retractation means retraction (of something previously said).
Etymology
Compare French rétractation, Latin retractatio (“a revision, reconsideration”).
noun
- retraction (of something previously said)“[…] but while they own what G. Fox hath written, and that he writ it with a perfect spirit: I say untill they do make some Recantation or Retractation: or shew the Reasons why they doe not, H. Norton who keeps more plainly to his Principles is to windward of them, and the Foxians do but strip themselves naked to be more derided and scorned as the more notorious Juglers and Dissemblers .”