ELECT
374
ELECTION
and to get himself an everlasting name". (I Mach., vi,
17-46.)
III. Eleazar, a scribe and doctor of the law, though ninety years of age, bravely preferred to die a most glorious death than to purchase a hateful life by violating the law which forbade to the Israelite the use of swine's flesh. His friends, "moved with wicked pity, were willing to substitute lawful flesh, that Eleazar, feigning to have eaten the forbidden meat, might be delivered from death. But, considering " the dignity of his age . . . and the inbred honour of his grey head", Eleazar spurned this well-meant proposal, which if accepted, though securing his deliverance from punishment, might scandalize many yoimg per- sons, and could not deliver from the hand of the Al- mighty. Having thus changed into rage the rejected sympathy of his friends, the holy man bravely en- dured his cruel torture, probablj' at Antioch, during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. (II Mach., vi, 18-31 ;1 Mach., i, 57-63.)
Palis and Levesque in Vic. Did. de la Bible (Paris, 1898); Allen in Hast., Diet, of the Bible (New York, 189S); Gigot, Outlines of Jewish History (New York, 1905).
D. P. Dotft.
Elect denotes in general one chosen or taken by preference from among two or more ; as a theological term it is equivalent to " chosen as the object of mercy or Divine favour, as set apart for eternal life". In order to determine the meaning of the word more accu- rately, we shall have to study its usage both in the Old Testament and the New.
I. The Old Tf.st.\.ment applies the term elect, or chosen, only to the Israelites in as far as they are called to be the people of God, or are faithful to their Divine call. The idea of such an election is common in the Book of Deuteronomy and in Is., xl-lxvi. In Ps. civ, 6 and 43, and cv, 5, the chosen ones are the Hebrew people in as far as it is the recipient of God's temporal and spiritual blessings; in Is., Ixv, 9, 15, and 23, they are the repentant Israelites, as few in niunber " as if a grain be found in a cluster" (ibid., 8) ; in Tob., xiii, 10, they are the Israelites remaining faithful during their captivity; in Wisd., iii, 9, and iv, 15, they are God's true servants; in Ecclus., xxiv, 4, 13, and xlvi, 2, these servants of God belong to the chosen people.
II. The New Test.wient transfers (excepting per- haps in Acts, xiii. 17) the meaning of the term from its connexion with the people of Israel to the members of the Church of Christ, either militant on earth or trium- phant in heaven. Thus I Pet., i, 1, speaks of the elect among the " strangers dispersed" through the various parts of the world; I Pet., ii, 9, represents them as "a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people", called from darkness into Ciod's marvellous light. St. Paul, too, speaks of the elect (Rom., viii, 33) and describes the five degrees of their election: they are forekno'mi, predestined, called, justified, and glorified (loc. cit., 29, 30). He returns to the idea again and again: II Thess., ii, 12 sq.; Col., iii, 12; Tit., i, 1, 2; II Tim., ii, 10. St. John gives the title of elect to those who fight on the side of the Lamb against the powers of darkness (.-Vpoc, xvii, 14). Ac- cording to St. Luke (xviii, 7), God hears the cries of his elect for vengeance; according to the first two Evangelists he will shorten the last days for the sake of the elect (Matt., xxiv, 22, 24, 31 ; Mark, xiii, 20, 22, 27).
If it be asked why the name elect was given to the members of the Church Militant, we may assign a double reason; first, they were freely chosen by God's goodness (Rom., xi, 5-7, 28); secondly, they must show in their conduct that they are choice men (Ephes., iv, 17). In the sentence "many are called, but few are chosen", the latter expression renders a word in the Greek and Latin text which is elsewhere translated by elect (Matt., xx, 16; xxii, 14), It is agreed on all sides that the term refers to members of the (Church Trium- phant, but there is some doubt as to whether it refers
to mere membership, or to a more exalted degree.
This distinction is important ; if the word implies mere
membership in the Church Triumphant, then the
chosen ones, or those who will be saved, are few, and
the non-members in the Church Triumphant are many ;
if the word denotes a special degree of glory, then few
will attain this rank, and many will fail to do so,
though many are called to it. The .sentence "many
are called, but few cho.sen" does not, therefore, aettle
the question as to the relative number of the elect and
the lost; theologians are divided on this point, and
while Christ in the Gospels urges the importance of
saving one's soul (Luke, xiii, 23, 24), he alternately so
strengthens our hope and excites our fear as not to
leave us any solid ground for either presumption or
despair.
Lesetre in Did. de la Bible (Paris. 1S991. II. 1708 sqq.; Murray, Did. of the Bible (New York, 1900"i. I, 6TS sqq.; Knabenbauer, Eimig. secundum Maltha-um (Paris. 1893), II, ITS, 247; MoNSABRE, Conferences de Notre-Dame (1899), Con ference VI.
A. J. Maas.
Election (Lat. electio, from eligere, to choose from). — This subject will be treated under the following heads: I. Juridical Concept; II. Electors; III. Persons Eligible; IV. The Act of Electing: Forms and Methods; V. After Election; VI. Elections Now in L'se.
I. JuRiDic.\L Concept. — In its broadest sense elec- tion means a choice among many persons, things, or sides to be taken. In the stricter juridical sense it means the choice of one person among many for a definite charge or function. If we confine ourselves to ecclesiastical law, canonical election, in a broad sense, would be any designation of a person to an ecclesias- tical charge or function; thus understood it includes various modes: postulation, presentation, nomination, recommendation, request or petition, and, finally, free collation. In a narrower sense, election is the canoni- cal appointment, by legitimate electors, of a fit person to an ecclesiastical office. Its effect is to confer on the person thus elected an actual right to the benefice or charge, independently of the confirmation or colla- tion ulteriorly necessary. Hence it is easily distin- guished from the aforesaid modes that only in a broad sense can be termed election.
(a) Postulation differs canonically from election, not as regards the electors, but as regards the person elected, the latter being juridically ineligible on ac- count of an impediment from which the superior is asked to dispense him. For instance, if in an episcopal election the canons designate the bishop of another see, or a priest under thirty years of age, or one of illegitimate birth, etc., no actual right would be con- ferred on such a person, and the ecclesiastical superior would be in no wise bound to recognize such action; hence the electors are then said to postulate their can- didate, this postulation being a matter of favour (gratia), not of justice, (b) Presentation, on the con- trary, differs from election not in respect to the person elected but to the electors ; it is the exercise of the right of patronage, and the patron may be a lajTiian, where- as the electors to ecclesiastical dignities must be clerics. In both cases the right of the candidate is the same (jus ad rem); but while an election calls for canonical confirmation, presentation by a patron leads to canon- ical institution by a competent prelate. Moreover, when the right of patronage belongs to a moral body, e. g. a chapter or an entire congregation, presentation may have to follow along the lines of election. Though frequently called nomination, the designation of bishops and beneficed clergj' by the civil authority in virtue of concordats is in reality presentation, and results in canonical institution, (c) Correctly speak- ing, nomination is the canonical act by which the elec- tors propose several fit persons to the free choice of the superior. The role of electors in nomination is
