particularly, in law, the wilful
contempt of the order or summons of a court (see CONTEMPT OF COURT). In
ecclesiastical law, the contempt of the authority of an ecclesiastical
court is dealt with by the issue of a writ _de contumace capiendo_ from
the court of chancery at the instance of the judge of the ecclesiastical
court; this writ took the place of that _de excommunicato capiendo_ in
1813, by an act of George III. c. 127 (see EXCOMMUNICATION).

CONUNDRUM (a word of unknown origin, probably coined in burlesque
imitation of scholastic Latin, as "hocus-pocus" or "panjandrum"),
originally a term meaning whim, fancy or ridiculous idea; later applied
to a pun or play upon words, and thus, in its usual sense, to a
particular form of riddle in which the answer depends on a pun. In a
transferred sense the word is also used of any puzzling question or
difficulty.

CONVENT (Lat. _conventus_, from _convenire_, to come together), a term
applied to an association of persons secluded from the world and devoted
to a religious life, and hence to the building in which they live, a
monastery or (more particularly) nunnery. The diminution "conventicle"
(_conventiculum_), generally used in a contemptuous sense as implying
sectarianism, secrecy or illegality, is applied to the meetings or
meeting-places of religious or other dissenting bodies.

CONVENTION (Lat. _conventio_, an assembly or agreement, from
_convenire_, to come together), a meeting or assembly; an agreement
between parties; a general agreement on which is based some custom,
institution, rule of behaviour or taste, or canon of art; hence extended
to the abuse of such an agreement, whereby the rules based upon it
become lifeless and artificial. The word is of some interest
historically and politically. It is used of an assembly of the
representatives of a nation, state or party, and is particularly
contrasted with the formal meetings of a legislature. It is thus applied
to those parliaments in English history which, owing to the abeyance of
the crown, have assembled without the formal summons of the sovereign;
in 1660 a convention parliament restored Charles II. to the throne, and
in 1689 the Houses of Commons and Lords were summoned informally to a
convention by William, prince of Orange, as were the Estates of
Scotland, and declared the throne abdicated by James II. and settled the
disposition of the realm. Similarly, the assembly which ruled France
fr