[f. prec. + -ISM.] Addiction to or fondness for external ceremonies in religion; ritualism.
1845. Richmond Daily Whig, 1 Sept., 2/1. Encouraging ‘Ceremonialism’ (if we may coin a word) which the author of our Religion abhorred.
1854. Tait’s Mag., XXI. 269. A priesthood, submission to ecclesiastical supremacy, and an imposing ceremonialism.
1859. Jowett, Ep. St. Paul (ed. 2), II. 385. The ceremonialism of the age … passed by a sort of contagion from one race to another, from Paganism or Judaism to Christianity.
1879. A. B. Hope, in Trans. St. Paul’s Eccl. Soc. (1885), I. 1. That newer movement … called Ritualism, but which ought more properly to be called Ceremonialism.
