iii. 6). (2) Defects of body. All defects which would hinder or prevent the due and safe exercise of the functions of the sacred ministry, such as deafness, blindness, or deformity. In particular, one-eyed persons are irregular whether the defect is natural or from accident, persons mutilated in the hand or fingers, lepers, persons who have been made eunuchs willingly. In cases of doubt the bishop is to be consulted. If any of these defects come after ordination, then the cleric is bound to abstain from attempting to perform those offices in which his defect would be a hindrance. (3) Defects of birth. Bastards are irregular, unless they have entered a religious order; but those persons are not considered bastards whose parents have subsequently married, provided that at the time of conception both were free to marry; also, if the parents had married irregularly, but in good faith, their children are often considered to be legitimate, unless the union was incestuous. "Exposed" children require a dispensation when their parentage does not come to light, as there is a presumption that they are illegitimate. (4) Defects of age. For the minor Orders, the use of reason is required; for the Order of subdeacons, the age required is twenty-one; for that of deacon, twenty-three; for that of priests, twentyfour. (5) Defects of liberty. Slaves are irregular for this reason; so are married men, and men necessarily occupied in business, either in the service of the State or of their own family, or for the sake of paying their creditors. (6) Bigamy, i.e. marriage with a second wife, or with a widow. Bigamy in the ordinary sense of the word, namely, the crime of having two wives at the same time, is forbidden to all Christians, and therefore there would be no

reason to mention it in the case of the hierarchy. (7) Defects of reputation, or of the just esteem of honest men. The canon law considers as "infamous" all those so described in the civil law: (a) all who have confessed a serious crime or have been convicted of it; (b) all actors, butchers, and innkeepers; (c) all who have exercised what is popularly considered to be an "infamous or degrading calling, but if the public estimation of the calling changes, the irregularity of course ceases. (8) Defects of lenity, which arise from having been concerned in "shedding man's blood;" hence soldiers, judges, and homicides are irregular, except the homicide was strictly in self-defence when no other means of escape was possible, or when it was in defence of the life of a neighbour. Soldiers are irregular if they have been engaged, in a war manifestly unjust, on the unjust or aggressive side; but if they are engaged in a war strictly defensive, they are not irregular even if they kill or mutilate others, because this case is parallel to that of homicide in self-defence. Judges, or even legislators, who promote directly the death of others, are irregular; but if the sentence was not a sentence of death, the judge would not become irregular if the condemned person were to die in prison. In the case of a sentence of death, the judge who pronounces it is irregular; so is the accuser, if he knew the crime was a capital one; so are the clerks of the court who record the sentence; so also are the executioner and his assistants; but the witnesses and the jury are not irregular. For this reason bishops and clerics are not allowed to be present as judges or jury in any capital case. (9) Heresy, or apostacy from the faith, makes irregular. (10) A second baptism, know

ingly submitted to, makes irregular; and formerly clinics, or those baptized in sickness, were irregular. (11) Wilful homicide. (12) Mutilation of any member of the body. And (13) Undue reception or exercise of Orders made the criminal irregular; but the casuists in this, as in other crimes, have made many distinctions, partly to relieve over-scrupulous consciences and partly to separate irregularity from the other consequences of these crimes.

53. Irregularities may cease either by the dispensation of the superior, by the cessation of their causes, by baptism, or by entry into the religious state. Particular cases have already been noticed. In general, if the irregularity were caused by a defect, it ceases when the defect is so far mended as to allow of decent ministration. Baptism, of course, removes any irregularity which would arise from crimes previously committed, but not from defect. Entry in a religious order removes the irregularity arising from bastardy, and facilitates the dispensation of other irregularities. The pope in this, as in other cases, has a general right of dispensation provided there be a good reason for it. Bishops can dispense, in the case of their own subjects, those irregularities which come from defects of birth or of reputation, and from those which spring from secret crimes (except homicide) unless they have been brought before a court of justice, either ecclesiastical or civil. Bishops have also power to dispense in cases when there is a doubt as to the law or the fact, and in cases of urgency; no other persons can dispense irregularity on their own authority. When a dispensation of this sort is asked for, the irregularity must be declared and its sources, and the reason for asking must be told, namely, whether it is to enable the

petitioner to receive Orders or institution or use of Orders. The bishop, if he gives the dispensation, may do so either in his own person or by giving authority to the confessor to dispense; the Roman curia gives authority to dispense either to the ordinary or to the confessor.

CHAPTER III.

THE LAITY.

54. THE Christian people is divided into a clergy or hierarchy, and a laity; the laity itself is divided into the simple faithful, those usually called laymen, and the regulars, who live publicly under a special rule authorized by the Church. The regulars, however, if not actually clerics, have acquired many of the privileges and duties of clerics; but in their first constitution, they were associations of laymen for the purpose of living together a holy and Christian life, and if any of the clergy joined them they laid aside the use of their order and became like the others, so that St. Gregory the Great forbade monks who were clerics to do clerical duty.

55. Laymen, by the definition, have no direct power in the government of the Church, nor in the ministering of holy rites; it is their duty to obey, without the responsibility of ruling. They are subject to the general laws of the Church, and are bound to supply the temporal needs of the Church; they are also bound to obey readily the precepts of their own bishop. Their rights correspond to the duties of their pastors, the bishop and his presbyters. They have also an indirect means of making laws, namely,

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