a. and sb. Forms: 5 ecclesyastyke, 6–7 -iastique, 7 -tick(e, -tik, 7– ecclesiastic. [ad. (through Fr. and L.) Gr. ἐκκλησιαστικός, ultimately f. ἐκκλησία church.]
A. adj. (Now rare; see ECCLESIASTICAL.)
1. Of or pertaining to the church; concerned with the affairs of the church; opposed to civil or secular.
1483. Caxton, Cato, G j b. The benefyces and the thynges ecclesyastyke.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 42 b. Jesus Christ … commandit thais thingis quhilk perteins to obedience to be geuin to the Apostolique and Ecclesiastique commandimentis.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. § iv. xiii. 213. Some Ecclesiastick Writers … impute a Trinity of Gods to Marcion.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., vii. 30. The disposition of the Ecclesiastick state depending always on the revolutions of the civil government.
1766. Cole, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 510, IV. 487. To unloose all ties both civil and ecclesiastic.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, x. Wealth, Wks. (Bohn), II. 73. Whatever is excellent … in civil, rural, or ecclesiastic architecture.
† b. Of language (esp. Gr. or L.), words, or senses of words: Characteristic of ecclesiastical writers; opposed to classical or secular. Obs.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. vii. 31. This singularity of the Ecclesiastique use of the word [credo] hath raised many disputes.
a. 1638. Mede, Wks., II. iv. (1672), 360. [In] S. John’s Writings … we find two Ecclesiastick terms of Λόγος,… and Κυριακὴ ἠμέρα.
2. Of persons: Belonging to the church viewed as consisting of the clergy; clerical (= older sense of spiritual) as opposed to lay. Also of attire, functions, etc.: Pertaining to the clergy.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1638), 81. He caused the Priests in their ecclesiastick attire and ornaments, to march forth in the army, with an ensigne, hauing in it displayed the picture of the virgin Mary.
1610. Donne, Pseudo-Martyr, 26. Nor deale they onely with temporall punishments vpon Ecclesiastique persons.
1820. Combe (Dr. Syntax), Consol., III. 182. A gay ecclesiastic Beau.
B. sb.
1. [See A. 2.] A clergyman, person in orders, a ‘churchman’ as distinguished from a ‘layman.’ App. not before 17th c., the earlier term being spiritual ‘man.’ Chiefly techn. and Hist.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxix. 168. The subjection of Ecclesiastiques to the Common-wealth.
1707. Addison, State of War, 254. And at the same time such vast numbers of Ecclesiasticks, secular and religious.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 93. A fragment of an effigy of an ecclesiastic.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. lxiii. 427. He had in him much of the taste and the temper of the ecclesiastic.
† 2. pl. a. Matters ecclesiastical. b. The science of church government. (rare). Obs.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. xiv. § 2 (1622), 356. For Morall Philosophie … hath three parts: Ecclesiastickes, Oeconomickes, and Politickes.
1672. Charles II., in Gutch, Coll. Cur., I. 311. He is much troubled, that that Declaration … should have … given an occasion to the questioning of his power in ecclesiasticks.
1738. Neal, Hist. Purit., IV. 455.
