episcopy

From Ancient Greek ἐπισκοπή (episkopḗ), from ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer, bishop”).^[1] See bishop. First attested in 1642 in John Milton’s The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty.^[1]

episcopy (countable and uncountable, plural episcopies)

1. (obsolete) Supervision; 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; […], volume (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 […]

• “episcopy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.