[a. F. sodalité or ad. L. sodālitas, -itātem fellowship, brotherhood, fraternity, f. sodālis mate, fellow, boon-companion.]
1. Association or confederation with others; brotherhood, companionship, fellowship.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 168. A participation,… combination, or sodalitie with the Iesuits to ouerthrow our countrie.
1609. Bible (Douay), Eccl. iv. comm., If the Father, the Sonne, and the Holie Ghost come withal, this sodalitie is not soone broken.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1687), 389/1. Of Friendship, there are four kinds: Sodality, Affinity, Hospitality, Erotick.
1865. Reader, 7 Oct., 392/2. That literary social sodality by which France had been distinguished for nearly a century.
1888. Chambers’s Jrnl., 7 Jan., 2/1. Massinger’s claim to the sodality of the craft whose workmen are ‘born not made’ might perhaps be considered as of the genuine order.
2. In the Roman Catholic Church, a religious guild or brotherhood established for purposes of devotion or mutual help or action; the body of persons forming such a society.
(a) 1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 25. [The secular priests] sought no establishing of houses, Colledges, sodalities, societies, or corporations.
1629. Wadsworth, Sp. Pilgr., iii. 18. The priuiledge of this sodality is that they haue graces, rosaries,… and hallowed graines from his holinesse.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., xx. 76. By being incorporated into this or that holy Sodality or Fraternity.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. 77. The Jansenistical-Romanists … have but very little to do with those little offices, or Sodalities, with their Indulgences.
1832. Archaeol., XXIV. 134. The monks of St. Swithin’s … and those of New Minster had a sodality among themselves.
1893. J. Fahey, Hist. Kilmacduagh, 443. The extension of religious sodalities in the several parishes of his diocese.
attrib. 1881. Mem. Stonyhurst Coll., 41, note. The body of the martyr … now lies under the altar of the Sodality Chapel.
(b) 1628. in Foley, Rec. Eng. Prov. S. J., I. I. 114. The Sodalitie of the Chapelet of Our Lady.
1667. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., III. 63. He was admitted into the sodality of our B: Lady.
1846. J. Morris, in J. H. Pollen, Life & Lett. (1896), ii. 45. I should like very much to be enrolled in your Sodality of the Living Rosary.
1889. Tablet, 14 Dec., 946/1. The Sodality of the Immaculate Conception.
b. A chapel set apart for or used by a religious sodality.
1667. in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ., III. 66. He [was] obserued when he thought himself to be alone in the sodality to sprinkle … water vppon the grauestones.
1679. Trial of White, & other Jesuits, 11. To preach in the Sodality of the English Seminary.
1725. R. Plowden, in Foley, Rec. Eng. Prov. S. J., VII. Introd. p. xl. With much ado, we saved the Church, the Sodality, and that wing where the kitchen is.
3. A society, association or fraternity of any kind.
1633. Parthenia Sacra, 180. Sodalities of al sorts & conditions whatsoeuer either Secular or Ecclesiastical.
1699. R. L’Estrange, Erasm. Colloq. (1725), 262. To see with what Tenderness the Seraphick Sodality wash’d the Body.
1737. L. Clarke, Hist. Bible, VIII. 572. Others hold, that they were called Herodians, because they constituted a Sodality erected in the Honour of Herod.
1805. Murphy, Tacitus, I. 184. To create this new sodality the names of the most eminent citizens … were drawn by lot.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep., Introd. xiv. (1866), 46. There were also military sodalities of musketeers, crossbowmen, archers, swordsmen, in every town.
