beadledom

Constable, and in fact it was the day duty which embraced the peculiar dignity of beadledom.

Fragments of Two Centuries Glimpses of Country Life when George III. was King Alfred Kingston

At the time I speak of Knox was the Recorder of that important borough, and was possessed of all the dignity which so enhances a great officer in the eyes of the public, whether he be the most modest of beadles in beadledom, or the highest Recorder in Christendom.

The Reminiscences Of Sir Henry Hawkins Brampton, Henry H 1904

(Wisla) I prowled about among the crypts with a curious specimen of beadledom who ran off long unintelligible histories in atrocious

Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 6 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland, part 2 Various 1885

If a book were not restricted to the simplest tales, or pleasing fiction ending in virtue rewarded and vice punished, that was enough; the propriety of beadledom was at once ready to bray.

The Cathedral 1877

In its turn beadledom calculates the sum the dead man brings in, and even the priest, wearied with the prayers of which he has read so many, and needing his breakfast, prays mechanically from the lips outward, while the assistants are in a hurry that the mass to which they have not listened should come to an end, that they may shake hands with the relations, and leave the dead.

En Route 1877

She knows that this assumption of spiritual beadledom is mere affectation, and that other minds have as much right to their own boundary lines as she claims for herself; but it seems to her pretty to assume that woman generally is the consecrated beadle of thought and morality, and that she, of all women, is most specially consecrated.

Modern Women and What is Said of Them A Reprint of A Series of Articles in the Saturday Review (1868) Lucia Gilbert [Commentator] Calhoun 1860

It was not just a bit of beadledom from the top of the masthead; it was a permission to unleash the counterrevolutionary spirit against the sudden burst of enthusiasm for Mr. Zell’s program.

Battle Lines Are Drawn at <i>The Los Angeles Times</i> 2008

You have Grecian monuments, if anything so misplaced can be called Grecian, imbedded against and cutting into Gothic pillars; the doors shut for the greater part of the day; only a little bit of the building used: beadledom predominant; the clink of money here and there; white-wash in vigour; the singing indifferent; the sermons not indifferent but bad; and some visitors from London forming, perhaps, the most important part of the audience; in fact, the thing having become a show.

Friends in Council — First Series Arthur Helps 1844