Definition of "apostate"

VVho can impair thee, mighty King, or bound / Thy Empire? eaſily the proud attempt / Of Spirits apoſtat and thir Counſels vaine / Thou haſt repeld, vvhile impiouſly they thought / Thee to diminiſh, and from thee vvithdravv / The number of thy vvorſhippers.

1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 608–613

a wretched and apostate state

1711 April 2 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “THURSDAY, March 22, 1710–1711”, in The Spectator, number 19; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853

An enormous number of monks and priests gave themselves up to sorcery, and there was no lack of apostate priests to perform the ceremonies of the Black Mass.

1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 101