Forms: α. 4 cristiente, 4–5 -iante, -yante, 4–6 crystyente, -yante, 5 cristiantee, 6 christiantie. β. 4–5 cristente (-ante), 5–6 crystente, 6 christente, -tie, tee, -tye, (7 christinty, 9 arch. -entie, -ty). γ. 4–5 crystyanyte, 4–6 cristianite, 5 -yanite, 6 christianite, 6–7 -itie, 6– -ity. [Represents (originally through OF. crestienté), L. chrīstiānitāt-em, noun of state f. christiān-us CHRISTIAN; having taken the place in whole or part of the native formations ME. cristenhode and cristendom. Apart from the merely graphic refashioning of cr- as chr- at the Renascence, the word has had three types, cristienté the most French, cristentie the most English, and christianity the most Latinized, which might fairly be treated as distinct words, except that, being connected by intermediate links, their relations are more clearly shown by considering them together. The type cristienté was a direct adoption of Anglo-Fr. cristienté, OF. crestienté: see CHRISTIAN. By further assimilation to the English cristen, cristendom, etc. (aided probably by the phonetic obscurity of the -ien-), arose cristenté, which was the most frequent ME. type. After 1500 both types were spelt with ch-. Already in the 14th c., familiarity with the Latin form as a word of the clergy, led to the occasional use of the 5-syllabic cristianite. With the Renascence this became christianite, -itie, -ity, which in the course of the 16th c. entirely supplanted the two earlier forms, though christentie lingered dialectally, and appears as christendie in Burns. Christianity and Christendom were originally synonyms, but are now differentiated.]
† 1. The whole body of Christians, the Christian part of the world, CHRISTENDOM. Obs.
α. cristiente, etc.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2126. Rome … þat now es ouer all cristiante.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 192. Ne no þing suld it greue vnto þe Cristiente.
c. 1435. Torr. Portugal, 890. There ys no man in Crystyante, More welcome.
1485. Caxton, Paris & V., 71. Thurgh out al Crystyente.
15[?]. Elderton, K. of Scotts & A. Browne, in Percy, Reliq. (1823), III. 36. I will not be a traitour for all Christiantie.
β. cristentie, etc.
c. 1320. Sir Beues, 2690. Schel hit neuer aslawe be For noman in cristente!
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 3925. Alle þe men of cristante.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, 58. Other parties of cristente.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys, 212. Rome the hede and chefe of Christentye.
c. 1511. 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.), Introd. 34. His lande is twyes as grete as all Crystente and Turkey.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 105 a. Saide of some publique officers of Christentee.
c. 1650. R. Hood & Q. Katherine, 48, in Percy Folio, I. 39. Shee wold not misse your companie for all the gold in cristinty.
[1875. J. Veitch, Tweed, 84. The feudal claims of all the Kings In Christenty.]
γ. Christianity (cristianite, etc.).
1303. (MS. c. 1375) R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11237. Seynt Iame stable[de] hyt for to be A sacrament þurge crystyanyte [altered from Crystiente].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of L’s. T., 446. To Walys fledde the Cristyanytee [v.r. 2 cristianite, 2 cristianyte(e, Cristiante, cristeante] Of olde Britons, dwellynge in this Ile.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 170. Comprehendyng … in our prayer all the chirche of christianite.
1549. Compl. Scot., Ep. Q. Mary, 6. To compel al cristianite tyl adhere to ther peruerst opinione.
a. 1628. Ld. Brooke, Poems, Humane Learn., lxxxiv. Wks. 1633, 39. To make one Church of Christianitie.
1631. Heylin, St. George, 349. The Guardian of the distressed affaires of Christianitie.
2. The religion of Christ; the Christian faith; the system of doctrines and precepts taught by Christ and his apostles.
α. 1303. [see γ below].
1502. Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W., 1506), I. iii. 36. To be baptysed and to lyue from youth in crystyente.
β. 1481. Caxton, Myrr., I. vi. 32. Yf ne were theyre … good prechynge and techyng, Cristente shold be exyled by errour.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 108. Bethleem betokeneth the Christentie, which in the eies of the world is little and vile, but in the eies of God is great and precious.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., lviii. Had, in cause of Christentie, Fought with bold Saracens.
