Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/742

 DECALOGUE

664

DECAPOLIS

one who is the unjust cause of wrong to another can- not be allowed to become a gainer by injustice, and inasmuch as society is injured by injustice, if repara- tion cannot be made to the individual who has been wronged, it must be made to society, and this cannot be done better than by paying the debt to charitable purposes or to the poor. In general, debts must be paid as they become due, or at the time and in the man- ner agreed upon. If the debtor is unable to meet his obligations at the proper time he will be made a bank- rupt, his property will vest in the official receiver or trustee, and will be distributed among the creditors in proportion to their claims. Certain debts, however, have priority over others by law. In England the order among these is as follows: rates and taxes; the wages or salary of any clerk or servant not exceeding fifty pounds in respect of services rendered during four months prior to the receiving order; wages of any labourer or workman not exceeding twenty-five pounds for services, whether time- or piece-work, ren- dered during two months prior to the date of the re- ceiving order. If the assets are sufficient for the pur- pose these debts must be paid in full before all others, otherwise they will abate equally among themselves. In the United States the National Bankruptcy Act of 1898, as amended in 1903, gives priority to certain debts in the following order: all taxes legally due and owing by the bankrupt to the United States, State, County, District, or Municipality; costs of preserving the es- tate subsequent to filing the petition; the filing fees; the costs of administration; wages due to workmen, clerks, or servants which have been earned within three months before the date of the commencement of proceedings, not exceeding three hundred dollars to each claimant ; and finally debts owing to any person who by the laws of the States or of the United States is entitled to priority. Similarly, the debts of a per- son lately deceased must be paid by the executor or administrator in the order prescribed by law. Ac- cording to English law funeral expenses and the ex- penses of probate or taking out administration come first. Then the debts of the deceased in the following order: Crown debts; debts having priority by statute ; debts of record; debts by specialty and simple con- tract. Similarly also in the United States, after costs of administration and funeral expenses the debts due to the general government come next. Then follow other debts similar to those mentioned above as hav- ing priority in English law, but the order is not identi- cal in all the States.

In certain circumstances the obligation of paying a debt ceases. This will be the case when a creditor freely condones the debt, as of course he may do if he chooses. Moreover, physical or moral impossibility excuses the debtor from paying the debt as long as the impossibility lasts. If a man has no money and no means of getting any, he is excused on the ground of impossibility from paying his debts. Even if he could not pay without reducing himself and his family to beggary, it will be held morally impossible for him, as long as those conditions last, to satisfy his obliga- tions. Even justice must take account of other vir- tues and obligations. (How far a discharge in bank- ruptcy excuses from payment of debts in full out of subsequently acquired property is laid down in the article Bankruptcy.) The popes have some- times for just cause used their authority as the supreme heads of Christian society to grant partial remissions or compositions for debts due to unknown creditors. One of the clauses of the Bulla Cruciato' granted to the Spanish dominions confers such a privi- lege on the recipient on certain conditions. When a debt is barred by lapse of time, the civil authority re- fuses its help to enable the creditor to recover what is due to him, but the debtor is not freed in conscience; he is still under a moral obligation to pay his debt. Finally, it may be mentioned that by ecclesiastical

law those who have incurred heavy debts which they are unable to pay are prohibited from entering a relig- ious order, at least if they have been reduced to that state through grave fault of their own.

Ballerini, Opus Morale (Prato. 1S921, III; Lehmkuhl, Theologia Moralis (Freiburg, 1S9S), I; Slater, A Manual of Moral Theology (New York, 1908), I.

T. Slater.

Decalog-ue (Greek S^Ka, ten, and X6-yos, word), the term employed to designate the collection of precepts written on two tables of stone and given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The injunctions and prohi- bitions of which it is composed are set forth in Exodus (x.x, 1-17) and in Deuteronomy (v, (5-21). The dif- ferences discernible in the style of enumerating them in Exodus as contrasted with Deuteronomy are not essential and pertain rather to the reasons alleged for the precepts in either instance than to the pre- cepts themselves. The division and ordering of the commandments in use in the Catholic Church is that adopted by St. Augustine (Qusestiones in Exodum, q. 71). That which is commonly in vogue amongst Protestants seems to have Origen for its sponsor. He regarded Exodus, xx, 3-6, as containing two distinct commandments and in this hypothesis in order to keep the number ten, verse xvii would have but one. The practice now universally adhered to among Catho- lics is just the reverse. See Comm.^ndments of God.

ViGOUROUX, Manuel bibliqite (Paris, 1901); Gigot, S-pec. Introduct. to the Old Testament (New York, 1901).

Joseph F. Delany. Decanus Lovaniensis. See Tapper, Ruard.

Decapolis (from CJr. A^Ka, ten, and :r6XiS, city), the name given in the Bible and by ancient writers to a region in Palestine lying to the east and south of the Sea of Galilee. It took its name from the confedera- tion of the ten cities that dominated its extent. The Decapolis is referred to in the New Testament three times; Matt., iv, 25; Mark, v, 20; vii, 31. Josephus, Ptolemy, Strabo, Pliny, and other ancient geographers and historians make frequent reference to it.

At the disruption of the army of Alexander the Great, after his burial at Sidon, great numbers of his veterans, their occupation gone, settled down to a life of peace. The coast towns being already peopled, many of the Greeks sought homes farther inland. There they either laid out new cities or rebuilt and transformed older ones. In 218 b. c, according to Polybius, several of these towns were looked upon as strong fortresses. As long as the Seleucidse ruled in the North and the Ptolemies in the South, the influ- ence of the Greeks remained paramount in Sj^ria; but when, with the rise of the Romans, the power of the descendants of Alexander's soldiers weakened, the Greek cities were in sore straits. Especially peril- ous was the plight of these towns in Palestine after the successful rise of the Machabees. In the years 64-63 B. c, however, Pompey overran Syria and made it a Roman province. The Grecian cities, being regarded as bulwarks of Roman rule against any native upris- ings, were granted many favours. They enjoyed the right of coinage, preserved their municipal freedom, and were allowed a certain sway over the near-by coimtry.

It was after Pompey's conquest that the league of the Decapolis w;is formed. There is no record of the year, and although most likely it was soon after the coming of Pompey, yet it may not have been until Herod's time. The earliest list of the ten cities of the Decapolis is Pliny's, which mentions Scythopolis, Pella, Hippo, Dion, Gerasa, Philadelphia, Kaphana, Canatha, and Damascus. Later, Ptolemy enumerates eighteen cities, thus showing that the term Decapolis was applied to a region. The importance of this league was greatly strengthened by the ailvantajgeous positions of the principal towns. Scythopolis, the