a. and sb. [a. OFr. apostolical (13th c.), f. as prec. + -AL 1.]
1. Connected with or relating to the apostles, or to what is apostolic; conformable to, or derived from, apostolic manner, usage or institution. Apostolical succession (Eccl.), an uninterrupted transmission of spiritual authority through a succession of bishops from the apostles downward.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades, Introd. A … preaching of the Euangelical and Apostolicall truth.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, IV. 1595. Some think he was not Apostolicall, But alwaies in his heart papisticall.
1836. Edin. Rev., LXIII. 24/1. Their watchword, ‘Apostolical Succession.’
1840. Macaulay, Ranke’s Hist., Ess., II. 142. Hearers who sleep very composedly while the rector preaches on the apostolical succession.
2. Of the Apostolic See.
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., VIII. ii. 145/1. Suche thynges as belong to the Apostolicall penitencers Benet the XII. deuised first.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., II. i. 101. The office of Apostolical Secretary under two successive pontiffs.
3. Formerly (and still sometimes) = APOSTOLIC.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. xiv. (R.). The Apostolycall men … shuld purpose nothyng vnto them whiche they had not receiued of Christ.
a. 1568. Coverdale, Hope of Faithf., xiv. Wks. II. 168. The article in the holy apostolical creed.
1704. Nelson, Fest. & Fasts, i. (1739), 19. The Apostolical Institution of the Lord’s Day.
1751. Jortin, Eccl. Hist., I. 35. The authors called Apostolical, as Clemens, Hermas, Barnabas, Ignatius.
B. sb. One who maintains the doctrine of ‘apostolical succession.’
1839. Sara Coleridge, Mem., I. 223. On some points I think the apostolicals quite right, on others clearly unscriptural.
