Except, in fact, for the five great sees they are members only by virtue of seniority in office.
"The Government of England (Vol. I)"
A. Lawrence Lowell
She might object to Throckmorton's profession, to his being in what she continued to call the Yankee army, to his twenty-odd years' seniority, to his not being a member of the church; as like as not this was the very rock on which Throckmorton's ship would split.
"Throckmorton"
Molly Elliot Seawell
He saw that, this lover, who, from his many years of seniority, and the experience of a somewhat hard life, looked right down into the depths of the girl's perplexed, troubled, passionate, innocent heart, and he was not afraid.
"Christian's Mistake"
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik