[f. late L. episcopātus the office or dignity of a bishop. See EPISCOPAL and -ACY.]
† 1. Oversight; ecclesiastical authority. Obs.
1659. Gauden, Tears Ch. Eng., 23. First three, afterward five Patriarchs had the general Episcopacy … over all the Christian world.
2. Government of the church by bishops; the system of church government which comprises three distinct orders, bishops, presbyters or priests, and deacons.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. (1843), I. 35/2. There was little more than the name of episcopacy preserved in that church.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 248. He was never a cordial friend to Episcopacy, but rather a patron of the Non-conformists.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 80. Is the house of lords to be voted useless? Is episcopacy to be abolished?
1860. Forster, Gr. Remonstr., 87. In the year 1570, the institution of episcopacy in the Protestant church was openly assailed by the Lady Margaret’s professor of divinity at Cambridge.
3. The position or office of bishop. rare.
1685. A. Lovell, trans. Simon’s Relig. & Cust. East. Nations, 23. They observe not exactly the Age that is required for Priesthood and Episcopacy.
1869. Lecky, Europ. Mor. (ed. 2), 86. Priests who attained the episcopacy.
4. The period during which a bishop holds his office; = EPISCOPATE. Now rare.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Duct. Dubit., II. iii. § 11. By their differing presidencies or episcopacies.
1816. C. Sharp, Hist. Hartlepool, 20. During the episcopacy of Bishop Poor.
1844. Lingard, Hist. Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858), II. xi. 171. Aldhelm died … in the fifth year of his episcopacy.
5. concr. The body of bishops in the aggregate.
1757. Burke, Abridgm. Eng. Hist., Wks. 1826, X. 38. Long may we enjoy our Church under a learned and edifying episcopacy.
1885. Manch. Exam., 10 Jan., 5/2. A usurping priesthood and an aggressive episcopacy.
1889. Standard, 14 Sept., 5/3. The Episcopacy are still active in the preliminaries of the Electoral campaign.
