Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/768

 IMPOSITION

698

IMPOSTORS

in confuso, of what marriage is (this ignorance however is not presumed to exist after the age of puberty has been reached); and lastly, error, where the consent is not given to what was not intended. All cases of error do not annul a marriage but only those that arise from an error regarding a person {error per- sutue) or a quality affecting a person {redundans in personam). There is an error affecting a person that forms a separate class, namely, a mistake relating to his liberty (conditio servilis): a marriage with a slave who is believeil to be free is null and void. Arising from the will, a defect of consent may be caused through deceit or dissimulation when one expresses exteriorly a consent that does not really exist ; or from constraint impo.scd by an unjust external force, which causes the consent not to be free (vis et 7netus). Finally a con- sent, even real, is destroyed if to the contract be added clauses or conditions contrary to the essential elements of marriages, as divorce or adultery; but it must be noted that a mere concomitant intention is not a cause of nullity; not being expressed formally as a condi- tion, it is presumed non-existent. It is clear that the impediments improperly so-called are as varied as the ways in which the validity of the matrimonial consent, psychologically considered, can be affected.

In addition to "the treatises of canoni-sts and moralists on mar- riago. consult, for tiio historical aspect. Freisen, Geschichle drs kanonischen Eherechls (Tubingen, iSSS); for the classification of the impediments, Gasparri, Tractatus de vmtrimonio (Paris, 1904).

A. BOUDINHON.

Imposition of Hands, is a symbolical ceremony by which one intends to communicate to another some favour, quality or excellence (principally of a spiritual kind), or to depute another to .some office. The rite has had a profane or secular as well as a sacred usage. It is extremely ancient, having come down from pa- triarchal times. Jacob bequeathed a blessing and inheritance to his two sons Ephraim and Manasses by placing his hands upon them (Uen., xlviii, 14) and Moses conferred on Josue the hegemony of the He- brew people in the same manner (Num., xxvii, IS, 2'A). In the New Testament Our Lord employed this rite to restore life to the daughter of Jairus (Matt., Lx, IS) and to give health to the sick (Luke, vi, 19). The religious aspect of this ceremony first appeared in the consecra- tion of Aaron and his sons to the office of priesthood. Before immolating animals in sacrifice the priests, according to the Mosaic ritual, laid hands upon the headsof the victims (Ex., xxi.x: Lev., viii, Lx); and in the expressive dismi-ssal of the scapegoat the officiant laid his hands on the animal's head and prayed that the sins of the people might descend thereon and be expiated in the wilderness (Lev., xvi, 21). The Apos- tles imposed hands on the newly baptized, that they might receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost in confirma- tion (Acts, viii, 17, 19; xix, 6); on those to be pro- moted to Holy orders (Acts, vi, 6: xiii, 3; I Tim., iv, 14: IITim.,i,G; Matt., xiii); and on others to bestow some supernatural gift or corporal benefit (Acts, pnx- sim). In fact this rite was .so constantly employed that the "imposition of hands" came to aesignate an essential Catholic doctrine (Heb., vi, 2).

To imtlerstand clearly the extent to which the impo- sition of hands is employed in the Church at present it will be necessary to view it in its sacramental or theo- logical as well as in its ceremonial or liturgical aspect. In confirmation, the imposition of hands constitutes the essential matter of the sacrament, not however that which precedes the anointing, but that which takes place at the actual application of the chrism (S. C. de Prop. Fide, 6 .\ug., 1840). In the sacrament of Holy orders it enters either wholly or in part, into the substance of the rite by which most of the higher grades are conferred. Thus in the ordination of dea- cons according to the Latin rite it is at least partial matter of the sacrament; in conferring the priesthood

there is a threefold imposition, viz.: (a) when the or- daining prelate followed by the priests, lays hands on the head of the candidate nil dicens; (b) when he and the priests extend hands during the prayer, " Oremus, fratres carissimi ", and (c) when he imposes hands at giving power to forgive sins, .saying ".\ccipc Spiritum Sanctum ". The first and .second of these impositions combined con.stitute in the Latin Church partial matter of the sacrament, the tradilio instrumcntorum being required for the adequate or complete matter. The Greeks, however, rely on the imposition alone as the substance of the sacramental rite. In the consecra- tion of bishops the imposition of hands alone pertains to the essence (see Confirm.\tion: Orders).

The ceremonial usage is much more extensive. (1) In baptism the priest signs the forehead and breast with the sign of the cross, lays hands on the head dur- ing the prayer, "Preces nostras", and again after the exorcism, beseeching God to send down the light of truth into the purified soul (cf. Rom. Rit.). Tertul- lian mentions imposition as being used in conferring baptism in his own day (de Bap., VI, VII, &c.). (2) In penance the minister merely raises his hand at the giving of absolution. The ancient nrdines (cf. Martene, " De antiqiia ecclesia' disciplina ", yra.s.s/m), record this custom. (3) In extreme unction there is no imposition of hands enjoined by the rubrics, al- though in the prayer immediately before the anointing the words "per impositioncm manuum nostrarum" occur. Possibly the imposition is contained in the unctions as it is in the administration of confirmation. (4) Apart from the sacraments the rite is also em- ployed in almost all the various blessings of persons and things. .Vbbots and virgins are thus blessed (cf. Roman Pontifical and Ritual). (.5) In the reconcilia- tion of public penitents and the reception of schismat- ics, heretics, and apostates into the Church, hands were formerly, and still are, impose<i (cf. Duchesne, "Christian Worship", pp. 328, 43.5, St. Cyprian, "De Lapsis", 16). (6) Those obsessed by evil spirits are similarly exorcized (cf. Roman Ritual. Titus, x, cl). (7) The rubrics of the missal direct the celebrant to hold his hands extended during most of the prayers. At the pre-consecratioii prayer, " Hanc igitur obla- tionem ", he also holds his hands over the obliila. This action seems borrowed from the old Levitical practice, already noticed, of laying hands on the victims to be sacrificed, but curiously it has not been proved to be very old. Le Brun (Explication de la Messe, iv, 6) says he did not find the rubric in any missal older than the fifteenth century. Pius V niaile \t de pnrcejilo (cf. Gihr, "La Messe", II, 34.5). The significance of the act is expressive, .symbolizing as it does the laying of sin upon the elements of bread and wine which, being changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, become thus our emissary or .scapegoat, and finally the "victim of our peace" with (Jod. Nothing can better show the relationship that has always existed between prayer and the ceremony that is being considered, than this expressive .sentence from St. Augustine, "Quid aliud est manuum impositio, quam oratio super hominem?" (De Bap., Ill, xvi, 21).

Be.sidcs the authorities quoted above see the ordinary hand- books of liturjo': Roman Missal; Mauilujn, A/iwcum Itaticum, II (Paris.^ 16S9); Cheetham in Did. Christ. Antiq., s. v.; LEsfcTRE in \'lG., Did. de la Bible, s. v. Imposition des mains; TllALHOFEK in Kirchcnlez, s. v. Ihmdaufleoung.

Patrick Morrisroe.

Impostors. — Under this heading we may notice a certain number of objectionable characters who, while not of sufficient importance to claim separate treat- ment, have at various epochs so far achieved notorietj' or caused disturbance in the Church by their mendac- ity or their moral turpitude, that they cannot be en- tirely passed over in such a work as the present. That there would be hypocrites who would take advantage of a profession of piety to mask their own evil designs