A. adj.
1. Antiq. Used as transl. of Gr. ἐγκύκλιος (παιδεἰα), i.e., general (education); cf. ENCYCLOPÆDIA 1.
1616–61. Holyday, Persius, 301. The learning, which they call encyclical.
2. Of an ecclesiastical epistle: Circular, intended for extensive circulation. Now chiefly of letters issued by the pope.
1647. Jer. Taylor, Dissuas. Popery, II. II. § 2, Wks. (1822), XI. 85. Their [the Greeks’] prime and most learned prelate … did … publish an encyclical epistle against the definition of the council.
1805. Bp. Horsley, Sp. Petit. Rom. Cath. Speeches (1813), II. 242. The apostolical vicars put forth an encyclical letter forbidding the people … to take the oath.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 35. The encyclical letter from the Church of Jerusalem, of which St. James was the main author.
B. sb. An encyclical letter; see A. 2.
1837. J. H. Newman, in British Critic, XXII. 282. When a new Encyclical issues from Rome, [etc.].
1864. Sat. Rev., 3 Dec., 791. No one can read the Pope’s new Encyclical without feeling, [etc.].
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, v. 56. This most deeply spiritual encyclical.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, xiii. 376. Pius IX. … in the Encyclical … condemned … the separation of philosophy and science from revelation.
