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 INTEREST

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INTEREST

the Roman pontiff." This interdict is imposed for t he same crime as the specially reserved excommunication no. 4 [see Excommunication, VII, A. (a)], but the ex- communication falls on the individuals, and the inter- dict on the group, or moral persons, by whatever name they be called, and who cannot be excommunicated as such.

(2) "Those who knowingly celebrate or cause to be celelirated the Divine offices in places interdicted by the ordinary or his delegate, or by the law; those who admit persons excommunicated by name to the Divine offices, the sacraments of the Church, or to ecclesiasti- cal burial, incur plena jure the interdict against enter- ing the church, until they have made amends sufficient in the opinion of him whose order they have con- temned." This interdict,which is borrowed, except for a few minor modifications, f rom c. viii, ' ' De privilegiis", in VI° of Boniface VIII, is therefore reserved to the competent prelate. Its object is to ensure the obser- vance, on the one hand, of the local interdict, and, on the other, of excommunication by name (see Ex- COMMUNIC.'V.TION, vol. V, p. 6S0, sub-title Viiandi and Tolerati).

(3) The Council of Trent (Sess. VI, cap. i, " De Ref .") imposes on bishops the duty of residence ; it prescribes that those who absent themselves without a sufficient reason for six continuous months are to be deprived of a quarter of their annual revenue; tli^n of another quarter for a second six months' absence; after which, the council continues, "as their contumacy increases . . . the metropolitan will be bound to denounce to the Roman pontiff, by letter or by messenger, within three months, his absent suffragan bishops, and the senior resident suffragan bishop will be obliged to de- nounce his absent metropolitan, under penalty of in- terdict against entering the church, incurred eo ipso." The obligation of denouncing begins, therefore, only after an entire year's absence, and the interdict is in- curred- only if the denunciation has not been made within the next tliree months.

(4) The Council of Trent (Sess. VII, cap. x, "De Ref.") forbids chapters, during the vacancy of a see, to grant dimissory letters within a year dating from the vacancy, unless to clerics who are arctali, i. e. ol)ligi'il to ol)tain ordination on account of a benefice; this prohil>ition carries with it the penalty of interdict. The Council of Trent having later (Sess. XXIV, cap. xvi, "De Ref.") obliged the chapter to name a vicar capitular within eight days, the interdict can be in- curred by the chapter only for dimissorj' letters granted during these eight days. It is disputed whether or not the vicar capitular would incur the interdict for this fault (Pennacchi in Const. "Ap. Sedis", II. 469).

(.5) The Constitution "Romanus Pontifex" aims at preventing those who are elected by the chapters or named by the civil authorities from undertaking the administration of their church under the name or title of vicar capitular. Besides the excommunication in- curred by the chapters and the person electeil (see E.xcoMMUNic.\TioN, sub-title Excoiiiniunicdtiiinx Pro- nounced or Renewed Since the Constitution "A pustolicce Sedis"), Pius IX imposes on "those among them who have received the episcopal order a suspension from the exercise of their pontifical powers and the inter- dict against entering the church, pleno jure and with- out any declaration."

Canonists usually treat of interdict in their commentaries on tit. xxxiK, X, lib. V. Moralists deal with it apropos of the treatise on censures {De censuris). One of the best works is that nf d'Annib.\lb. SummuZa Tfieoloffue moralis (5th ed., Rome, 1908). For dstails consult the numerous commentaries on the Constitution Apo^tolica Sedis. Special works by ancient writers: Avila, De censuris (Lyons. 1608); Soarez, De ren- awris (Coimbra, 160.3); Altieri, De censuris ecclesiaslicis (Rome, 1618). — .\mong recent writers see Kober. Der Kir- chenbann (Tubingen, 1857); Marx in Kirchenlex., s. v.; Holl- WECK, Die kirchtichen SlrafgeseUe (.Mainz, 1899); Hilarius a Sexten. De censuris (Mainz, 1898); MiJNCHEN, Das kanonische Gerichlsverfahren und Slrafrechl (Cologne, 1874); Tadnton, The Law of the Church (London, 1906), 8. v. Interdict; Smith,

Elements of Ecclesiastical Law (New York, 1884); SantI- Leitner, Pr<ilect. Jur. Canonici (New York, 1905); LAtjREN- TUis, Inst. Jur. Eccl. (Freiburg, 1908), 328-32; Lega, De Judiciis Eccl. (Rome, 1900).

A. BOUDINHON.

Interest (Lat. interest; Fr. intirct; Cierm. in- teresse). The mental state called interest has received much attention in recent psychological literature. This is largely due to the German philosopher Ilerbart (q. v.). The important position he has won for it in the theory of education makes it deserving of some treatment in The Catholic Encyclopedia. P.sychol- ogists have disputed as to the exact meaning to be assigned to the term and the precise nature of the mental state.

P.SYCHOLOGY OF INTEREST. — Interest has been variously defined as a kind of consciousness accom- panying and stimulating attention, a feeling pleasant or painful directing attention — the pleasurable or painful aspect of a process of attention — and as identi- cal with attention itself. Thus it may be said, I attend to what interests me; and, again, that to be interested and to attend are identical. The term interest is used also to indicate a permanent mental disposition. Thus I may have an interest in certain subjects, though they are not an object of my present attention. However interest be defined, and whether it be described as a cause of attention, an aspect of attention, or as identical with attention, its special significance lies in its intimate connexion with the mental activity of attention. Attention may be de- fined as cognitive or intellectual energy directed to- wards any object. It is essentially selective, it con- centrates consciousness on part of the field of mental vision, whilst it ignores other parts. Attention is also purposive in character. It focuses our mental gaze in order to attain a clearer and more distinct view. It results in a deeper and more lasting impression, and therefore plays a vital part both in each cognitive act and in the growth of knowledge as a whole. The English .\ssociationist school of psychology and most Empiricists, in treating of the genesis of knowledge, seem to look on the intensity or frequency of the stimulus as the most influential factor in the process of cognition. As a matter of fact, what the mind takes in depends almost entirely on this selective action of attention.

Out of the total mass of impressions, streaming in at any moment through the various channels of sense, it is only those to which attention is directed that rise to the level of intellectual life, or take real hold of the mind. What these are will be determined liy interest. We are interested in what is connected with our past experience, especially in what is partly new, yet partly familiar. Pleasant feelings and painful feel- ings are original excitants of attention; there are other experiences also — neutral perhaps in them- selves, but associated with these latter — which gener- ate fear or hope, and so become interesting. Though our attention may be temporarily attracted by any sudden shock or unexpected impression of unusual intensity, we do not speak of this as interesting, and our attention soon wanes. Isolated experiences, ex- cept in so far as they may stimulate the intellect to seek to correlate them with some previous cognitions, do not easily hold the mind. Repeated efforts are required to keep our attention fixed on an unfamiliar branch of study (as e. g. a new language or science). But in proportion as each successive act of observa- tion or understanding leaves a deposit in the form of an idea in the memorj', ready to be awakened by partially similar experiences in the future, there is gradually built up in the mind a group or system of ideas constituting our abiding knowledge of the sul> iect. Such series of experiences, with the group of ideas thus deposited in the memory, render similar acts of cognition easy and agreeable in the future.