Crossword clues for contumacy
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Contumacy \Con"tu*ma*cy\, n.; pl. Contumacies. [L. contumacia, fr. contumax, -acis, insolent; prob. akin to contemnere to despise: cf. F. contumace. Cf. Contemn.]
-
Stubborn perverseness; pertinacious resistance to authority.
The bishop commanded him . . . to be thrust into the stocks for his manifest and manifold contumacy.
--Strype. -
(Law) A willful contempt of, and disobedience to, any lawful summons, or to the rules and orders of court, as a refusal to appear in court when legally summoned.
Syn: Stubbornness; perverseness; obstinacy.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., from Latin contumacia "haughtiness, insolence," noun of quality from contumax (see contumely).
Wiktionary
n. disobedience, resistance to authority
WordNet
n. willful refusal to appear before a court or comply with a court order; can result in a finding of contempt of court
obstinate rebelliousness and insubordination; resistance to authority
Wikipedia
Contumacy is a stubborn refusal to obey authority or, particularly in law, the wilful contempt of the order or summons of a court (see contempt of court). The term is derived from the Latin word contumacia, meaning firmness or stubbornness.
In English ecclesiastical law, it was contempt of the authority of an ecclesiastical court and was dealt with by the issue of a writ from the Court of Chancery at the instance of the judge of the ecclesiastical court. This writ took the place of the de excommunicato capiendo in 1813, by an act of George III; see excommunication.
In the U.S., while not expressly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, the courts have long asserted an inherent power of judges to punish such refusal, which in this context is known as contempt of court. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized federal courts' inherent power to imprison a person for contumacy in United States v. Hudson & Goodwin without a reference to a definition of contumacy in common or statutory law.
In traditional Chinese law, contumacy (曰惡逆) is one of the Ten Abominations.
Usage examples of "contumacy".
In fact, not a single American reviewer noticed it, and most of them slated the book violently as a mass of heresies and contumacies, a deliberate attack upon all the known and revered truths about the woman question, a headlong assault upon the national decencies.
Frederick being dead, the pope had now only to suppress the contumacy of the Romans.
The pope laid the whole blame upon the city, and being enraged excommunicated her, in which state of contumacy she remained as long as the pontiff lived.
Citta di Castello being in the same state of contumacy, he besieged that place.
Privately he felt the turn-out to be satisfactory, but to ignore the nine cases of contumacy would instantly make a mockery of his authority.
The generous contumacy of Socrates, as Cicero calls it, has been highly celebrated in all ages.