† 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.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 229 Eche man owiþ to be suget to heiȝere potestatis, þat is to men of heiȝe power. c 1380 ― Sel. Wks. III. 297 Wilt þou not drede þe potestate? c 1386 Chaucer Sompn. T. 309 Whilom ther was an Irous potestat. c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. vii. (Lion & Mouse) xxxvii, Ane prince or empriour, Ane potestate, or ȝit ane king with croun. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 33 Lawfull for the potestates, the nobilitie, the gentrie [etc.]. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 120 Some Potestats are queint men. a 1678 Woodhead 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’.
| 1382 Wyclif Eph. vi. 12 Aȝens the princes and potestatis, aȝens gouernours of the world of thes derknessis. 1520 M. Nisbet 1 Peter iii. 22 Angels, potestatis, and virtues, ar made subiectis to him. 1542 Becon Pathw. Prayer xxv. L ij b, It is no man nor Aungel, but God..whome the angelike potestates do reuerently feare. 1582 N.T. (Rhem.) Eph. i. 21 Aboue al Principalitie and Potestate and Power, and Dominion. c 1610 Women 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.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 255 b/2 The pryncypates armonysed, The potestates harped, Cherubyn and Seraphyn songen louynges and preysynges. 1584 R. 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.
| 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 208 A noble marchand of Paris suld pas before thair Potestate of Florence. 1470–85 Malory Arthur v. viii. 174 Whan ye shal come to Rome to the potestate and all the counceylle and Senate. a 1548 Hall 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. 1585 T. 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]. 1603 Knolles 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.
| 1530 Let. 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.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) I. 110 Trowand thairof that no man dar speik ill, Becaus he is ane prince of potestate. |