RECUSANCY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Recusancy

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Recusancy

noun

Refusal to submit to established authority; originally the refusal of Roman Catholics to attend services of the Church of England.

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Etymology of 'Recusancy'

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"Recusancy" Quotes from Famous Books

... vent in a wild plot for the seizure of his person, devised by a priest named Watson; and the alarm this created quickened James to a redemption of his pledges. In July 1603 the leading Catholics were called before the Council and assured that the fines for recusancy would no longer be exacted; while an attempt was made to open a negotiation with Rome and to procure the support of the Pope for the new government. But the real strength of the Catholic party lay in the ...

— History of the English People, Volume V (of 8) - Puritan England, 1603-1660 • John Richard Green

... Rector matters were not so desperate; it had been their custom to receive from his hands at the altar-rail of the Church hosts previously consecrated at the Rectory; for the incumbent had been an old Marian priest who had not scrupled so to relieve his Catholic sheep of the burden of recusancy, while he fed his Protestant charges with bread and wine from the Communion table. But now all that was past, and the entire family was compelled year by year to slip off into Hampshire shortly before Easter for their annual duties, and the parish church that ...

— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson

Words linked to "Recusancy" : direct action, recusant