Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/747

 SEDIA

679

SEDUCTION

Cooper in Did. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Catholic Record Society Pub- lications, V (London, 1905), 193; Record Office, State Papers Dom. Arc. Eliz., XVII, 72; Gee, Elizabethan Clergy, passim.

John B. Wainewright.

Sedia Gestatoria, the Italian name of the port- able papal throne used on certain solemn occasions in the pontifical ceremonies. It consists of a richly- adorned, silk-covered armchair, fastened on a suppe- daneum, on each side of which are two gilded rings; through these rings pass the long rods with which twelve footmen (palafrenieri), in red uniforms, carry the tlirone on their shoulders. Two large fans (flabella) made of white feathers^ — a reUc of the ancient liturgical use of the flabellum, mentioned in the " Constitutioncs ApostoUcae", VIII, 12 — are cariied at the sides of the Sedia Gestatoria. This throne is used more especially in the ceremonies at the coro- nation of a now pope, and generally at all solemn entries of the pope to St. Peter's or to pubhc consistories. In the first case three bundles of tow are burnt before the newly-elected pontiff, who sits on the Sedia Gestatoria, whilst a master of cere- monies says: "Sancte Pater sic transit gloria mundi," (Holy Father, so passes the glory of the world). The custom of carrying the newly-elected pope, and formerly in some countries the newly-elected bishop, to his church can be, in some instances, traced back very far and may be compared with the Roman use of the Sedis curulis, on which newly-elected consuls were carried through the city. Already Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia (d. 521) records in his "Apologia pro Synodo" ("P. L.", LXIII, 200; "Corpus Script, eccl.", yi, Vienna, 1882, 328) "Gestatoriam sellam apostoUcae conf essionis " alluding to the cathedra S. Petri, still preserved in the choir of St. Peter's at Rome. This is a portable wooden arm- chair, inlaid with ivory, with two iron rings on each side. Besides the present constant use of the Sedia Gestatoria at the coronation of the pope (which seems to date from the beginning of the sixteenth century), etc., it served in the past on diflferent other occasions, for instance when the pope received the yearly tribute of the Kingdom of Naples and of other fiefs, and also, at least since the fifteenth cen- tury, when he carried the Blessed Sacrament publicly, in which case the Sedia Gestatoria took a different form, a table being adjusted before the throne. Pius X made use of this on the occasion of the Euchar- istic Congress at Rome in 1905.

BoNANMi, Gerarchia ecclesiastica considerala nelle re.sji sacre e civile usate da quelli li quali la compongono (Rome, 1720), I, 390- 95; Cancellieri, Storia de' solenni posses.<>i de' Sommi Pontefici detti anticamente Processi o Processioni do-po la loro Coronazione dalla Basilica Vaticana alia Lateranense (Rome, 1802), 146—47, 272; DR Rossi, Bullettino di Archeologia cristiana (Rome, 1867), 33 sq.; Krads, Real-EncyclopOdie der christlichen Altertiimer, II (Freiburg, 1886), 156 sq. See also Flabellum.

LivARius Oliger.

Sedilia (plural of Latin sedile, a seat), the name given to seats on the south side of the sanctuary, used by the officiating clergy during the liturgy. The earliest examples are found in the catacombs, where a single stone seat at the south end of the altar was used by the celebrant. Similar single seats are found in Spain (at Barcekma, Saragossa, Toledo, and else- where) and England (at Lenham and Beckley). In course of time the number of seats was increased to three (for celebrant, deacon, and sub-deacon), which is the number usually found, though sometimes there are four and even five. They became common in England by the twelfth or thirteenth century, and were frequently recessed in the thickness of the wall of the church. In other European countries they are coniparatively rare, movable wooden benches or chairs being usual. Some early English examples are merely stone benches, but the later ones were almost invariably built in the form of niches, richly decorated with carved canopies, moulded shafts, pinnacles, and

Decorated Gothic Sedilia Ruins of Holycross Abbey, Thurles

tabernacle work. The piscina was often incorporated with them, its position being east of the sedilia proper. Four seats, instead of three, are found at Durham, Furness, and Ottery, and five at Southwell, Padua (S. Maria), and Esslingen. In many cases they are on different levels and the celebrant occupied the high- est, i. e., the east- ernmost. But when they were all on the same level, which is said to in- dicate the date at which priests be- gan to act as assis- tants at Mass, there is some doubt as to which was the cele- brant's. If there were only three, it was probably the central one, as in the presentRoman u.sage, but with four or five noth- ing can be stated with certainty, though possibly the easternmost was considered the highest in dignity. Mention may here be made of the royal chair of-Scot- land given by Edward I to Westminster Abbey to be used as the celebrant's chair, and it is probably this same seat, on the south side of the high altar, that figures in the "I>liii lloll".

Walcott, Snr.. I 7 (London, 1868); Lee, Glossary of

Liturgical and K !'■ rms (London, 1877); Martiqny,

Did. des antiquih ' I'iih. 1865).

G. Cyprian Alston.

Seduction (Lat. seducere, to lead aside or astray) is here taken to mean the inducing of a previously virtuous woman to engage in unlawful sexual inter- course. Two cases are distinguishable. The seducer may have brought about the surrender of his victim's chastity either with or without a y)romise of subse- quent marriage. For the purpose of this article we do not suppose the employment of violence, but only persuasion and the like. The obligation of res- titution in either hypothesis for the bodily damage wrought, considered specifically as such, cannot be imposed. The obvious reason is that its performance is impo.ssible. We are speaking of course only of the court of conscience. In certain cases the civil tribunal may justly mulct the seducer to make pecuniary compensation, and he will be bound to obey. If the woman has been lured into carnal relations by the promise of marriage, it is the generally re- ceived and practically certain teaching that the man is bound to marry her. This is true, independently of whether she has become pregnant or not. Granted that the bargain is a vicious one, still she has executed her part of it. What remains is not sinful, and unless it is carried out she is subjected to an injury reparable ordinarily only by marriage. This doctrine holds good whether the promise be real or only feigned.

Moralists note that this solution does not cover every situation. It will not apply, for instance, if the woman can easily gather from the circumstances that her seducer has no serious intention to wed her, or if he is vastly her superior in social position, or if the outcome of such an union is likely to be very un- happy (as it will often be). None the less, even in these conditions, the betrayer may at times be obliged to furnish other reparation, such as money for her