rubricism

English

Etymology

From rubric +‎ -ism.

Noun

rubricism (uncountable)

1. (Christianity, derogatory) A pedantic or scrupulous emphasis on following rubrics, that is, written directions and regulations, in celebrating the liturgy.
   • 1864 October, “Mr. Kingsley and Dr. Newman”, in The London Quarterly Review, volume 23, number 45, page 148:

     […] 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 […]

   • 1995, Simon Ditchfield, Liturgy, Sanctity and History in Tridentine Italy: Pietro Maria Campi and the Preservation of the Particular, →ISBN, page 19:

     Theodor 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.

   • 2000, David Torevell, Losing the Sacred: Ritual, Modernity and Liturgical Reform, →ISBN, page 148:

     The earlier rubricism and strict observance of the laws governing valid liturgical celebration, were considered stultifying and obsolete by the Council Fathers.

Related terms

• rubrician
• rubricist