obedience

The quality or condition of being obedient.

The act of obeying.

A sphere of ecclesiastical authority.

A group of people under such authority.

The act or habit of obeying; dutiful compliance with a command, prohibition, or known law and rule prescribed; submission to authority: as, to reduce a refractory person to obedience.

Words or action expressive of reverence or dutifulness; obeisance.

A collective body of those who adhere to some particular authority: as, the king’s obedience; specifically, the collective body of those who adhere or yield obedience to an ecclesiastical authority: as, the Roman obedience, or the churches of the Roman obedience (that is, the aggregate of persons or of national churches acknowledging the authority of the Pope).

Eccles.: A written precept or other formal instrument by which a superior in a religious order communicates to one of his dependents any special admonition or instruction.