ritualist
(ˈrɪtjuːəlɪst)
[f. as prec. + -ist. So F. ritualiste, Sp. -ista.]
1. One versed in ritual; a student of liturgical rites and ceremonies.
| 1657 Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 206 In Ancient Liturgies and Ritualists. 1685 Stillingfl. Orig. Brit. iv. 217 In the Church of Rome..they had nothing before the Sacrifice, as the old Ritualists agree, besides the Epistle and Gospel. 1710 C. Wheatly Bk. Com. Prayer Pref., The Roman Ritualists would have the Celebration of this holy Season to be Apostolical. 1725 Bourne Antiq. Vulg. xxiv. in Brand (1777) 250 Belithus, a Ritualist of those Times tells us, That it was in some Churches. 1845 Palmer Suppl. Orig. Lit. 26 Ritualists have stated that the Roman Breviary was considerably abbreviated..in the time of Pope Gregory VII. 1882 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. II. 568 Cosin, the most learned ritualist among them. |
2. One who advocates or practises the observance of symbolic religious rites, esp. to an extent regarded by others as excessive.
In the latter half of the 19th c. applied spec. to the High Church party in the Church of England.
| 1677 Life & Death J. Alleine viii. (1838) 119 He was neither Legalist, nor Solifidian, neither Ritualist, nor Enthusiast. 1681 in Somers Tracts I. 113 The high-flown Ritualists and Ceremony-mongers of the Clergy. 1706 in Phillips (ed. Kersey), Ritualist, one that stickles, or stands up for Rituals or Ceremonies in Religious Worship. a 1761 Law Behmen's Wks. (1764) I. a ij, Every Methodist and Moravian Leader, the Orthodox Ritualist, and the Pathetic Lecturer. 1846 F. Close Apol. for Evang. Party 17 The bishops and the ‘puritan party’ were found on the same side, and the ritualists were for the time defeated. 1866 De Morgan Budget Parad. (1872) 43, I am told that the Ritualists give short and practical sermons. 1867 Mackonochie in Ch. Times 12 Jan. 18/2 People have taken to call us ‘Ritualists’. 1874 Gladstone in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 671 The present movement in favour of ritual is not confined to ritualists. |
| attrib. 1874 Blunt Dict. Sects 199 The second stage of the Ritualist movement consisted of attempts to follow out with exactness the rubrics of the Prayer-Book. 1875 Pusey in Liddon Life (1897) IV. 279 The whole extreme Ritualist party is practically infallibilist. |
(b) spec. in Anthrop. In a tribal society, one who performs a ritual.
| 1969 M. Douglas Natural Symbols ii. 35 The primitive ritualist, in his ascribed social system, expresses cosmic orientations and moral directives in condensed symbols. 1974 B. & R. Hill Spirit in Stone iii. 35 A man whom we will call the ritualist and several assistants are fishing for salmon with a reef net. Ibid., The ritualist carefully hands the children the fish he has caught. 1977 L. J. Bean in Fogelson & Adams Anthropol. of Power 123 Individuals may..obtain it [sc. power] by inheriting or purchasing ritual equipment, and the knowledge that goes with it, from a shaman and/or ritualist. |
3. Someone whose behaviour is characterized by ritualism (esp. in sense 2). Also attrib.
| 1949 R. K. Merton Social Theory iv. 140 The syndrome of the social ritualist is both familiar and instructive. 1957 Ibid. (rev. ed.) v. 185 Situations patterned by the social structure which invite the ritualist response of overconformity to normative expectations. 1963 T. & P. Morris Pentonville vii. 172 The ritualist has largely rejected the socially approved goals altogether, and fallen back upon punctilious conformity. 1969 M. Douglas Natural Symbols i. 2 The ritualist becomes one who performs external gestures which imply commitment to a particular set of values, but he is inwardly withdrawn, dried out and uncommitted. |