Crossword clues for recusant
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Recusant \Re*cu"sant\ (-zat; 277), a.[L. recusans, -antis, p. pr. of recure to refuse, to oject to; pref. re- re + causa a cause, pretext: cf. F. r['e]cusant. See Cause, and cf. Ruse.] Obstinate in refusal; specifically, in English history, refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of the king in the churc, or to conform to the established rites of the church; as, a recusant lord.
It stated him to have placed his son in the household
of the Countess of Derby, a recusant papist.
--Sir W.
Scott.
Recusant \Re*cu"sant\, n.
-
One who is obstinate in refusal; one standing out stubbornly against general practice or opinion.
The last rebellious recusants among the European family of nations.
--De Quincey. (Eng. Hist.) A person who refuses to acknowledge the supremacy of the king in matters of religion; as, a Roman Catholic recusant, who acknowledges the supremacy of the pope.
--Brande & C.-
One who refuses communion with the Church of England; a nonconformist.
All that are recusants of holy rites.
--Holyday.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"obstinate in refusal," 1550s, from Latin recusantem (nominative recusans) "refusing to obey," present participle of recusare "make an objection against; decline, refuse, reject; be reluctant to" (see recuse). The noun meaning "one obstinate in refusing" is from 1610s.
Wiktionary
a. pertaining to a recusant or to recusancy n. 1 (context historical English) someone refusing to attend Church of England services, between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries 2 anyone refusing to submit to authority or regulation
WordNet
adj. (of Catholics formerly) refusing to attend services of the Church of England [syn: dissentient]
refusing to submit to authority; "the recusant electors...cooperated in electing a new Senate"- Mary W.Williams
n. someone who refuses to conform to established standards of conduct [syn: nonconformist] [ant: conformist]
Usage examples of "recusant".
Byrd was probably always a Catholic at heart, and his wife Juliana was indicted as a recusant as early as 1577.
This was the comparatively privileged position of recusant women under the law.
But this lack of rights, and thus of property, meant that it was extremely difficult to impose a fine upon a recusant woman--unless of course her husband was compelled to pay it.
Other husbands, wise in their generation, may have pretended to be henpecked by recusant wives to preserve their estates, even if the truth was somewhat different.
Home itself was not totally barred to a recusant wife during the term of her conviction.
Father Henry Garnet, in A Treatise of Christian Renunciation, preached a very different message concerning recusant wives in dispute with Protestant husbands.
To use a modern term, recusant women were empowered by the perils that all Catholics faced.
He was referring by this to a few old recusant servants lingering in his house: the sort who would threaten no one.
Martha Wright came from one of those stubbornly recusant families in Yorkshire, whose womenfolk were celebrated for their constancy.
The dispute between Jesuits and Appellants, between integrity and compromise, each policy with the aim of preserving English Catholicism, was like a canker eating away at the heart of the recusant world.
Dorothy was married to a neighbouring recusant John Grant, who was roughly the same age.
Two or three years later his mother remarried a recusant, Denis Bainbridge.
Pulleine himself played along with the authorities, and on one occasion denounced a priest to them: further proof of his loyalty, necessary for one of recusant stock.
July 1603 King James had been over two months happily resident in England and had recently remitted recusant fines.
As to the laymen, by the end of the year the recusant fines were back in full force, and would shortly net three thousand pounds.