popish

comparative more popish · superlative most popish

1. derogatoryof or pertaining to Roman Catholicism

   I do, therefore, much blame the petulcity of whatsoever author, that should dare to impute a Popish affection to him […]

   1629, Joseph Hall, The Reconciler

2. derogatoryacting like, or holding beliefs similar to, the pope.

comparative more Popish · superlative most Popish

1. Alternative letter-case form of popish.

   It was an old chapel, known to his father and his father's father. The unfrescoed walls still showed faintly the outlines of Popish statuary that had stood against them long ago, and the smoke of many candles had darkened the rafters to match the color of the lowering sky outdoors.

   1959, Dorothy Norris Foote, The Constant Star, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 58

   1 more example

   When indeed a Popish monarch may fill our throne, and the successor of St. Peter shall be the spiritual head of our Church; then shall your “esoterics,” alias “Church principles,” be in the ascendant in our Universities, and Who shall say that we may not have a Thorp lecturer in each of our Colleges, Neale and Webb scholarships, Regii professores supplying the places of those who shall now be superannuated, all teaching, and empowered to confer degrees in the, symbolism of mystical divinity:—the professor of music, not dealing as he now must, with crotchets and quavers, but in the far higher branches of the sacramentality of sounds, with their correspondent colours, instruments, bearing, &c. &c., and so of others?

   1845, Clergymen of the Church of England, editors, The Christian’s Monthly Magazine and Church of England Review, volume IV, London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., pages 364–365