Deposition
Deposition
A deposition is an ecclesiastical vindictive penalty by which a cleric is forever deprived of his office or benefice and of the right of exercising the functions of his orders. Of its own nature this punishment is perpetual and irremissible in the sense that those on whom it is inflicted, even after having done full penance, have no right to be released from it, though the superior may, if he wishes, reinstate them if truly amended. Deposition can be inflicted only on ecclesiastics, secular or regular; it may be either total or partial, according as it deprives them of all powers of orders and jurisdiction or of only a portion of them. It differs from simple privation because in addition to the deprivation of benefices and offices it disqualifies an ecclesiastic from obtaining them in future; from suspension because it is always a perpetual vindictive penalty, not a mere suspension of the use of the powers of orders and jurisdiction, but an entire and perpetual withdrawal of them; from actual degradation in as much as it never deprives of the privileges of the ecclesiastical state.
This punishment can be traced to the early centuries of the Church when ecclesiastics guilty of heinous crimes were expelled from their rank and removed to lay communion. Although preserving the character of their orders, they were then considered, for all purposes and in the eyes of the law, as ordinary laymen, and were bound to appear with the ordinary faithful when receiving Holy Communion. The word deposition, it is alleged, was first used in the Synod of Agde (506, can. xxxv) to indicate such a penalty. Down to the twelfth century the expressions deposition and degradation meant one and the same canonical punishment. We know, for instance, that Paul, Patriarch of Alexandria (541), and Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople (861), met with the same kind of punishment; yet in the first case it is styled deposition and in the second degradation. Moreover, deposition always deprived ecclesiastics of the office they held by the ordinary title of ordination, and it was nearly always coupled with the ceremony of divesting delinquents of the garments used in the functions of their sacred ministry. In process of time, when, first by custom and subsequently by decree of Alexander III (c. At si clericis, IV, De judiciis), bishops were allowed to dispense from that penalty in crimes of lesser gravity than adultery, the solemn stripping of the sacred vestments was discontinued, to save the trouble of restoring their use in case of reinstatement. The new practice created uncertainty and variety in the execution of deposition, hence Boniface VIII (c. ii. De pœnis, in VIº) at the request of the Bishop of Béziers decreed that the formal removal of vestments, which now means and effects total exclusion from the ecclesiastical state, was to take place only in cases of actual degradation.
As stated above, total deposition prohibits the exercise of powers conferred by ordination, and effects a complete and perpetual deprivation of ecclesiastical offices, benefices, and dignities. It also disqualifies from obtaining them in future, while public disgrace or infamy and irregularity are inflicted on those who disregard this punishment. The character impressed by ordination being indelible, deposition from orders can only deprive a person of the right of exercising them. Deposition from office always effects the loss of the benefice annexed to it, as benefices are given on account of the spiritual office. On the other hand, deposition from benefice never renders an ecclesiastic incapable of licitly exercising his ministry; it is maintained, however, that it deprives him even of the right to a share of the temporal emoluments for his decent support. According to the present discipline of the Church deposition is inflicted only for enormous crimes, such as cause public scandal and do great harm to religion or morals, e. g. murder, public concubinage, blasphemy, a sinful and incorrigible tenor of life, etc. It is largely left, however, to the prudent judgment of the superior to determine in each case the gravity of the crime which deserves this punishment. In fact, deposition is now rarely inflicted; simple dismissal, together with perpetual suspension, usually takes its place. (See LAY COMMUNION.)
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SMITH Elem of Eccl. Law (New York, 1889); STREMLER, Traité des peines ecclésiastiques (Paris, 1860); HOLLWECK, Kirchl. Strafgesetze (Mains, 1899); VON KOBER, Deposition und Degradation, etc. (Tübingen, 1867); GENNARI, Privazione del beneficio ecclesiastico (Rome, 1905); all commentators on the title De Pœnis, X (V, 37); HERGENROTHER, The Papal Depriving Power (1876); Roma Sacra in The Dublin Review (London, July, 1907).
S. LUZIO. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Deposition
(1.), in the ecclesiastical law of the Roman Church, is the depriving a priest of the privileges, and forbidding him to perform the duties of his function, but not depriving him of orders. According to the ancient discipline, the deposed person lost not only his office and benefice forever, but he also forfeited the privileges of his rank, and was reduced into the laity. But since the 12th century, this extended meaning of the term has been expressed by the word degradation (q.v.); at a later date, distinction was also made between verbal and the more solemn degradation. The latter only was accompanied by the loss of the privileges of clerical rank. In deposition, a hope for future reinstatement might be held out, or otherwise. In the former case it was termed privation. In the depositio perpetua, a simple judgment of the competent authority deprives the guilty party forever of his privileges, his jurisdiction, and his benefice, but he is still regarded as belonging to the clergy. The crimes which were punished in this manner are murder, perjury, incest, adultery, etc. Deposition, being an act of jurisdiction, can be inflicted by any diocesan bishop who has been confirmed by the Pope, even though he be not consecrated. At the present day deposition cannot be inflicted, so far as the civil rights of parties are concerned, without the consent of the secular authorities. Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, 3, 107.
(2.) In the Church of England, by Canon 122, sentence against a minister, of deposition from the ministry, shall be pronounced by the bishop only, with the assistance of his chancellor and dean (if they may conveniently be had), and some of the prebendaries, if the court be kept near the cathedral church; or of the archdeacon, if he may be had conveniently, and two other at least grave ministers and preachers to be called by the bishop, when the court is kept in other places.
(3.) In Scotland, the minister of a parish who has been guilty either of immoral and scandalous conduct, or of preaching or otherwise publishing doctrines contrary to the standards of the church to which he has declared his adherence, or of contumaciously setting aside the authority of the Presbyterian church-courts, may be deposed from his holy office by the church-courts. By this means he is deprived not only of his ecclesiastical dignity, but of the temporalities of his benefice (stat. 1592, c. 115), and the benefice becomes vacant just as if he were dead. He may, however, be restored to the exercise of the ministry, and to his position as a minister of the Church, by the General Assembly, but he cannot, of course, be restored to his benefice; and it is considered irregular that he should be so even by a new presentation by the patron, because the stigma attached to his character by his deposition is likely to affect his usefulness. Where sentence of deposition is pronounced by an inferior church court, the judgment of which is reversed on appeal to the General Assembly, it is held that it had never been pronounced; but if the sentence be affirmed, it takes effect from the date when it was pronounced by the inferior court, and from that date the minister’s right to the profits of his benefice ceases. Sentence of deposition cannot be pronounced by a presbytery in the absence of the minister, except by the authority of the General Assembly (Chambers, Encyclopaedia, s.v.).
(4.) The grounds of deposition in the Protestant Episcopal Church are stated in the 37th Canon of the Convention of 1832; and Canon 39 provides that, 1. When any minister is degraded from the holy ministry, he is degraded therefrom entirely, and not from a higher to a lower order of the same. Deposition, displacing, and all like expressions, are the same as degradation. No degraded minister shall be restored to the ministry. 2. Whenever a clergyman shall be degraded, the bishop who pronounces sentence shall, without delay, give notice thereof to every minister and vestry in the diocese, and also to all the bishops of this Church, and where there is no bishop, to the standing committee. SEE DISCIPLINE.