Literary notes about Contumacy (AI summary)
The term "contumacy" has been used in literature to denote a stubborn, often defiant resistance to authority or norm. For instance, Carlyle employs the word to highlight a paradoxical martyrdom marred by insincerity and obstinacy, as it becomes intertwined with cant [1]. Hobbes, meanwhile, extends its application to the physical realm, describing a tangible obstruction in the body's processes that ultimately leads to collapse [2]. In Foxe's account of religious conflict, "contumacy" is directly associated with audacious dissent against ecclesiastical authority [3]. Augustine uses it metaphorically to illustrate an opposition not born of divine intent but of demonic defiance [4], while historical accounts of women's suffrage document it as a characteristic stubbornness that, despite persistent challenges, would eventually be overcome [5].
- Shut thy eyes, O Reader; see not this misery, peculiar to these later times,—of martyrdom without sincerity, with only cant and contumacy!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - it break at last the contumacy of the parts obstructed, and dissipateth the venome into sweat; or (if Nature be too weak) the Patient dyeth.
— from Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes - Upon being closely charged with contumacy, the severe replies of Mr. Saunders to the bishop, (who had before, to get the favour of Henry VIII.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe - Thus the beauty of the auspices is made void, and there has remained only the contumacy against Jove, not of gods, but of demons.
— from The City of God, Volume I by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine - At intervals fresh examinations took place, and they were repeated from time to time until her " contumacy ," as it was termed, was subdued.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I
