Meanings
- derogatoryuncountableChristianityA pedantic or scrupulous emphasis on following rubrics, that is, written directions and regulations, in celebrating the liturgy.
The earlier rubricism and strict observance of the laws governing valid liturgical celebration, were considered stultifying and obsolete by the Council Fathers.
2000, David Torevell, Losing the Sacred: Ritual, Modernity and Liturgical Reform, →ISBN, page 1482 more examples
[…] finally both were wedded to an extreme high-church theory of discipline and doctrine, John Wesley being quite as far gone in this respect in 1735 as Newman himself was in 1835,—and indeed carrying his rigid rubricism and his asceticism very much farther than the Tractarians at any time carried theirs […]
1864 October, “Mr. Kingsley and Dr. Newman”, in The London Quarterly Review, volume 23, number 45, page 148Theodor Klauser, author of perhaps the most widely read general account of the project, did not help matters when he described the liturgy of the period from Trent to St Pius X (Pope, 1903–14) in terms of rigid unification […] and rubricism.
1995, Simon Ditchfield, Liturgy, Sanctity and History in Tridentine Italy: Pietro Maria Campi and the Preservation of the Particular, →ISBN, page 19
Origin
Cite this entry
rubricism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubricism
“rubricism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubricism. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rubricism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rubricism.
Source: rubricism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.