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† ˈpotestate Obs.
Also 5–6 -at.
[ad. L. potestās, ātem power, a ruler, supreme magistrate. So OF. potestat (learned form = pop. poustee); It. podestà. The pl. potestates is uniform with the pl. of potestas, and sometimes indistinguishable from it.]
1. A person possessed of power over others; a superior, potentate, ruler, lord.
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 229 Eche man owiþ to be suget to heiȝere potestatis, þat is to men of heiȝe power. c1380― Sel. Wks. III. 297 Wilt þou not drede þe potestate? c1386Chaucer Sompn. T. 309 Whilom ther was an Irous potestat. c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. vii. (Lion & Mouse) xxxvii, Ane prince or empriour, Ane potestate, or ȝit ane king with croun. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 33 Lawfull for the potestates, the nobilitie, the gentrie [etc.]. 1593G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 120 Some Potestats are queint men. a1678Woodhead Holy Living (1688) 29 They always giving a relation, or account..to their superior potestates, or to God.
2. Rendering potestas in the Vulgate (Eph. vi. 12, 1 Pet. iii. 22), applied to a spiritual (angelic or demonic) ‘power’.
1382Wyclif Eph. vi. 12 Aȝens the princes and potestatis, aȝens gouernours of the world of thes derknessis. 1520M. Nisbet 1 Peter iii. 22 Angels, potestatis, and virtues, ar made subiectis to him. 1542Becon Pathw. Prayer xxv. L ij b, It is no man nor Aungel, but God..whome the angelike potestates do reuerently feare. 1582N.T. (Rhem.) Eph. i. 21 Aboue al Principalitie and Potestate and Power, and Dominion. c1610Women Saints 195 They lyuing with flesh, like vnto the Potestates who want bodies, are not oppressed with the burden of their bodie.
b. spec., in mediæval angelology, a member of the sixth order of angels: see order n. 5.
1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 255 b/2 The pryncypates armonysed, The potestates harped, Cherubyn and Seraphyn songen louynges and preysynges. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xv. viii. (1886) 337 Thrones, dominions, principats, potestats, virtutes, cherubim and seraphim.
3. The chief magistrate in mediæval Italian towns and republics: = podestà b; transf. a chief magistrate in certain Turkish towns.
1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 208 A noble marchand of Paris suld pas before thair Potestate of Florence. 1470–85Malory Arthur v. viii. 174 Whan ye shal come to Rome to the potestate and all the counceylle and Senate. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 187 Then folowed the potestates & gouernors of the citie [Bologna] all in Crimosyn veluet, & within a myle of the citie there met hym [Charles V] foure and twentie Cardinalles. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. viii. 41 One of the saide Mahomies is elected and created potestate, and chiefe iustice both ciuil and criminal [of Chios]. 1603Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 157 The potestate of Pera came by sea also with eight gallies more.
†4. A (collective) authority, a governing body, e.g. of a university. Obs. rare.
1530Let. fr. Venice 1 July (MS. Cott. Vit. B. xiii. 92), They [all the doctors] causyd the Chaunceler of the potestate [of the University of Padua] to set his hande and seale for the approbation of the authorytye off the notarye.
†5. Power, authority. Obs. rare.
1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) I. 110 Trowand thairof that no man dar speik ill, Becaus he is ane prince of potestate. |