sb. and a. [f. TRACT sb.1 + -arian; in 2, after trinitarian, etc.]
A. sb.
1. A writer, publisher, or distributor of tracts. nonce-uses.
(In quot. 1824, referring to the Religious Tract Society.)
1824. Man of Letters, 15 May, 99. The superiority of the vulgar version will be acknowledged, we think, even by the tractarians themselves.
1851. Illustr. Lond. News, 30 Aug., 270/2. The fanatical tract distributors of London … an itinerant distributor…. The Tractarian was silent.
1900. Speaker, 12 May, 170/2. To revive his [James VI.’s] reputation as a poet or a tractarian.
2. A member of that school of High Churchmen which maintains the doctrines and practices set forth in ‘Tracts for the Times’ (see TRACT sb.1 3 b).
1839. C. Benson, Disc. Tradit. & Episc., Pref. 3. The tractarians, that is, the authors, editors, and approvers of the Tracts for the Times, are Divines of acknowledged piety, and sincerity, and learning. Ibid., 5. The tractarians, if without offence we may so call them.
1841. Bp. D. Wilson, Lett., in Bateman, Life (1860), II. xvi. 188. Her apostasy is like a standard-bearer fainting: and all aggravated by the opposite errors of the Tractarians.
1888. C. A. Lane, Notes Eng. Ch. Hist., II. VI. xxix. 253. The Tractarians were the extreme wing of the modern ‘High Church’ party.
1892. F. Hall, in Nation (N. Y.), 25 Aug., 145/1. Lawless in formation, certainly, is Tractarian; and yet it will live in history, to the exclusion of Tractite, Tractuist, and Tractator, all of which have been proposed in its stead.
B. adj. 1. Of or belonging to the Tractarians (A. 2).
1840. I. Taylor, Anc. Chr. (1842), II. 144, note. One of the most recent … publications of the Tractarian school.
1841. Bp. D. Wilson, Jrnl., 18 Nov., in Bateman, Life (1860), II. xvi. 193. Having given my booksellers … orders to send me the Tractarian Controversy publications.
a. 1873. S. Wilberforce, Ess. (1874), II. 262. So strong a Romeward tendency amongst the members of the Tractarian party.
1896. R. Palmer, Fam. & Pers. Mem., I. xxvii. 397. The ‘Tractarian’ forces were shattered by the loss of their leader.
2. Distributing tracts. nonce-use.
1885. Athenæum, 11 July, 44. [Dr. Lansdell] was soon afterwards arrested for distributing tracts at railway stations…. It is not very surprising that a policeman stopped the tractarian traveller.
Hence Tractarianism, the tenets or principles of the Tractarians, the Tractarian system; adherence to or maintenance of this; Tractarianize v. intr. to teach, maintain, or practice Tractarianism (in Tractarianizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.).
1840. (title) Hints to Transcendentalists for working Infidel Designs through *Tractarianism.
1841. Bp. D. Wilson, in Bateman, Life (1860), II. xvi. 185. If he had not been imbued for seven years—steeped—in Tractarianism.
1899. Bp. Stubbs, Visitation Charges (1904), 344. What is called the Oxford Movement, the movement represented by the Tracts for the Times, Tractarianism as it is still called.
1842. G. S. Faber, Prov. Lett. (1844), II. 137. More than one young *Tractarianising Cleric.
1880. G. A. Simcox, in Macm. Mag., No. 245, 399. The imputation of tractarianising clung to Wilberforce however he might try to separate himself from the Tractarians.
