> as lemmas

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) iv. l. 917 I mai wel with sauf conscience Excuse me of necgligence Towardes love in alle wise.

1549 H. Latimer 1st Serm. before Kynges Grace sig. Di The which treasure, if it be not sufficiente, he maye lawfullye and wyth a salue consience, take taxis of hys subiectes.

1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. vi^v To reuoke his sentence already taught and defended, he can not with a safe conscience [L. cum bona conscientia].

a1616 W. Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) i. i. 13 A Trade Sir, that I hope I may vse, with a safe Conscience . View more context for this quotation

1700 W. Congreve Way of World v. i. 73 So as long as it was not a Bible-Oath, we may break it with a safe Conscience.

1767 C. Smart tr. Horace Odes ii. iv, in tr. Horace Wks. (new ed.) I. 155 Her face, her limbs so form'd t'engage, I praise with a safe conscience still.

a1817 J. Austen Northanger Abbey (1818) I. xiii. 231 Now we may all go to-morrow with a safe conscience . View more context for this quotation

1865 Dublin Rev. Jan. 61 Gregory XVI., as is well known, answered a formal inquiry by saying that Catholics might, with a perfectly safe conscience, assent to the Belgian constitution.

1918 J. C. Davies Baronial Opposition to Edward II i. xii. 290 A conference was held..as to whether the lords could with safe conscience retain the lands of the Templars.

1985 Times 26 Feb. 14/6 I can say with a safe conscience that..there will be no matching broadcasting services here, there, or anywhere, at 18p a day.

2005 Sun (Nexis) 7 July You can go abroad with a safe conscience.