Definition of "genuflection"

Those impious Pigs,Who, by frequent squeaks, have dared impugnThe settled Swellfoot system, or to makeIrreverent mockery of the genuflexionsInculcated by the arch-priest, have been whiptInto a loyal and an orthodox whine.

1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts