rec·u·sant

(rĕk′yə-zənt, rĭ-kyo͞o′-)

1. One of the Roman Catholics in England who incurred legal and social penalties in the 1500s and afterward for refusing to attend services of the Church of England.

2. A dissenter; a nonconformist.

rec′u·san·cy n.

rec′u·sant adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

recusancy

resistance to authority or refusal to conform, especially in religious matters, used of English Catholics who refuse to attend the services of the Church of England. Also recusance. — recusant, n., adj.

See also: Religion

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

recusancy - refusal to submit to established authority; originally the refusal of Roman Catholics to attend services of the Church of England

direct action - a protest action by labor or minority groups to obtain their demands

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

It was as much injured by its charges in fitting out an armament against the Spaniards, during the time of the Armada, as by the fines and confiscations levied on it by Elizabeth for harbouring of priests, obstinate recusancy, and popish misdoings.

View in context

In keeping with the recusancy marking this marriage, they are undecided on how to celebrate or where to go.

Bill and Mary Klein celebrate 50th anniversary

Elizabeth Hastings, the mother of Francis Beaumont Senior and grandmother of Francis Beaumont Junior, battled against the recusancy laws in the 1580s, refusing to pay her fines.

Beaumont's Lives

Great Britain tolerates dissent from the national church, but does not recognize the right of dissent; and barbarous laws against recusancy still disgrace her statute-books, though rarely enforced.

Civil and Religious Freedom from Seeking the Truth

The Benedictine lay sister Cecilie Price, who had been imprisoned for her recusancy in England, 'which she most Patiently and Joyfully courageously suffred', maintained a self-imposed life of adversity in the cloisters of Brussels and Ghent.

The Experience of Exile in Early Modern English Convents

What is it in her dialogue with Parolles that alters her tone from despairing recusancy in her first soliloquy to confident, moral purposiveness in her second?

Faith in the unseen: Helena's sacramental vision in All's Well That Ends Well

He also brought back recusancy fines - cash penalties for people who refused to attend Anglican services.

Guy's holy war against the king; THE BIG READ HOW THE GUNPOWDER PLOT WAS PLANNED.. AND WHY IT FAILED Every November 5, we commemorate Guy Fawkes and burn him in effigy. But the reality was far from the fun and fireworks a group of men as ruthless and dedicated to their cause as any modern terrorist

In 1580, she married Thomas Fitzherbert (1552-1640), who had been imprisoned for recusancy in 1572, after he had been at Oxford University (in 1568) and come under the influence of Edmund Campion.

William Peto, O.F.M. Obs., and the 1556 edition of The folowinge of Chryste: background and context

Christopher "where the entertainment represents the administration of a sacrament" ("Recusancy" 111).

The Simpson players of Jacobean Yorkshire and the professional stage

Almost nothing is known about his wife, apart from his one mention of her to Drummond as "a shrew yet honest" (102) and their linking in a charge of recusancy immediately following the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot (228); after 1619, Donaldson can say only that Jonson was either living apart from his wife or she was dead.

Ben Jonson: A Life