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 DE LEON

697

DELFAU

would not be absolutely against the will of the su- perior.

III. Delegated powers are necessary, either for the liceity or validity of an act performed by the delegate. If there be question only of the liceity of an act, per- mission reasonably presumed is sufficient. This would be the ease, for example, in the administration of the sacraments, except penance and possibly matri- mony. If, however, it be a question of the validity of an act, the delegation must be express, or at least rest upon a presumption of outward signs indicating actual consent. Such, for example, would be the delegation requisite for valid absolution in the tribunal of penance. In general, a delegate may not proceed to the exercise of his power until it be formally noti- fied to him, for, according to an axiom of law, juris- diction is aquired only by one knowing and accepting. In certain cases, this knowledge and acceptance may be only implicitly implied, but it is then considered sufficient. The fact of delegation must be proved to those concerned in the matter at stake, either by showing them the written instrument or exhibiting unexceptionable testimony that the power has been received. The delegate must also carefully observe the form of procedure specified by the superior who has empowered him to act. In case of grievance, an appeal may be made against the delegate to the trib- unal of the person who delegated him. This fact shows that the power of the vicar-general of a diocese is not delegated power, for there is no appeal from his tribunal to that of the bishop, because their tribunal is declared to be one and the same. The power of a vicar-general is most correctly characterized as quasi- ordinary, for on the one hand, he holds an office to which certain faculties are annexed, and on the other, he exercises his powers in the name of another. Some canonists, however, maintain that a vicar-general has delegated, and others that he has ordinary jurisdic- tion. Finally, no inferior ordinaries can delegate their entire authority to others in perpetuity without the license of the Roman pontiff, because such delega- tion would be equivalent to abdication, which is not permissible without the consent of the supreme au- thority. What has been said in this respect of in- ferior ordinaries, holds good also for those delegated to certain classes of cases in general (ad universitatem causarum). As the powers delegated by the Holy See are generally for very important matters, the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV, c. 10, de ref.) made an effort to provide by law for a certain number of quali- fied persons whom the pope could appoint as his dele- gates. The council ordered that several such ecclesi- astics should be elected in provincial synods and that their names should be forwarded to Rome by the bishops. The decree, however, was seldom acted on and gradually became entirely obsolete.

IV. Delegated jurisdiction can sometimes be sub- delegated to others. If the delegate was appointed by the pope, even for a particular case, he has the power of subdelegation. The latter is prohibited only when the matter has been committed to his personal care in an especial manner, or when it is of unusual im- portance or of a merely executive nature. Hence, when a confe.ssor has received by Apostolic privilege the faculty of absolving all the faithful from certain sins and censures, or of dispensing in certain irregvilar- ities and vows, he can not subdelegate this ministry. In like manner, one who has been charged with the execution of matrimonial dispensations may not sub- delegate the ministry itself, yet he may employ others to assist him in matters connected with his delegated jurisdiction, provided their work be only supplemen- tary, not principal. If the delegate was appointed by an ordinarj' other than the pope, he can not sul>- delegate, unless he has been commissioned ad universi- tatem causarum, or when the person delegating hjis given him the special authority to subdelegate. The

subdelegate cannot make a new delegation, but he can call in the assistance of others for the details of his work. When a delegate has confided all his au- thority in a particular matter to a subdelegate an appeal from the decision of the latter does not lie to the delegate, but to the superior who had originally commissioned the delegate.

V. Delegation ceases if the work assigned to the delegate has been completed ; if the delegate abdicates his power or declares the rescript of his appointment invalid ; if the term fixed for the conduct of the matter has expired, unless in a contentious case both parties have agreed to a prorogation; if the delegation be revoked; if the delegate die, unless he was one of a number of delegates simpliciier and their commission had provided for its continuance in such an emer- gency; if the person delegating die, and the case had not yet begun; if the person die on whose account the delegation was constituted, unless some matter concerning the Church or a prelacy be at stake.

Smith, Elements of Ecclesiastical Law (New York. 1895); Laurentius, Instilutiones Jur. Ecd. (Freiburg, 1903); Fer- raris, Bibliotheca Canonica (Rome, 1SS6), III.

William H. W. Fanning. De Leon, Ponce. See Leon.

Delfau, FRANfois, theologian, b. 1C.37 at Montel in Auvergne, France; d. 1.3 Oct., 1676, at Landevenec in Normandy. He joined the Order of St. Benedict when he was seventeen years of age, and made his solemn profession at the Abbey of St. Allire, 2 May, 1656. He was a profound student of the Fathers of the Church and the history* of the councils. Constant application to study speedily matured the powers of his exceptionally keen and brilliant mind, and he soon came to be looked upon as a foremost authority on all questions connected with patristic theology. When the Congregation of St. Maur in 1670 determined to undertake a critical edition of the works of St. Augus- tine, Delfau was commissioned by his superiors to pre- pare it. The task was a difficult one, but together with six other members of the order, among them his intimate friend Dom Robert Gu^rard, he began with energy and courage this great labour of love, and prosecuted it with an ardour truly Benedictine. In 1671 he prepared an elaborate prospectus, setting forth the general scope and character of the new edi- tion and the principles by which the editors were to be guided. Manuscripts came to the learned Maurists from various countries, and Pope Clement X even sent them priceless codices of the Vatican Librarj' together with all the materials that had been gathered there under Clement VIII for a projected edition of the Opera Augustini. A\'hen the first two volumes were about to be printed, the work was suddenly arrested, 18 Sept., 1675, by two kttresdr raclicl from Louis XIV, decreeing the banishment of both Delfau and Gu(''rard from Paris. The occasion for this drastic measure .seems to have been Delfau's book " L'abbt- commenda- taire", published at Cologne, 1673, in which the young monk had severely commented on the abuses con- nected with the system of commendam as it was then shamelessly carried on in France to the great detri- ment of the Church. The fearless work greatly aroused the king's anger, of which the enemies of the .Maurists did not fail to take advant.age. Delfau was obliged to withdraw to the monastery of Landevenec; he lived there but little more than a year when, at the early age of thirty-eight, he was drowned as he was crossing to the Carmelite convent at Brest, where he was to deliver a eulogy on the feast-day of St. Teresa. Delfau's works are: '"Apologia Cardinalis Fiirsten- bergii"; a m.asterly epitaph on C.asimir, King of Poland, who died as Abbot of St. Germain des Prfe; and a dissertation on the authorship of the " Imitatio Christi", in his edition of that book (Paris, 167.3).

B.\i MBH, Johannes Mabillon (AuEsburg. 1892). 97 sq.; Ta8- 8IN, Hist, littf-rairc de la Congregation de Saint-Maur (Paris.