Obs. or arch. Also 4–6 temper-; 4–5 -el-; 4–6 -te, -tee, 4–7 -tie, 5–6 tye, (6 temporalitie). [app. a. AF. *temporelté F. temporalité (13th c.), f. OF. temporel, TEMPORAL: see -TY. Cf. commonally, cruelty, loyalty, etc. In 14–15th c. assimilated to the L. form, as temper-, temporalité; now TEMPORALITY.]
1. Temporal or secular things, affairs, business; temporal authority. ? Obs.
1396–7. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1907), XXII. 299. Temporelte and spirituelte ben to partys of holi chirche.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), iii. 10. He es þare lorde bathe of temperaltee and of spiritualtee.
c. 1483. Caxton, Dialogues, 45. Cest grand folye De donner le eternalite Pour le temporalite, it is grete folye For to gyve the eternalite For the temporalte.
c. 1511. 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.), Introd. 30/2. In ye temperalte haue they one Emperour.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. i. I. ii. (1651), 415. The mutability of all temporalties.
1651. Life Father Sarpi (1676), 47. Lands that in the temporalty are subject to the state of Venice, and in the spirituality are under the Arch-Bishop of Milan.
1700. Astry, trans. Saavedra-Faxardo, I. 183. The Spiritualty and Temporalty are two distinct Jurisdictions.
b. Chiefly pl. Temporal possessions; esp. those of an ecclesiastical person or body: = TEMPORALITY 1 b. ? Obs.
[1306. Rolls of Parlt., I. 220/1. Ont donez terres, tenementz, & avoesons, & tieles autres temporautez, as Prelatz de seinte Eglise.]
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XX. 127. Prelates þei hem maden, To holden with antecryste her temperaltes to saue.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 103. Subsidies & dymes for here temperalties.
1449. Rolls of Parlt., V. 157/2. Prouffitez of the temperaltees of Bisshuprichez.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 229. A stately Monasterie (the temporalties whereof did amount to a hundreth fiftie and five poundes).
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Temporalties of Bishops (Temporalia Episcoporum) be such reuenewes, lands, and tenements, as Bishops haue had laid to their Sees by the Kings and other great personages of this land from time to time.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, I. IV. (1724), 760. The Cardinal was chosen by the Chapter Vicar, or Guardian of the temporalties.
2. The body of temporal persons or laymen, the laity; the temporal estate or estates of the realm, i.e., the temporal peers and the commons.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 335. Kyng William was sterne … and rulede boþe temperalte and spiritualte at his owne wille.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxliv. 301. Ther was graunted vnto the kyng … both of spirituelte and of temporalte an hole taxe and a disme.
a. 1529. Skelton, Col. Cloute, 61. For the temporalte Accuseth the spiritualte.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords (Camden), App. 129. The subsidies of the Temporalty and the Clergie brought into the House from the King.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, an. 1663. (1823), I. II. 340. The convocation gave … four subsidies, which proved as heavy on them, as they were light on the temporalty.
1874. S. Wilberforce, Ess., II. 191. The old compact between the spirituality and the temporalty.
† b. The condition or estate of a layman. Obs.
c. 1440. Bone Flor., 1032. Ther was lefte no man in that town … That was of temporalte.
1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 38. Sothely some flowryd in prosperite in the spyrytualte. Some in the temporalte and some in relygyon.
