remissnessn.

1551 T. Raynald tr. A. Vesalius Compend. Declar. Vertues Oile Imperial Ded. sig. Aij Comparing the remissnes of mi slender poure, with the excess of your..merites, y can conceaue but smal hope..to discarge [sic] me of so greate..a bond.

1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exodum 259 Nor yet do I consent to them, that thinke Moses still continued his prayers, but that this remisnes was only in his strength.

1660 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. III. v. 259 The shortnesse makes amends for the greatnesse [of the pain], the remissnesse, for it's length.

1669 W. Simpson Hydrologia Chymica 315 According to the intenseness or remisness of the air.

1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 249. ¶5 Laughter..slackens and unbraces the Mind, weakens the Faculties, and causes a kind of Remissness and Dissolution in all the Powers of the Soul.

1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 2040/1 He litle regarding their inconstancie and remisnes in Gods cause or quarel.

1575 in MSS. Rye & Hereford Corporations (1892) 48 We for remisenes in dutie to be gretly blamid.

1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres iv. 98 The disorders of souldiers do many times grow through remissnesse..of officers.

1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 7 Encouraged to villanies by the remisnesse of their lawes.

1644 J. Milton Areopagitica 17 Impunity and remissenes, for certain are the bane of a Commonwealth.

1685 J. Evelyn Diary (1955) IV. 478 The Reformed Churches in Christendome, now weaken'd, & neere utterly ruind, through our remissnesse, & suffering them to be..persecuted..which we tooke no notice of.

1728 J. Morgan Compl. Hist. Algiers I. v. 316 The order [of Knights] rather dreads the Remissness and wonted Luke-warmness of the Catholic Potentates.

1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World I. 175 The remissness of behaviour in almost all the worshippers..struck me with surprize.

1774 E. Burke Let. 19 Nov. (1961) III. 78 If..we should suffer any thing to be lost..by our remissness.

1838 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece V. xlii. 225 This remissness of the Athenians encouraged Charidemus openly to renounce the treaty.

1866 J. Gilliss Let. 18 Nov. in So Far from Home (1993) 105 I have hoped..that it was the remissness of the mail.

1883 Cent. Mag. Feb. 518/2 Helen was now tempted to be really harsh with him for his remissness.

1912 H. Bushnell Christian Nurture iii. 71 They subside thus into a habit of remissness and religious negligence, and their way of nurture becomes unparental.

1955 E. Wilson Jrnl. in Sixties: Last Jrnl. (1993) 464 Due to a misunderstanding on his part and the remissness of the treasurer's office, he had never been paid.

2004 I. M. Banks Algebraist (2005) iv. 342 Covering..his own shocking remissness in not making the refitted ships invulnerable to alien hyper-weapons.

1624 T. Scott Boanerges sig. E The noble Prince found a kind of remisnes and relaxation concerning his first entertainment.

1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan i. viii. 34 In profest remissnesse of mind..a man may play with the sounds..of words.

1743 H. Fielding Jonathan Wild iii. xiv, in Misc. III. 282 None but weak and honest Men can indulge themselves in Remissness or Repose.