a. and sb. [f. prec. + -arian.]
A. adj.
1. a. Advocating the principle of an established church; characteristic of those who advocate this principle. b. That adheres to or favors a church for the reason that it is established.
1847. Ecclesiologist, VII. 173. The old establishmentarian leaven is not worked out, far from it.
1858. Sat. Rev., V. 387/1. The analogous form of this faith … has taken an Erastian and Establishmentarian turn.
1857. Gladstone, Glean., VI. lv. 171. The prosecutors … are strongly (to use a barbarous word) establishmentarian.
1878. G. A. Denison, Notes of My Life (ed. 2), 79. The Church Corporate cannot be said to be in substance other than Establishmentarian.
2. Belonging to the Established Church.
1849. Fraser’s Mag., XXXIX. 128. Children of Methodist, Baptist … and Establishmentarian parents.
B. sb. One who supports the principle of an ‘Establishment’ or an Established Church. Also, an adherent of the Established Church.
1846. Hook, Educ. People, 37. Those who, like myself, are called High Churchmen, have little or no sympathy with mere Establishmentarians.
1862. Sat. Rev., XIV. 417/2. They [Baptists and Independents] were all generally Establishmentarians; but they could make no other claim to be established than that of numbers and power.
1879. M. Robertson, in Daily News, 28 June, 6/1. The Nonconformists have made inroads on the ranks of the Establishmentarians.
Hence Establishmentarianism, the tenets of an establishmentarian; attachment to the principle of a State Church.
1873. F. Hall, Mod. Eng., 44. Establishmentarianism was wont to roll over the prelatial [Abp. Trench’s] tongue.
1876. Tinsley’s Mag., XVIII. 386. The days of Establishmentarianism would be numbered.
