reformation

plural reformations

1. countableuncountableAn improvement (or an intended improvement) in the existing form or condition of institutions or practices, etc.; intended to make a striking change for the better in social, political or religious affairs or in the conduct of persons or operation of organizations.

   […] olde men long nusled in corruption, scorning them that would seeke reformation […]

   The New Arcadia

   a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   And like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   It is good also, not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware, that it be the reformation, that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change, that pretendeth the reformation.

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Innovation”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

   […] satire lashes vice into reformation, and humour represents folly so as to render it ridiculous.

   1674 (date written), John Dryden, The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1677, →OCLC, (please specify the page number)

2. countableuncountablelawChange or correction, by a court in equity, to a written instrument to conform to the original intention of the parties.

   1 more example

   All sorts of legal instruments may be reformed by equity, when the errors, which have been committed in the execution of them, are mutual mistakes or a mistake of one party combined with the fraud of the other. Thus, reformation has been decreed of all kinds of deeds of conveyance, including leases, mortgages, deeds of trust, marriage and family settlements. Likewise, bonds of all kinds, policies of insurance, assignments or release of mortgages, executory contracts for the sale of lands, the indorsement of a note, agreements for the establishment of a highway, military orders. So may, also, judgments and other records be corrected or be reformed.

   1893, Christopher Gustavus Tiedeman, “Chapter XXIX”, in A Treatise on Equity Jurisprudence, §507 (footnotes omitted)

plural reformations

1. alternativeAlternative form of re-formation.

1. historicalThe religious movement initiated in the 16th century against the Roman Catholic Church, leading to more than a century of internecine conflict that ended with a durable division between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.