DISPERSION
46
DISSEN
vented; intercourse already having talcen place be-
tween the petitioners, or rape; the danger of a civil
marriage; of marriage before a Protestant minister;
revalidation of a marriage that was null and void;
finally, all reasonable causes judged such in the opin-
ion of the pope (e. g. the public good), or special rea-
sonable causes actuating the petitioners and made
known to the pope, i. e. motives which, owing to the
social status of the petitioners, it is opportune should
remain unexplained out of respect for their reputation.
These various causes have been stated in their briefest
terms. To reach their exact force, some acquaintance
is necessary with the stylus curim and the pertinent
works of reputable authors, always avoiding anything
like exaggerated formalism. This list of causes is by
no means exhaustive; the Holy See, in granting a dis-
pensation, will consider any weighty circumstances
that render the dispensation really justifiable.
(4) Costs of Dispensations. — The Council of Trent (Sess. XXIV, cap. v, De ref. matrim.) decreed that dis- pensations should be free of all charges. Diocesan chanceries are bound to conform to this law (many pontifical documents, and at times clauses in indults, remind them of it) and neither to exact nor accept anything but the modest contribution to the chancery expenses sanctioned by an Instniction approved by Innocent XI (8 Oct., 1678), and known as the Inno- centian Tax (Taxa Innocenliana). Rosset holds that it is also lawful, when the diocese is poor, to demand payment of the expenses it incurs for dispensations. Sometimes the Holy See grants ampler freedom in this matter, but nearly" always with the monition that all revenues from this source shall be employed for some good work, and not go to the diocesan curia as such. Henceforth every rescript requiring execution wiU state the sum which the diocesan curia is authorized to collect for its execution.
In the Roman Curia the expenses incurred by peti- tioners fall under four heads: (a) expenses {expensa;) of carriage (postage, etc.), also a fee to the accredited agent, when one has been employed. This fee is fixed by the Congregation in question ; (b) a tax (taxa) to be used in defraying the expenses incurred by the Holy See in the organized administration of dis- pensations; (e) the componrndum, or eleemosynary fine to be paid to the Congregation and applied by it to pious uses; (d) an alms imposed on the petitioners and to be distributed by themselves in good works. The moneys paid under the first two heads do not affect, strictly speaking, the gratuity of the dispensa- tion. They constitute a just compensation for the expenses the petitioners occasion the Curia. As for the alms and the componendum, besides the fact that they do not profit the pope nor the members of the Curia personally, but are employed in pious uses, they are ju.stifiable, either as a fine for the faults which, as a rule, give occasion for the dispensation, or as a check to restrain a too great frequency of petitions often based on frivolous grounds. And if the Tridentine prohibition be still urged, it may be truly said that the pope has the right to abrogate the decrees of councils, and is the best judge of the reasons that legitimize such abrogation. We may add that the custom of tax and componendum is neither uniform nor uni- versal in the Roman Curia.
I. Dispensations in Ceneral: Sdarez, De legibus (Naples. 1882), Bk. VI, X sqq., and Opera Omnia (Paris. 1856), VI; Pvhrhus CoRRADlus, Praxis dispensatitmumapostolicarum (Venice, 1699); KoMN'GS-PuTZER. Cornmentarium in facultates apostolicas (New Vork, 1898), pt. I; theoommentators on tlie Decretals, especially ScHMALZGRUEBER. Jus ecclesiosticum universate (Rome, 1843), Bk. I. tit. ii; Wernz, Jus decrelalium (Rome, 1905), I, tit. iv, 138; vom Scherer, Handbuch des Kirchenrechts (Graz, 1898). I, 172; HlNscmns, System d. kath. Kirctienr. (Berlin, 1869), I. 744, 789; the moral theologies, under the treatise De leaibus, particularly St. Alphonstts Liguori, Theoiogin Moralvi (Rome, 1905). I, iv, Dub. 4; D'Annibale, Summula Theologia: Moralis (Rome, 1908). I. tr. iii, 220; Ballerjni, Opus Morale (Prato. 1889), I, 363; Ojetti, Synop- sis rerum Tnoratium et juris pontificii (Rome. 1904), s. v. Dis- pensatio; Tuomassin, Ancicnne et nouvelte discipline de I'Eglise
louchant les benefices (Paris. 1725), II, p. II, 1, 3, xxiv-xxix;
Stiegler. Dispensation, Dispensationswesen, una Dispensa'
tionsrecht in his Kirchenrecht (Mainz, 1901). I, and in Archiv f.
kath. Kirchenr., luX-^Vll, 3; Fiebag, De indole ac virtute dis-
pew^ationum secundum principia jur. canonici (Breslau, 1867).
