Recusants
Black's Law Dictionary · Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
Black's Law Dictionary
In English law
Persons who wlllfully absent themselves from their parish church, and on whom penalties were imposed by various statutes passed during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Wharton. Those persons who separate from the church established by law.
Termes de la Ley
The term was practically restricted to Roman Catholica.