Obs. Also 6 -ie. [ad. L. temperāntia: see prec. and -ANCY.] = prec., as a quality or state, in senses 1, 2, 3 b; esp. moderation. Common in 16th c.; rare after 1630.
As to use in N.T. translations, see note to prec.
1526. Tindale, Gal. v. 23. The frute off the sprete is love, ioye, peace, longe sufferynge,… meknes, temperancy [so Cranmer]. Ibid., 2 Pet. i. 6. In vertue knowledge, and in knowledge temperancy [so Coverdale], and in temperancy pacience.
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, IV. iii. (1634), 190. If the matrix be distempered … then must ye reduce it againe to temperancie, by such remedies.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 237. Some … will haue temperancie to extend farther than continencie.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 232. According to the temperancie or intemperancie that is in vs, the affections of the soule also will be more moderate or immoderate.
1614. D. Dyke, Myst. Selfe-Deceiving, xxii. 274. But who is there that sometimes is not carried away beyond the measure of temperancy?
1620. Venner, Via Recta, ix. (1650), 263. Variety … of meats may offend with immoderation, never with temperancy.
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 21. She knew Temperancy to be Gods, and Natures Favorite.
