[f. as prec. + -IST.] An advocate or adherent of the voluntary principle or method in the Church or in philosophy.
Also, in recent use, an advocate of voluntary military service as opposed to conscription.
1838. Freeman’s Jrnl., 16 May, 1/5. You have endeavoured to induce the voluntarists of the established church in Ireland to become truants to their professions.
1841. Fraser’s Mag., XXIV. 361. ‘Bread for nothing’ … is the hope of every Voluntarist, from sweet Mr. Gadsby’s chapel to dear Mr. Fletcher’s meeting.
1903. Harvard Psychol. Stud., I. 643. Phenomenalist and voluntarist thus do not see anything under the same aspect, neither the ideas nor the will.
1914. Taunton Courier, 12 Aug., 6/2. The advocate of National Service and the Voluntarist alike may join in the expression of pleasure that the call of danger does not find the twentieth century Englishman unresponsive.
