Now rare. [f. ZEALOUS + -NESS.] The quality of being zealous; zeal.
c. 1555. in Strype, Eccl. Mem. (1721), III. App. xliii. 122. Mark … Christ’s Words, which he spake with Zealousnes and Power.
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, A iv. The old Fathers grew out of a zealousnes of the mynde towardes God … to institute certaine Ceremonies.
c. 1662. Boyle, Motives Love of God (1708), 169. The Zealousness of our Endeavours.
1803. Ann. Reg., Chron., 608/1. I will not betray his confidence nor that zealousness in his cause which he has a right to expect.
1903. McLean, Stud. Apost., xiii. 194. It is difficult to draw the line between zealousness and zealotry.
