Juridical Dissertation on Contumacy

Since, however, there is nothing more beautiful than order, and to know what you are doing—according to the most common saying—but not to know in what order you are doing it, is by no means perfect knowledge; and therefore I, too, observing order, according to the example of Ulpian in l. 1. pr. ff. de Just. & Jure and Paul in l. 1. pr. ff. de furt., shall begin the web of this treatment from the notation of the name and the definition of the thing, argum. l. 1. ff. de Orig. Jur.

THESIS I.

The word Contumacia has its roots in Latium, and is deduced by Cujacius in lib. 18. Observ. cap. 30. from contemnere [to despise], and thus it acknowledges the same source as the word contumelia [insult/contumely]. Argum. l. 1. ff. de Injur. Others, however, derive it from Con and tumeo or turgeo [to swell], because the contumacious person, by refusing to obey, swells entirely as if he were bulging. Sigismundus Scaccia, l. 1. de Judic. c. 91. n. 3. Hilliger on Donell. enucleat. l. 23. c. 10. lit. b. Ungepaur on Canon Law h. t. de dol. & contum. Tabor in C. J. A. ad tit. si quis jus dic. non obtemp. In our vernacular Aufflauffen [to run up/swell], schwellen [to swell], when something grows into an eminent mass, especially above a level plane, according to that of the poet in l. 2. Georg.

The earth swells in spring and demands the seed of generation.

As if they swell with an impatient lust for conceiving seed; Lucr. l. 4.

The places of the female swell.

Taubmann in his notes thereon, where also Turnebus l. 26. 30. reports that he derives this from virgins, whose habit of body at the fullness of puberty is mature to the sight, with the whole body as it were swelling, especially the chest and breasts. Hence also "tumid virginity" is said most elegantly by Statius, 2. Thebar.

Now preparing in their minds the joys of being wed in tumid virginity.

II.

Contumacia is understood in a sense either common and broad, or strict and proper: In the former, it denotes any disobedience whatsoever committed in or out of court, such as is the disobedience of children toward their parents in l. un. C. de ingr. lib. The latter, i.e., in the proper sense, signifies that contumacy which is committed against a Judge regarding the establishing and explanation of a trial, in l. 53. §. fin. ff. de Re Judic. This...