O'BRAEIN
193
O'BRUADAIR
He may not neglect safer remedies in order to try
tiiose which are less safe, but there is nothing to pre-
vent him from prescribing what will probably do good
if it is certain that it will not do harm. In a desperate
case, with the consent of the sick person and of his
relations, he may make use of what will probably do
good though it may also probably do harm, provided
that there is nothing better to be done in the circum-
stances. It is altogether wrong to make experiments
with doubtful remedies or operations on living human
beings; fiat experimentum in corpore vili.
When the patient is in danger of death, the doctor is bound out of charity to warn him or those who at- tend on him, that he may make all necessary prep- arations for death. (See Abortion; Anesthesia; Craniotomy; HYrNOTisM.)
Teachers hold the place of parents with regard to those committed to their charge for the purpose of in- struction. They are bound in justice to e.xercise due care and fliligence in the discharge of their office. They must have the knowledge and skill which that office demands.
Cronin, The Science of Ethics (London, 1909); Meter, Institu- tiones Juris naturalis (Freiburg, 1885) ; SiDGWiCK, The Methods of Ethics (London. 1890) : Ballerini-Palmieri, Opus morale (Prato, 1892), tr. iii, U; viii, 527; Hunter, Roman Law (London, 18S5); Slater, .4 Manual of Moral Theology, I (New York, 1908); see Bishop; Celib.^cy; Clerics; Priesthood; Reugious; Vows.
T. Slater.
O'Braein, Tighernach, Irish annalist and Abbot of Roscommon and Clonmacnoise, d. 108S. Little is known of his personal history except that he must have been born in the early part of the eleventh century and that he came of a Connaught family. His " Annals" (among the earliest of Irish annals) are of the greatest value to the historian of Ireland be- cause of the author's attempt to synchronize Irish events with those of the rest of Europe from the earliest times to his own day. His learning is shown by his quotations, among others, from the works of the Venerable Bede, Josephus, Eusebius, and Orosius, not to speak of the Vulgate. But his sources for the Irish portions of the "Annals " are not now discov- erable because of the loss of the Irish manuscripts from which he drew his information. Only fragments of Tighernach's "Annals" are now extant; these are in a vellum of the twelfth century and one of the fourteenth century in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and in a fourteenth-century MS. in Trinity College Library (Dublin). These fragments were published by Dr. O'Conor in his "Rcrum Hibernicarum Scrip- tores" (1825), but O'Conor's text is full of errors. They have recently been published and translated by Whitley Stokes in the "Revue Celtique" (vols. XVI, XVII, XVIII). Two pages in facsimile are given in Gilbert's "National Manuscripts of Ireland", part I.
O'CtTRRT, Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History (Dublin, 1873), 57.
Joseph Ddnn.
Obregonians (or Poor Infirmari ans) , a small con- gregation of men, who professed the Rule of the Third Order of .St. Francis, founded by Bernardino Obre- g6n (b. .5 May, l.')40, at Las Huelgas near Burgos, Spain; d. 6 Aug., 1,599). Of a noble family Obreg6n was .an officer in the Sjjanish army, but retired and dedicated himself to the service of the sick in the hos- pitals of Madrid. Others became associated with him in hospital service and in 1567 by consent of the papal nuncio at Madrid the new congregation was founded. To the three ordinary vows was added that of free hospitality. The congregation did not found hospi- tals but served in those already existing. It sjiread in Spain and its dependencies, in Belgium and the Indies. Obreg6n went to Lisbon, 1592, and there founded an asylum for orphan boys; returning to Spain he assisted King Philip II in his last illness (1598). Paul V, 1609, allowed the Obregonians to XL— 13
wear over the grey habit of the Third Order of St.
Francis a black cross on the left side of the breast, to
distinguish them from similar congregations. Since
the French Revolution they have entirely disappeared.
De Herrera Y Maldonado, Vida y Virtudes del . . . Bernar- dino de Obregon (Madrid, 1634) ; DE Gdbernatis, Orbis Seraphi- cus, II (Lvona, I6S5), 940; Ratzinger, Gesch. der kirchlichen Armenpflege (2 ed„ Freiburg, 1884), 509.
LivAEius Oligeb.
Obreption (Lat. 06 and repere, "to creep over"), a canonical term applied to a species of fraud by which an ecclesiastical rescript is obtained. Dispensations or graces are not granted unless there be some motive for requesting them, and the law of the Church re- quires that the true and just causes that lie behind the motive be stated in every prayer for such dispensation or grace. When the petition contains a statement about facts or circumstances that are supposititious or, at least, modified if they really exist, the resulting re- script is said to be vitiated by obreption. If, on the other hand, silence had been observed concerning something that essentially changed the state of the case, it is called subreption. Rescripts obtained by obreption or subreption are null and void when the motive cause of the rescript is affected bj' them. If it is only the impelling cause, and the substance of the petition is not affected, or if the false statement was made through ignorance, the rescript is not vitiated. As requests for rescripts must come through a person in ecclesiastical authority, it is his duty to inform him- self of the truth or falsity of the causes alleged in the petitions, and in case they are granted, to see that the conditions of the rescript are fulfilled.
Taunton, The Law of the Church (London, 1906) ; Laurentius, Institutiones Juris Ecclesiastici (Freiburg, 1903).
William H. Fanning.
O'Brien, Terence Albert, b. at Limerick, 1600; d. there, 31 October, 1651. He joined the Domini- cans, receiving the name Albert at Limerick, where his uncle, Maurice O'Brien, was then prior. In 1622 he studied at Toledo and after eight years returned to Limerick, to become twice prior there and once at Lorrha, and in 1643 provincial of his order in Ireland. His services to the Catholic Confederation were highly valued by the Supreme Council. At Rome he re- ceived the degree of Master in Theology, and on his return made a visitation of two houses of his province at Lisbon, where it was reported that LTrban VIII was about to appoint him coadjutor to the Bishop of Emly. He was again named for the coadjutorship by the Supreme Council at the end of 1645, and recommended by the nuncio Rinuccini. Subsequently, at the peti- tion of many bishops, Rinuccini WTote (17 March, 1646) that Burgat, Vicar-General of Emly, was a suit- able person for the coadjutorship. In August he re- newed his recommendation of Father Terence O'Brien, who was named coadjutor with the right of succession, in March, 1647, and eight months later was conse- crated by Rinuccini. Throughout the ensuing troubles he adhered to the nuncio. He signed the declaration against Inchiquin's truce in 1648, and the tleclaration against Ormond in 1650. When Limerick was be- sieged in 1651, he urged a stubborn resistance and so embittered the Ormondists and the Parliamentarians, that in the capitulation he was excluded from quarter and protection. The day after the surrender, he with Major General Purcell and Father Wolf were dis- covered in tli<' pest-house, brought before a court mar- tial and ordered for execution, which took place on the following day.
Meeban, Memoirs of the Irish Hierarchy in the Seventeenth Century (Bth cd., Dublin, about 1888); O'Reilly, Memorials of those who suffered for the Catholic Faith (London, 1868) ; McRPHT, Our Martyrs (Dublin, 1896); de Bubgo, Hibemia Dominicana (Cologne, 1702); Walsh in Irish Eccl. Rec, Feb., 1894.
O'Bruadair, David, an Irish poet, b. about 1625, most prob:ibly in the barony of Barrymore, Co. Cork,
