a. and sb. (ad. med.L. Anglicān-us (Magna Carta), f. Anglic-us; see prec. and -AN.] A. adj.
1. Of or peculiar to the English ecclesiastically; of the reformed Church of England, and other churches in communion therewith. Cf. ‘Pananglican Synod.’ Also used as Gallican is, in opposition to Roman; and to indicate moderate High Church opinions, as distinguished from those said to be ‘Romanizing.’
[1215. Magna Carta, in Stubbs, Sel. Ch., v. 288. Quod Anglicana ecclesia libera sit.]
1635. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 23. They all concur in opposition to the Roman Church; as also they of the Anglican, Scotican, Gallic… and Belgick Confessions.
1660. Fell, Hammond’s Life, in Wks. (1684), I. 12. The sober Principles and old establishment of the Anglicane Church.
1840. Gladstone, Ch. Princ., 228. Many members of the Papal communion have maintained the validity of Anglican orders.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 91. [To] force the Anglican clergy to become his agents for the destruction of the Anglican doctrine and discipline.
Mod. ‘An Anglican Sisterhood, styled “The Society of the Holy Trinity.”’
2. English (in the general sense).
1860. Marsh, Eng. Lang., 15. All who use the Anglican speech.
1871. Ruskin, Fors Clav., I. iii. 19. The quite Anglican character of [King] Richard, to his death.
B. sb. An adherent of the reformed Church of England; esp. one holding High Church principles, or who approves of Catholic doctrine and ritual, while claiming for the English Church a national independence of Rome, and repudiating certain popular tenets of Rome as corruptions.
a. 1797. Burke, Lett. to R. Burke (1818), IX. 429 (L.). The old persecutors, whether Pagan or Christian, whether Arian or Orthodox, whether Catholicks, Anglicans, or Calvinists, actually were, or at least had the decorum to pretend to be, strong Dogmatists.
1844. Pugin, Gloss. Eccl. Orn., 75. Copes were among the chief ornaments retained by the Anglicans.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xvi. § 4. 361. Secondly there were the Anglicans … content to separate from Rome, but only that they might bear Italian fruit more profusely and luxuriantly when rooted in their own soil.
1882. Church Q. Rev., XV. 159. The loyal Anglican’s grief.
