Notwithstanding many statutes were passed from time to time against the papal encroachments on the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, still the power of the pope continued to prevail within the kingdom, and particularly with respect to dispensations, which upon many occasions were granted by the papal see, and was one of its great branches of revenue. By the statute, therefore, of 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21, it was enacted that no person should sue to the bishop or see of Rome for any licenses, dispensations, &c., but that the same should be granted within the realm, and not elsewhere. By this statute the dominion of the pope was overturned in this country, and the prerogative of dispensing with the canons of the church was transferred to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in all cases in which dispensations had been accustomed to be obtained at Rome; but in all other cases the matter was left to the decision of the king in council. It is to be observed, however, that although the popes had usurped to themselves the power of dispensing with every ecclesiastical canon and ordinance, yet in some cases the dispensation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, as for the purpose of holding two livings, must be confirmed under the great seal. It is by virtue of this statute that the archbishop has the power of granting special licenses to marry at any place and time, and conferring degrees, in prejudice of the two Universities.-See Black. Comm. b. i. c. 11.

The canonists are much divided about the power of bishops in dispensing with the ordinances of the church; but the more commonly received opinion seems to be, that a bishop may dispense with whatever is not actually prohibited; and generally, wheresoever a dispensation is not prohibited, it is understood to be permitted. These dispensations, however, are only, or chiefly such as refer to canonical defects and irregularities.-Gibson, 92.

DISSENTERS, those who, upon some point either of doctrine or discipline, separate themselves from the established church. They are also called Sectarians (from seco, to cut), being a part cut off from the general body of Christians. Dissenters from the church of England are very numerous, and are divided into several sects, or parties, the chief of which at present are, the Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, and Methodists. The Nonconformists and Puritans were also very numerous in this country.-See

these several articles.

By the Test Act, which was passed in the reign of Charles II. (1673), all were excluded from places of trust and profit under government, except those who took the oaths of allegiance and assurance, and made the declaration against transubstantiation, and received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper,

according to the usage of the established church, within six months after their appointment. But by the 9th Geo. 4, c. 17, all those who upon taking any office were obliged to receive the Sacrament are now only required to make a declaration according to the form of the act, that they will not exercise any power, authority or influence they may possess by virtue of such office to injure or weaken the Protestant church as by law established.

DISSIDENTS, an appellation given in Poland to the non-catholics of that country, who were chiefly of the Greek communion. The King of Poland engaged, by the pacta conventa, to tolerate the free exercise of their religious opinions, but they had often reason to complain of a violation of this engagement.-See Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. XVIII.

DIVORCE, a breach or dissolution of the marriage contract. Divorces are generally considered as twofold; the one, a vinculo matrimonii, which alone is properly a divorce; the other, a mensa et thoro, or merely a separation from bed and board. The first must be for some essential impediment, as consanguinity, and affinity within the forbidden degrees, pre-contract, or other canonical causes (fourteen of which are enumerated in the books), provided they existed before the marriage. In cases of total divorce, the marriage is declared void and null, as having been absolutely unlawful ab initio; and the parties are therefore separated pro salute animarum; hence no divorce can be obtained except during the lives of the parties, and the issue of such marriage are bastards. Divorce, a mensa et thoro, is when the marriage is just and lawful ab initio, but for some supervenient cause, as in the case of intolerable ill temper, or adultery in either of the parties, it becomes improper or impossible for the parties to continue to live together.

"The law of Moses," remarks Archdeacon Paley, "for reasons of local expediency, permitted the Jewish husband to put away his wife; but whether for every cause, or for what cause, appears to have been controverted amongst the interpreters of those times. Christ, the precepts of whose religion were calculated for more general use and observation, revokes this permission as given to the Jews for their hardness of heart,' and promulges a law, which was thenceforth to confine divorces to the single cause of adultery in the wife.. Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery,' Mat. xix. 9. Inferior causes may justify the separation of husband and wife, although they will not authorise such a dissolution of the marriage contract as would leave either at liberty to marry again;

for it is that liberty in which the danger and mischief of divorces principally consist. The law of this country, in conformity to our Saviour's injunction, confines the dissolution of the marriage contract to the single case of adultery in the wife; and a divorce even in that case can only be brought about by the operation of an act of parliament, founded upon a previous sentence in the spiritual court, and a verdict against the adulterer at common law; which proceedings taken together compose as complete an investigation of the complaint as a cause can receive."-Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy. See also Black. Com. b. i. ch. 15.

In the language of Scripture, the term divorce is frequently used to denote the rejection of the Jews of the church of Christ. By the ancient prophets, the church had always been figuratively represented as the mystical consort of Christ, and the covenant which God had made with his people is commonly exhibited under the notion of a marriage contract. Thus in Isaiah (ch. i. v. 1), the Messiah, in the character of Jehovah the Son, is represented as the husband of the Levitical church, and as constrained to exhibit a bill of divorce against her, because she received him not at his coming. "Thus saith Jehovah, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, by which I dismissed her? Behold, for your iniquities are ye sold, and for your apostacies is your mother dismissed."

With respect to the law of divorce among the Jews, see Deut. xxiv. 1, and Calmet's Dict. voce Divorce. Among the Jews, indeed, the power of divorce was carried to a great extent, and exercised with much caprice and cruelty. Our Saviour, however, says, that Moses only permitted this because of the hardness of their hearts, and expressly limited this power to the single case of adultery, Matt. v. 31, and xix. 8.

How far, and in what cases, the early Christians considered divorces lawful, and under what circumstances the parties divorced might marry again, see Bing. Orig. Eccl. b. xxii. c. 2 and 5.

DOCETÆ, from a Greek word, signifying to seem or appear, a sect of Christians who were so called from their believing and teaching that the actions and sufferings of Jesus Christ had no reality, but were in appearance only. They were a branch of Valentinians, and the followers of Julius Cassianus, who in the second century revived this, as well as some other notions of the Gnostics. Jortin, in his remarks on Ecclesiastical History, says the Docetæ denied the humanity of Christ, and that St. John seems to have had them in view in his Gospel.-Vol. ii. p. 266.