v. [UN-2 6 b and 4.]
1. trans. To deprive of the office of bishop.
1598. Florio, Smetriare, to vnmytre, to vnbishop, to degrade from a mytre.
1628. in Cosin’s Corr. (Surtees), I. 153. You in the north, I in the south, are the object of toungs and penns, and I must be unbishop’t a-geyne.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Job xxxi. 30. The one died ere he came home, and the other was unbishoped.
1691. Grascombe, Reply Vind. Disc. Unreasonableness New Separation, 11/2. It was in their power to take away our Orders, and Unpriest and Unbishop us.
refl. 1641. Milton, Reform., I. Wks. 1851, III. 11. When he steps up into the Chayre of Pontificall Pride,… then he degrades, then he un-Bishops himselfe.
1680. Spirit of Popery, 15. By which he did really unbishop himself.
2. To deprive (a place) of a bishop. rare.–1
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Glouc., I. (1662), 368. Some questioned its Charter, and would have had it Un-Citied, because Un-Bishoped in our Civil Wars.
Hence Unbishop(p)ing vbl. sb.
1636. Prynne (title), The Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titvs.
1641. Lords Spiritual, 7. That this un-bishoping intends onely the losse of his Barony and place in Parliament.
1711–2. M. Henry, Life P. Henry, vii. Wks. 1853, II. 691/2. Much was said, pro and con, touching … the bishoping and unbishoping of Timothy and Titus [etc.].
