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in this many followed him, that if the penitent sur- vives he should seek real alxjolution from a priest (cf. Bonav. in IV, sent., d. 17, p. 3, a. 1, q. 1, and Alex, of Hales, in IV, ci. 19, m. 1, a. 1). Scotus, on the other hand (in dist. xiv, q. 4; dist. xvii, q. 1), not only does not make this confession obli|^a- tory, but discovers therein certain dangers; after him John of Freiburg, Durandus of Saint-Pour9ain, and Astesanus declare this practice merely licit. Besides the practical manuals lor the use of the priests may be mentioned the *' Manipulus curatorum of Guy dc Montrocher ^1333), the S3modal statutes of William, Bishop of Cahors, about 1325, which oblige sinners to confess to a layman in case of necessity: all, however, agree in Ba3rin^ that there is no real absolution and that recourse should be had to a priest if possible.

Practice corresponds to theory; in the medieval ehansana de geates and in annals and chronicles, ex- amples of such confessions occur (see Laurain. "Dc r intervention des laYques, des diacres, et des abi3e88es dans I'administration de la Penitence '^ Paris, 1897). Thus, Joinville relates (Hist, de S. Louis, §70), that the array of the Christians having heon put to flight by the Saracens, each one confessed to any pnest he could findi and at need to his neighbour; he himself thus received the confession of Guy d' Ybelin, and gave him a kind of absolution saving: " Je vous asol de tel pooir que Diex m'a donnei (I absolve you with such power as God may have given me). In 1524 Bayard, wounded to death, prayed before his crpss-shaped sword-hilt and made his confession to his "maistre d'ostel" (Hist, de Bayard par le loyal servitcur, ch. Ixiv-v). Neither theory nor practice, it will readily be seen, was erroneous from a theological point of view. But when Luther (Prop, danm., 13) attacked and denied the power of the priest to administer ab- solution, and maintained that laymen had a similar power, a reaction set in. The heresy of Luther was condenmed by Leo X and the Council of Trent; this Council (sess. xiv, cap. 6. and can. 10), without di- rectly occupying itselt with confession to a layman in case of necessity, defined that only bishops and priests are the ministers of absolution. Sixteenth-century authors, while not condemning the practice, declared it dangerous, e. ^. the celebratca Martin Aspilcueta (Na- varrus) (Enchirid., xxi, n. 41), who witn Dominicus Soto says that it had fallen into desuetude. Both theory and practice disappeared by degrees; at the end of the seventeenth century there remained scarcely a memory of them.

MoRiN, Comment, hiidor. de discipL in adminisir. aacram, Pamit.t Vin (Paris, 1C51), c. xxiii-iv; (!!hardon, Histoire des Sacrementa; la P^Uence, sect. II, c. vii (in Mione, Pat. LcU., XX); Lauhain, op. cit.; Mart^nb, Dean/tg. ecel. riWma (Rouen, 1700), I, a, 6, n. 7; and II, 37; and Vacawt, Dxct,de ThMogie eath., I, 182; KOnioer, Die Beiehl nach Ciisariua von Heister- baeh (1906). From a Protestant point of view, to be corrected by the foregoing. Lka. History of Auricular ConfeMion^ I
 * PhiUdelphia, 1^). 218.

A. BOUDINHOX.

Lay Inyestitiire. See Investiture.

Lasnuann, Paul, a famous Jesuit moralist, b. in 1574 at Arzl, near Innsbruck; d. of the plague on 13 Novem- ber, 1635, at Constance. After studying jurispru- dence at Ingolstadt, he entered the Jesuit Onier tnere in 1594, was ordained priest in 1(K)3, taught philosophy at the University of Ingolstadt from 1C03-9, moral theology at the Jesuit house in Munich from 1609-25, and canon law at the University of Dillirigen from 1625-32. He W'as one of the greatest moralists and canonists of his time, and a copious writer on philo- sophical, moml, and juridical subjects. The most im- portant of his thirty-three literary productions is a compendium of moral theology Theologia Moralis in quinque libros partita (Munich, 1625), of which a second and enlaiiged edition in six volumes appeared hi 1626 at the same place. Until the second quarter of the eightMnth contuiy it was edited repeatedly

