oppugning

No man, rich or poor, is contented, and he enjoys being told that his failure to reach the goal of his ambitions and fill to the brim his cup of pleasure is because of the great impersonal world, or untoward and oppugning circumstances have prevented him.

The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 10 1905

Among the most unhappy circumstances to convict a Witch, one is, a maligning and oppugning the

The Wonders of the Invisible World Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England, to which is added A Farther Account of the Tryals of the New-England Witches Cotton Mather 1695

That of Mr. Gaule, Head IV. and runs thus; Among the most unhappy Circumstances to convict a Witch, one is a maligning and oppugning the Word, Work, or Worship of God, and by any extraordinary Sign seeking to seduce any from it, see Deu.

"More Wonders of the Invisible World," by Robert Calef, 1700 ; from Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706 1693

December, 1535, "and informed him that he" had endeavoured, almost to the danger and hazard of my temporal life, to procure the nobility and gentry of this nation to due obedience in owning of his Highness their supreme head, as well spiritual as temporal; and do find much oppugning therein, especially by my brother Armagh, who hath been the main oppugner, and so hath withdrawn most of his suffragans and clergy within his see and diocese.

An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 Mary Frances Cusack 1864