Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The doctrines, practices, and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The doctrines, customs, ceremonies, and polity associated with the office and person of the Pope, or with the Roman Catholic Church, of which he is the supreme head; papacy: used in opprobrium.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The religion of the Roman Catholic Church, comprehending doctrines and practices; -- generally used in an opprobrious sense.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun usually derogatory, Christianity The teachings, practices and accoutrements of the
Roman Catholic Church .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun offensive terms for the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Above all, the system is destructive of faith, having a tendency to substitute passive acquiescence for real conviction; and therefore I should not say that the excess of it was popery, but that it had once and actually those characters of evil which we sometimes express by the term popery, but which may be better signified by the term idolatry; a reverence for that which ought not to be reverenced, leading to a want of faith in that which is really deserving of all adoration and love.
The Christian Life Its Course, Its Hindrances, And Its Helps Thomas Arnold 1818
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Whether this be the number of the errors and heresies that are contained in popery, or rather, as others, the number of the years from its rise to its fall, is not certain, much less what that period is which is described by these prophetic numbers.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
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It must be remembered that there was less of priestcraft -- less of what we now call popery -- in those earlier days than there came to be later on; and the springs of truth, though somewhat tainted, were not poisoned, as it were, at the very source, as they afterwards became.
In the Days of Chivalry Evelyn Everett-Green 1894
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Egypt, delivering us from popery, which is Romish idolatry, and causing the light of his truth to break forth gloriously among us.
The Ten Commandments 1692
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Only it having been always accounted a very rational and allowed way, to judge what may be by what has been, you may remember that about forty years since this word popery served such as brandish it about the ears of the government now, as an effectual engine to pull down the monarchy to the ground, to destroy episcopacy root and branch, and to rob the church, and almost all honest men, to the last farthing.
Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions. Vol. IV. 1634-1716 1823
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On early Unitarian fears of 'popery': Nineteenth-century Unitarians had theological reasons to be wary of Catholicism.
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The Glorious Revolution is often seen as a clash between "popery" — the term for authoritarian Catholicism — and ancient English liberties.
Going Dutch 2009
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In assembly elections last November, the erstwhile mainstream parties were beaten by the hard-liners -- Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, and the DUP, led by the loyalist, anti - "popery" firebrand Ian Paisley.
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Hamilton inveighs against "popery" in some of his early political pamphlets.
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When the Puritan Parliament brough Laud to trial in 1641, the statue was pointed to as evidence of his 'popery'.
The dressing of the altars Burke's Corner 2007
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