episcopy

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer, bishop”) +‎ -y. See bishop.

Noun

episcopy (plural episcopies)

1. (obsolete) survey; superintendence
   • 1692, John Milton, translated by [Joseph Washington], A Defence of the People of England, […]: In Answer to Salmasius’s Defence of the King, [London?: s.n.], →OCLC:

     There are most weighty reasons why the Church ought to lay aside episcopacy, and return to the apostolical institution of presbyters

2. (obsolete) episcopacy
   • 1660, Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience in All Her General Measures; […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] James Flesher, for Richard Royston […], →OCLC:

     It was the universal doctrine of the Church of God for many ages , even for fourteen Centuries of years , that Episcopy is […] Divine […]

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “episcopy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)