γ. (The first quotation is altered from crystyente.)
1303. (MS. c. 1375) R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11706. Yn þe begynnyng of crystyanyte þe apostoles wente aboute to preche.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 189. All yt we byleue expresly and distinctly in Christianite.
1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm., vi. ¶ 22. 105. Christianitie doeth not consist in lowde and shrill crying, Lord, Lord, but in dooing the wil of our heauenly father.
1601. H. Timberley, in Purchas, Pilgrimes, IX. xvii. Hee maruelled that I should so much erre from Christianitie.
1611. Bible, Pref. The professours and teachers of Christianitie in the Church of Rome, then a true Church.
1773. Burke, Sp. Relief of Dissen., Wks. (1826), X. 25. I am persuaded that toleration, so far from being an attack upon Christianity, becomes the best and surest support to it.
1854. Milman, Lat. Chr., Pref. (1867), I. iv. The great sphere of Latin Christianity was Western Europe.
b. with pl. A Christian religious system.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. iii. What make ye of your Christianities, and Chivalries, and Reformations?
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Swedenborg, Wks. (Bohn), I. 330. The moral sentiment, which carries innumerable christianities, humanities, divinities in its bosom.
1874. Pusey, Lent. Serm., 57. There are afloat hundreds of Christianities.
3. State or fact of being a Christian; Christian condition or quality; Christian spirit or character.
1303. (MS. c. 1375) R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 232. Men clepyn hym god of cristianite; For ȝyf he wyl hym mercy craue, Redyly mercy shal he haue.
1588. J. Udall, Demonstr. Discip. (Arb.), 34. Concerning his state of Christianitie, and abilitie to that place where to he is to be called.
c. 1665. Mrs. Hutchinson, Mem. Col. Hutchinson, 25. The head and spring of them all [his virtues] his Christianity.
1833. Cruse, Eusebius, VIII. xiii. 376. A venerable example of genuine Christianity.
1886. Illustr. Lond. News, 27 Feb., 202/3. Englishmen whose Christianity consists in going to Church once upon a Sunday.
† b. Upon my Christianity! = As I am a Christian: a form of asseveration. (Cf. CHRISTENDOM 1 b, HALIDOM, etc.) Obs.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., viii. (1821), 332. Upon my Christianity, I doe acknowledge him to haue deserved more.
† 4. Eccl. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, as in Court of Christianity = Court CHRISTIAN; hence spec. applied to ruridecanal chapters, and ruridecanal jurisdictions; whence Dean of Christianity, orig. = Rural Dean; now retained in the title of particular rural deaneries, or Deaneries of Christianity, comprising the parishes of certain cities or towns, as Exeter, Lincoln, Leicester.
[c. 1100. Eadmer, Hist., VI. (ed. Selden, 1623, 208). Omnem auctoritatem exercendæ christianitatis illi adimere cupiebat.]
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1009/2. In this citie [Exeter] in the yeare 1222 … the parish churches were limited, and increased to the number of nineteene churches within the citie and suburbs, and were called by the name of the christianitie euen to this daie.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., Gloss, Christianitatis Curia. These Courts of Christianity were not only held by the Bishops in Synods, and the Archdeacons and Chancellors in Consistories. But they were also the Rural Chapters, where the Rural Dean or Dean of Christianity presided, and the Clergy were Assessors and Assistants.
1786. J. Bacon, Liber Regis, 411. D[eanery] Christianity, in the Archdeaconry of Lincoln. [Includes all the parishes in the City of Lincoln.]
1835. W. Dansey, Horæ Decan. Rur., II. 41. Our ruridecanal conventions … were acknowledged … as rural courts of Christianity. Ibid., II. 54. Extensive duties of arbitration and pacification are charged on the deans of Christianity … of the diocese of Ypres.
1878. Clergy List, 413. Diocese of Peterborough, Archdeaconry of Leicester, Deanery of Christianity, or Leicester.
