Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/755

 DEFAMATION

675

DEFINITION

inrnt and the letters had been placed under the lines, not on them. It contains the first six chapters of the ( iospel of 8t. Matthew, a part of the fifth chapter of St. Mark, the entire Gospel of St. John, a part of the (illiee for visiting the sick and the Apostles' Creed. i'lic text is from the Latin Vulgate with some pecul- iarities common to Irish Bible editions, and is written in the well-known minuscule lettering of the Irish scribes; the initial letters were greatly enlarged and iiiiuimented with patches of colour in dragonesque li>rins, and the pages have ornamental borders. I hiTe are also full portraits of the Evangelists. The I'.niik then contains entries in the Gaelic tongue, the most important being that giving an account of the

I foundation of the Abbey of Deer. The author was probalily a member of that comravmity and lived per- iiiips in the eighth century. He gives no clue to his ilcntity, but signs himself a poor wretch and asks for a Messing. The last document in the Book is a Latin ' I'lrtfr from the great and good King David.

MnsrM.iMi.iHT, Monks of the »Vp«( (New York. 1896), II, 53; I'. /,■,..!, I-:,,l,.,,„slical Record (1892), 865; O'Hanlon, Lives ,■: ihr Irish s„,ni« iMublin, 1875). VI, 389; Bf.llesheim, GcscJi.

I it> r knth. KiTche in Schottland (Mainz. 1883). I, 193 and passim (tr. HnNTER-BLATR); Janadschek, Orig. Cisl. (1877), I, 223; Skene, Celtic Scotland^ II.

Francis Mershman.

Defamation. See Reputation.

Defect. See Irregularity.

Defender of the Faith. See Henry VIII.

Defender of the Matrimonial Tie (Defensor mniri- monii), an official whose duty is to defend the mar- riage-bond in the procedure prescribeil for the hearing of matrimonial causes which involve the validity or nullity of a marriage already contracted. Benedict XIV, by his Bull "Dei Mi.seratione", 3 November, 1741, introduced this official into the marriage pro- cedure to guard against abuses occurring from the ordinary procedure. An annulment of a marriage might result from the appearance of only one of the married couple who desired freedom to enter upon a new marriage, while the other was apathetic and con- niving at the annulment, or at times vmable or indis- posed to incur expense to uphold the marriage-tie, es- pecially if it implied an appeal to a higher court. Per- haps, too, the judicial decision might induce change of opinion without sufficient warrant. Scandal arose from the frequency of dissolution of marriages with the freedom to enter new contracts. The Bull " Dei Miseratione" requires that in each diocese the ordi- nary shall appoint a defender of marriage, upright in character, and learned in the law, an ecclesiastic if possible, a layman if necessary. The bishop may su.s- pend him or remove him for cause, and, if he is pre- vented from taking part in the procedure, substitute one with the requisite qualifications. He must be summoned to any trial in which there is question, be- fore a competent judge, of the validity or nullity of a marriage, and any proceeding will be null if he is not duly cited. He must have the opportunity to exam- ine the witnes,ses, and, orally or in writing, to bring for- ward whatever arguments may favour the validity of the marriage. He must be cited even though the [larty interested in the defence of the marri.'ige be present, and all the acts of the court are always to be accessible to him, and at any time he has a right to bring forward new documents or witnesses favourable to the marriage. On assuming his office he must take an oath to fulfil its duties and he is expected to renew the oath in each case. If the judge decides in favour of the marriage the defender takes no further action unless its iippiment appeals to a higher court. Here a defender undertakes anew the defence of its validity. If the judge of first inst.ance decides against the v.ilidity of the marriage and no one else appeals, the dcfenfler of marriage is required by the Bull "Dei Miseratione"

in all cases to appeal to the higher court. If the first two courts agree upon the nullity of a marriage the defender need not appeal, unless his conscience tells him that a serioas mistake was made. If he feels it his duty to appeal a new marriage may not be con- tracted till his plea is heard. The decision in matri- monial cases is never absolutely final ; so that if new, serious reason appears for the validity of a marriage, it must be judicially investigated.

This legislation was extended and enforced in the United States byanlnstructionof Propaganda in 18S3, published with the "Acts and Decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore". Though the Bull " Dei Miseratione" does not require it, the practice of the Roman Congregations extends the intervention of the defender to cases of true marriages not consum- mated where the Holy See is requested to grant a dis- pensation for a new marriage. The obligation of the defender to appeal from the decision of first instance, adverse to the validity of a marriage, has been modi- fied by the Holy See in several cases, where the inva- lidity depends upon facts indisputably proven, through the Congregation of the Holy Office (5 June, 1889) whose decree was declared (16 Jime, 1894) to extend to the whole Church. Where the decree "Tametsi" of the Council of Trent was binding, requiring the presence of the parish priest for the validity, if only a civil ceremony was u.sed, the bishoj) may tleclare the marriage null without the participatioii of the de- fender. In view of the new matrimonial legislation contained in the decree "Ne Temere" of Pius X this also holds anywhere if a marriage is attempted only before a civil authority or non-Catholic minister of religion. Yet if an ecclesiastical form had been used, and the nullity from clandestinity was questioned, his presence is required; but if the impediment of clan- destinity clearly appears he need not appeal. This is true also if, through absence of ecclesiastical dispensa- tion, there is an impediment of disparity of worship, or of consanguinity, or of affinity from lawful inter- course, or of spiritual relationship, or of certain pre- vious legitimate marriage still existing. In these cases the ordinary may, with the participation of the defender, declare the marriage null, and the defender is not required to appeal. This, however, was de- clared by the Holy Office (^27 May, 1901) to be imder- stood only of cases in which certainly and clearly the impediment is proven; otherwi.se the defender must proceed to the higher court. The defender is ex- horted to exercise his office gratuitously, but he may be compensated from fees imposed by the court or from other diocesan resources.

Benedict XIV, Bull "Dei Miseratione" (3 Nov., 1741), in Bullar. Magn., XVI, 48 sq.; Collectanea S. Cong, dc Prop. Fide, no.?. 1572, 1573, 1575; Gaspakri, De Matrimonio (Paris, 1904), ch. viii.; Ladrentius, Inst. Jur. Keel. (Freiburg, 190.3), V, no. 159; Smith, Element's of Eccl. Law (New York, 1886), II; Taunton. The Law of the Church (London, 1906); Bassibey, Le Defe-nseur du lien matr. in Revue des Sciences EceUs. (May- June, 1899); BouDiNHON, Le Mariage Religieux (Paris, 1900). R. L. BURTSELL.

Defensor Ecclesiae. See Advocatus Eccle.si.e.

Definition, Theological. — The Vatican Council (Sess. iv, cap. iv) solemnly taught the doctrine of papal infallibility in the following terms: "The Ro- man Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedr/i. that is to .say, when in the exercise of his office of pastor and teacher of all Christians he. in virtue of his supreme .\postolic authority, defines that a doctrine on faith or morals is to be held by the whole Church, by the assistance of God promised to him in the person of Blessed Peter, has that infallibility with which it was the will of Our Divine Redeemer that His Church should be furnished in defining a doctrine on faith or morals. " From this teaching we obtain an authoritative notion of the meaning of definition in its theological, as distinct from its philosophical, or canonical, .sen.se. It is an irrevocable decision, by which the supreme teaching