passive obedience

noun

1. unquestioning obedience to authority
2. the surrender of a person's will to another person

Example Sentences

Bonaparte gave his followers important positions, reminded soldiers of their oath of "passive obedience" and crushed parliamentarian revolts and rural insurrections.

From Salon

In preaching passive obedience to the monarch, Sacheverell was in essence preaching against the principle that the monarch is not above the law.

From Salon

It taught a doctrine of passive obedience, which its disciples nobly observed in the worst periods of persecution.

From Project Gutenberg

The ancient civilisations, and especially that of Rome, had been by no means deficient in those habits; but it was in the midst of the dissolution of an old society, and of the ascendancy of barbarians, who exaggerated to the highest degree their personal independence, that the Church proposed to the reverence of mankind a life of passive obedience as the highest ideal of virtue.

From Project Gutenberg

In this respect there is an analogy between the monastic and the military spirit, both of which promote and glorify passive obedience, and therefore prepare the minds of men for despotic rule; but, on the whole, the monastic spirit is probably more hostile to freedom than the military spirit, for the obedience of the monk is based upon humility, while the obedience of the soldier coexists with pride.

From Project Gutenberg