(latest edition, Mainz, 1723), and was extensively used as a textbook in seminaries. Especially in the third edition of his Theologia Moralis", Laymann stands up resolutely for a milder treatment of those who had been accused of witchcraft. The reason whv Lay- mann is often represented as an advocate of the hor- rible cruelties practised at trials for witchcraft Hes in the false assumption that he is the author of a 1x)ok entitled Processus juridicus contra sagas et vene- ficos" (Cologne, 1629). Quite in contrast with Lay- mann's Theologia Moralis ■\ this book is a defence of the extreme severity at trials for witchcraft. Father Duhr, S.J., has now proved beyond doubt that Lay- mann is not the author of this work. See ' ' Zeitschrif t fur katholischeTheologie", XXIII (Innsbruck, 1899), 733-43; XXIV (1900), 585-92; XXV (1901), 166-8, XXIX (1905), 190-2. At the instance of Bishop Heinrich von KnOringen of Augsbui^, Laymann wrote Paciscompositio inter Pnncipes et Ordines Imi)erii Romani Catholicos atque Augustanae Con- fessionis adhserentes" (Dillingen, 1629), an elaborate work of 658 pages, explaining the value and extent of the Religious Peace of Augsbui^, effected by King Ferdinand I in 1555. Ailother important work of Lay- mann is entitled " Justa defensio S. Rom. Pontificis, augustissimi Csesaris, S. R. E. Cardinalium, episco- porum, principum et aliorum, dcmum minimse Socie- tatis Jesu, in causa monasteriorum extinctorum et bonorum ecclesiasticorum vacantium ..." (DiUin- pen, 1631). It treats of the Edict of Restitution, issued by Ferdinand II in 1629, and sustains the point that in case of the ancient orders the property of sup- pressed monasteries need not be restored to the order to which these monasteries belonged, because each monastery was a corporation of its own. Such prop- erty, therefore, may be applied to Catholic schools and other ecclesiastical foundations. In the case of the Jesuit Order, however, he holds that all confiscated property must be restored to the order as such, l)ecause the whole Jesuit Order forms only one corporation. His work on canon law, *'Jus Canonicum seu Com- mentaria in libros decretales" (3 vols., Dillingen, 1666-98), was published after his death.

SoMMERVOGEL., Bibliothcque de la Compaonie de JUus (Bnu- sels and Paris. 1890-1909), IV, 1582-94; Schwickerath,^«»- tude of the Jesuits in the trials for witchcraft in American Cath,

guarterly Review, XXVII (Philadelphia. 1902), 493-8; Specht. eschichte der Universitdt Dillingen (Freiburg im Br.. 1902),

325. etc. Michael Ott.

Lay Tithes. — Under this heading must be dis- tinguished (1) secular tithes, which subjects on crown- estates were obliged to pay to princes, or tenants, or vassals on leased lands or lands held in fief to their land- lords {decinuE oriaine laicales), and (2) ecclesiastical tithes, which in the course of time became alienated from the Church to lay proprietors {decima ex post laicalea «. scecularizaia). There is question here only of the latter. In the secularizations initiated under the Merovingians the transference of ecclesiastical

Eroperty and their tithes or of the tithes alone to lymen was effected. In subsequent times church laiEids with their tithes, or the tithes alone, were be- stowed even by bishops and abbots on laymen to secure servants, vassals, protectors against violence and defenders of their civil rights. Other church property with tithes, or the tithes alone, were forcibly seized by laymen. Finally, the development of churches, once the property of private individuals, into parish churches subject to the bishop gave rise to the landlord appropriating the tithes due to the parish church. The church soon took measures to repress this spoliation, beginning as early as the ninth century at the Synod of Diedenhofen (844; cap. iii, 5) and that of Beauvais (845; cap. iii, 6). Gregory VII revived in a stricter form these old canons at the Autumn Synod of 1078, demanding that the laity should return all tithes to the Church, even though they had been givea