prætors, and subsequently of the emperors, and of the French monarchs. Edict of Nantes, an edict issued by Henry IV. of France, granting toleration to the Protestants; revoked by Louis XIV.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 11966. Þe edit ywis. þat was þe ban of kenigwurþe.
1483. Caxton, Cato, A iij. He dyd doo make an edycte or decree.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 12. With ane consent [they] contempnit that edik.
1541. Elyot, Image Gov., 114. The Creditours to be compelled by an Edict of your maiestee, to holde them content with repaiement of the summe … of the thyng that they lende.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvi. 147. The Edicts of Prætors, and (in some Cases) of the Ædiles.
1683. Brit. Speculum, 60. Monarchs at first governed … by immediate Edicts.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 97, ¶ 4. By Our Royal Resolutions declared in this Edict as follow.
1752. Johnson, Rambl., No. 204, ¶ 9. He therefore fixed upon the gate of the palace an edict.
1845. Graves, Rom. Law, in Encycl. Metrop., 777/1. Constitutions of Justinian, improperly called edicts.
1875. Poste, Gaius, I. (ed. 2), 34. Edicts were legislative ordinances issued by the emperor…, and were analogous to the edicts of the praetors and ediles.
fig. 1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 151. If then true Louers haue beene euer crost, It stands as an edict in destinie.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxvii. The generall Edicts of nature.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 68. Law, Now styled God’s, now Nature’s edict?
2. Sc. ‘The name of a writ whereby all concerned were called by proclamation at the market cross or church-door, to appear for their interest in some cause…. The term is used in ecclesiastical law for certain notices made to a congregation from the pulpit’ (Barclay, Digest Laws Scotl. s.v.).
1876. Grant, Burgh Sch. Scotl., II. vi. 214. In 1636 the Council of Aberdeen ordain a public edict to be served at both the Kirk doors and at the College gate.
