a. and sb. [ad. med.L. āvocātōrius, f. āvocāre: see AVOCATE and -ORY. Also in F. (lettre) avocatoire.]
A. adj. Recalling, that recalls. Letters avocatory: letters by which a sovereign recalls his subjects from a foreign state with which he is at war, or bids them desist from illegal proceedings.
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 99/1. His Imperial Majesty hath sent out his Avocatory Mandates to the States of the Empire.
1758. Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg., 50/1. Letters avocatory were issued notifying … that if they did not … disperse their armies … they were put under the ban of the Empire.
B. sb. (in L. form) Avocatory letter or mandate.
1689. Luttrell, Brief Rel., I. 498. The imperial avocatoria was published … requireing all the subjects of the empire engaged in the service of France forth with to quitt the same.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Avocatoria, a mandate of the emperor of Germany, directed to some prince or subject of the empire, to stop his unlawful proceedings in any cause brought by way of appeal before him.
