\Rit"u*al*ism\, n. [Cf. F. ritualisme.]
1. A system founded upon a ritual or prescribed form of
   religious worship; adherence to, or observance of, a
   ritual.
2. Specifically :
   (a) The principles and practices of those in the Church of
       England, who in the development of the Oxford
       movement, so-called, have insisted upon a return to
       the use in church services of the symbolic ornaments
       (altar cloths, encharistic vestments, candles, etc.)
       that were sanctioned in the second year of Edward VI.,
       and never, as they maintain, forbidden by competennt
       authority, although generally disused. Schaff-Herzog
       Encyc.
   (b) Also, the principles and practices of those in the
       Protestant Episcopal Church who sympathize with this
       party in the Church of England.