(from genu, knee, and flecto, I bend), the act of bowing or bending the knee, or rather of kneeling down. The Jesuit Roseweyd, in his Onomasticum, shows that genuflexion, or kneeling, was a very ancient custom in the church, even under the Old Testament dispensation; and that this practice was observed throughout all the year, excepting on Sundays, and during the time from Easter to Whitsuntide, when kneeling was forbidden by the council of Nice. Others have shown, that the custom of not kneeling on Sunday had obtained from the time of the apostles, as appears from Irenaeus and Tertullian; and the Ethiopian church, scrupulously attached to the ancient ceremonies, still retain that of not kneeling at divine service. The Russians esteem it an indecent posture to worship God upon the knees. Baronius is of opinion that genuflexion was not established in the year of Christ 58, founding on that passage in Acts (xx. 36) where St Paul is expressly mentioned as kneeling down at prayer; but Saurin shows that nothing can thence be concluded. The same author also remarks that the primitive Christians carried the practice of genuflexion so far, that some of them had worn cavities in the floor where they prayed; and St Jerome relates of St James, that he had contracted a hardness on his knees equal to that of camels.