prelateshipn.

1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. 255/2 He was content that Thurstinus should safely reenter hys realme, and quietly enioye hys prelateshyp.

1630 ‘M. Car’ tr. St. Francis de Sales Treat. Loue of God x. xvi. 646 It is the Zeale of the health of Soules, that makes the Prelatshipe to be sought after, if you will beleeue the ambitious man.

1654 R. Vilvain tr. Enchiridium Epigr. vi. xcv Ostia thee gav A Prelatship.

1671 H. M. tr. Erasmus Colloquies 406 They who in my Boat lament that they have among the living, Kingdoms, Prelateships,..do bring me [sc. Charon] but an half-peny.

1760 Impostors Detected I. ii. iii. 180 His prelateship very graciously uncovered himself when they entered.

1783 Ld. Bulkeley Let. 18 Feb. in Duke of Buckingham Mem. Court & Cabinet George III (1853) I. 156 The Primate proposed the prelateship to me.

1832 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 31 547 His prelateship ordered the business of the Court to be concluded.

1870 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 153 The Bishop of Oxford, who himself slipped aside just in time to be ‘called by the voice,’ as he says in his farewell address to his clergy of the diocese of Oxford, to the rich see of Winchester and the Prelateship of the Garter.

1935 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 12 May 76/8 Edward..resigned the prelateship on March 8, because of advancing years.

1987 BBC Summary of World Broadcasts (Nexis) 9 Sept. Apostolic Administrator of Telsiai Diocese and of the Klaipeda Prelateship.

1993 T. Evergates Feudal Society in Medieval France 125 Henry, archbishop of Reims.., was a difficult man whose prelateship was marked by poor relations not only with the townsmen of Reims..but even with Pope Alexander III.