lands, it has not infrequently occurred that the abbatial blessing has had to be deferred for a long time while awaiting the mandate from Rome authorizing the bestowal of the blessing. Consequently on the 19 June, 1921, Benedict XV granted a general mandate in virtue of which the benediction may be imparted to any abbot of the confederated Benedictines by the diocesan bishop without a special mandate, or by any bishop in communion with the Holy Bee if the diocesan bishop is dead, or if there is written proof either that he has given his consent or that he is legitimately prevented from bestowing the blessing. If a regular abbot de regimine is a priest and has received the abbatial benediction legitimately, he can confer tonsure and minor orders on his own professed subjects; under any other circumstances, ordination conferred by him would be void, unless he possessed the episcopal character, all privileges to the contrary been revoked. Regular abbots de regimine,like abbots nullius, may a pontificate and have a throne and canopy; they may wear a pectoral cross and a ring, but not the violet zucchetto. In conclusion, it may be noted that no one may now become an abbot under the age of thirty.
In 1921 there were eighteen abbeys nullius:Monte Cassino, Subiaco, Monte Vergine, Cava dei Tirreni, and St. Paul-without-the-Walls (all in Italy), New Nurcia (Australia), Our Lady Help of Christians (Belmont, North Carolina), Santa Maria de Monserrato (Rio de Janeiro) Martinsberg (an archabbey, Hungary), Einsiedeln (Switzerland), Saint Peter (Muenster, Canada), all ruled by Black Benedictines; Monte Oliveto Maggiore (Italy) under the Olivetans; St. Maurice-en-Valais (Switzerland) under Augustinians; Wettingen-Mehrerau (Vorarlberg, Austria), under Cistercians; Nonantula, which is perpetually united to the Archdiocese of Modena; San Martino al Monte Cimino and Saints Vicent and Anastasius near Rome, formerly under Cistercians, Miridite or St. Alexander de Oroshi (Albania), formerly under Benedictines, are now governed by secular abbots. In 1920 Benedict XV made the sanctuary of Santa Maria di Polsi in Calabria, Italy, formerly belonging to the Basilian monks, a titular abbey nullius. Its rector, who is removable at the will of the Bishop of Gerace, is ipso facto a titular abbot nullius, with limited special powers and privileges, including authorization to administer Confirmation during his term of office.
Abbreviators (cf. C. E., I-28c).—In the reorganization of the papal chancery under Pius X the college of abbreviators of the greater presidency disappeared. As the abbreviators of the lower presidency had been suppressed in the reforms of Pius VII, the last chapter in the history of ecclesiastical abbreviators has now been written.
Abduction (cf. C. E., I-32b), is viewed in the his canon law either (a) as a crime or (b) as a diriment matrimonial impediment. (a) The crime of abduction is committed when a man with a view to marriage or to the gratification of his lust carries off any woman by force or fraud against her will, or a female minor who consents, but does so without the the knowledge of or against the orders of her parents or guardians. The law now explicitly requires for the crime of elopement or abduction by seduction that the woman should be minor. Formerly the crime of abduction was punished among other ways by excommunication ipso facto and perpetual infamy; now there is no excommunication, but the abductor is excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts and is to be punished otherwise according to the gravity of his offense.
(b) There can be no marriage between a man who abducts a woman with a view to marrying her, as long as she remains in his power; if the woman, however, after being separated from him and restored to liberty in a place of safety consents to wed him, the impediment ceases. The Code extends the Tridentine legislation by enacting that the same impediment arises also when a man with a view to detains a woman by physical force in a place where she lives or to which she had gone of her own accord.
Ayrinhac, Penal Legislation (New York, 1920), 293-96; Idem, Marriage Legislation (New York, 1919), 158-163.
Aberdeen, DIOCESE OF (ABERDONENSIS; cf. C. E., I-41d).—The fourth bishop, Rt. Rev, Æneas Chisholm, d. 13 January, 1918, was born at Iverness in 1836, studied at Blairs College, Aberdeen, and at the Gregorian University, Rome, being ordained in 1860. After serving in various missions in Scotland he was made rector of Blairs in 1890, the new buildings being erected during his incumbency. He was consecrated Bishop of Aberdeen in 1899. He was succeeded by the present incumbent, Rt. Rev. George H. Bennett," b, in Antigua, B.W.I, 1875, ordained 1898, consecrated 1918.
The Catholic population of the diocese is about 12,000. It has 43 churches, 39 missions, 16 stations, 1 abbey (Fort Augustus), 7 convents for women, 47 secular priests, 26 monks, 16 lay brothers, 1 seminary with 120 seminarians and 9 professors. The congregations of women include Religious of the Sacred Heart, the Sisters of Nazareth, the Sisters of Mercy (3 houses), the Franciscans and the sisters of St. Joseph. St. Mary’s College, at Blairs, is under the conduct of diocesan clergy. There is a school for girls with higher and junior grades with 8 teachers and an attendance of 100. There are 17 elementary schools with 50 teachers and an attendance of 1931. Under the Education Act of 1918 all the elementary schools are now taken over by the local education authorities and supported by the public funds. Nazareth House, Aberdeen, is an industrial school for girls, with four teachers and an attendance of 100. There are likewise a home for old men and women, an orphanage for boys and one for girls.
In September, 1911, the centenary of the death of Bishop Hay, who did so much for the restoration of the Church in Scotland, was celebrated with great solemnity at Fort Augustus. During the World War three secular priests and several of the Benedictines served as army or navy chaplains.
Adjuration (cf. C. E., I-44c).—As schism, like apostasy and heresy, is now punished with excommunication reserved specially the Holy See, the ordinary may not absolve from the censure if it is brought before him in the external forum unless the culprit has juridically abjured his schism, that is in his presence or in that of his delegate and at least two witnesses, as in cases of apostasy or heresy.
Abortion (cf. C. E., I-46d)—Those who actively efficaciously bring about an abortion, the mother herself included, incur excommunication latæ sententiæ that is inflicted by the law without the se formality of a sentence, absolution from which is reserved to the ordinary; if one of the guilty parties is a cleric he is, moreover, to be canonically deposed. The Code, it may be remarked, in speaking of co-operation says that those who command or induce to perform an action, or who aid him in such a way that the crime would not have been committed but for their assistance share equally in the guilt with the principal culprit, and so incur the same penalty.
