cultusn.

1617 S. Collins Epphata to F. T. ii. ix. 369 The cultus of creatures, is of that kind, by which, things that are inferiour to vs, may be honoured, and therefore surely not relligious.

1640 Canterburians Self-conviction 49 To give to it [sc. the altar] any religious worship, any cultus..any adoration, they do detest it, as palpable idolatrie.

1664 J. Evelyn tr. A. Arnauld Μυστήριον της Ἀνομίας: Another Part Myst. Jesuitism 15 Men should render that supreme Cultus of a Divine faith to his Words, which is onely due to the Word of God.

1799 H. Elsley Annot. Four Gospels I. (Matt. iv. 10) 76 The cultus or worship of the deity.

1838 R. W. Emerson Addr. Divinity Coll. 11 As the Cultus, or established worship of the civilized world, it has great historical interest for us.

1865 E. B. Pusey Eirenicon 181 That portion of the Roman Church, which is most devoted to the cultus of the Blessed Virgin.

1873 A. H. Wratislaw Life, Legend, & Canonization St. John Nepomucen 51 Pope Urban VIII. had..endeavoured to prevent abuses in the introduction of new cultuses.

1902 A. Dobson S. Richardson vii. 196 The language of literature seems to tend..towards the cultus of the short-cut and the snap-shot.

1945 L. Spence Magic Arts Celtic Brit. (1999) iv. 54 Some British writers..held that Druidism was a cultus of the pre-Celtic Iberian aborigines of Britain.

1963 Jrnl. Biblical Lit. 82 375 Social injustices resulting from the rigid centralization of cultus in Jerusalem.

2003 E. B. Edmonds Rastafari i. 17 Their [sc. prophets'] activities are determined by their sense of mission, which is given to them not by the cultus but by divine revelation.