II. Matrimonial Dispensations: Ptrrhus Corradius, op. cii.;
De Justis, De dispens. matrim. (Venice, 1769); GioviNE, De
dispens. matrim. (Naples, 1863); Planchard, Dispenses ma'
trim, (.\ngoulcme, 1882); Feije, De imped, et dispens. matrim.
(Louvain, 1885); Zitelli, De dispens. matrim. (Rome, 1887);
Van de Burgt. De dispens. matrim. (Bois-le-Due, 1865);
PoMPEN, De dispens. et revalidatione matrim. (.\msterdam,
1897); Rosset. De Sacramento ma/nmonii (Saint -Jean de Mauri-
enne, 1895). IV, 231; Konings-Pdtzeh, op. cit.. 174 sqq., 376
sqq.; Sanchez, De s. matrimonii sacramento (Viterbo, 1739),
Bk. VIII; Gasparri, Tract, canonicus de matrimonio (Paris,
1892), I, iv, 186; Mansella, De imped, matrim. (Rome, 1881),
162; Leitner, Lehrb. des kath. Eherechts (Paderbom, 1902),
401; ScHNiTZER, Kath. Eherecht (Freiburg, 1898). 496; Santi-
Leitner. Prcelectiones juris canonici (Ratisbon, 1899), IV, ap-
pendix I; Wernz, Jus Decretalium (Rome. 1908), IV, tit.
xxix; Freisen, Geschickte des kanon. Eherechts bis zum Verfall
der Glossejilitleralur (Tflbingen, 1888). and in Archiv fiir kath.
Kirchenr., LXXVII, 3 sqq., and LXXVIII, 91; Esmein, Le
mariage en droit canonique (Paris. 1891). II, 315; Zhisman,
Das Eherecht der orient. Kirche (Vienna. 1864), 190, 712.
Jules Besson.
Dispersion of the Apostles (Lat. Diinsio Apos- iolorum), a feast in commemoration of the missionary work of the Twelve Apostles. It is celebrated as a double major on 15 July. The first vestige of this feast is found in the sequence composed for it by a cer- tain Godescalc (d. 1098) while a monk of Limburg on the Haardt; he also introduced this feast at Aachen, when provost of the church of Our Lady. The se- quence is authentic beyond doubt (G. M. Dreves, Hymnographi Latini, L. 399, Leipzig, 1907; Idem, Godescalcus Lintburgensis, ib., 1897). It is next mentioned bv Willi.am Durandus, Bishop of Mende (Rationale Div. Off. 7.15), in the second half of the thirteenth century. Under the title, " Dimissio", " Dis- persio", or Divisio Apostolorum" it was universally celebrated in the northern countries of Europe, but unknown during the Middle Ages in Spain and Italy. The object of the feast (so Godescalcus) is to commem- orate the departure (dispersion) of the Apostles from Jerusalem for the various parts of the world, some four- teen years after the Ascension of Christ. According to Durandus some of his contemporaries honoured this feast the (apocryphal) division of the relics (bodies) of St. Peter and'St. Paul by St. Sylvester (Schulting, Bibl. eccl., 1591, 2. 2, 173 sq; M. Armellini, Chiese di Roma, 1891, 902 sq.). The feast is now kept with solemnity by modern missionary societies, in Ger- many and Poland, also in some English and French dioceses, and in the United States by the ecclesiastical provinces of St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Dubuque, and Santa F6.
ScHERMANN, Propheten und Apostellegenden (Leipzig. 1907); FtJNK in Kirchenlex., I. 1151; Daniel, Thesaurus hymnologicus (Halle, 1841), II, 45; cf. Kellner, Heortologie (Freiburg, 1901), pp. 161-62.
F. G. HOLWECK.
Dispersion of the Jews. See Diaspora.
Dissen, Heinrich von, b. 18 Oct., 1415, at Osna- briick, in Westphalia; d. at Cologne, 26 Nov., 1484. After studying philosophy and theology at Cologne under Heinrich von Gorinchem (Gorkum), a cele- brated divine of that time and vice-chancellor of the university, he became a monk in the Carthusian mon- astery of the same place, and took his solemn vows 14 Jan., 1437. He remained there all his life, which was a very laborious one, for he read much, copied many books for the library of his monastery, and com- posed a good many works. He was appointed sub- prior 23 March, 1457, and continued in that office until his death. His literary productions, all in Latin, comprise commentaries on the Psalms, on the Apoca- lypse, on the Gospels of Sundays and Festivals, on the Creed of St. Athanasius, on the Lord's Prayer, and a great number of sermons and homilies, treatises, and devotional writings, such as "De Sacerdotii digni-
