Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRE'LA-CY, n. [from prelate.]

1. The office or dignity of a prelate. Prelacies may be termed the greater benefices. – Ayliffe.
2. Episcopacy; the order of bishops. How many are there that call themselves protestants, who put prelacy and popery together as terms convertible? – Swift.
3. Bishops collectively. Divers of the reverend prelacy. – Hooker.