English

Noun

flagitiousness ‎(uncountable)

1. The state or quality of being flagitious
   • 1718, Isaac Sharpe, An Historical Account Of the Rise and Growth of Heresie in the Christian Church, etc., part 1, page 74:

     Anſelm calls a Synod at St. Paul’s, where was this Statute made; We condemn this Sodomitical Flagitiouſneſs in any, and thoſe that aſſiſt them, with a heavy Anathema. What was that! It followed, that ſuch ſhould not have Abſolution, until Repentance and Confeſſion.

   • 1790, John ‘Walking’ Stewart, The Moral State of Nations, or Travels Over the Most Interesting Parts of the Globe, etc., page 28 of the 1837 edition:

     …it would lose its nature of atrocity, and become a virtue, when placed in comparison with the slave trade, considered with the double flagitiousness of first buying the human species, and then destroying them. …how can he esteem himself, when conscience will ever upbraid him with the participation in an act, whose flagitiousness is so great, that unless he renounces the character of man, his very share would be sufficient to sink him under the most ignominious contempt…