DISSENTERS
47
DITHMAR
I
tate", "De multiplici bonorum verecimdia", "Quo
pacto hEBreticorum fraudes deprehendi queant", "Ex-
positio in totum Missale", " Expositio Antiphonarii ",
Consolationes in Cantica Canticorum", "De XIII mansionibus ", etc. It does not appear that any of these works have ever been printed.
Le Vasseur, Ephemerides Ord. Cartits (Montreuil, 1S92), IV. 434; Petreius, Bibliotheca Cartas. (Cologne, 1609); Hurter, Nomendalor (Innsbruck, 1899), IV, 911.
Edmund Gurdon.
Dissenters. See Nonconformists.
Dissentis, Abbey of, a Benedictine monastery in the Canton Grisons in eastern Switzerland, dedicated to Our Lady of Mercy. Tradition ascribes its founda- tion to Sts. Placid and Sigebert, in the year 614, but Mabillon places the date two years earlier. The his- tory of the abbey has been somewhat chequered, but it has at times risen to positions of great importance and influence. It was destroyed by the Avars in 670, when its abbot and thirty monks suffered martyrdom, but was rebuilt by Charles Martel and Abbot Pirmin- ius in 711. Charlemagne visited the abbey on his re- turn journey from Rome in 800 and bestowed upon it many benefactions. Abbot Udalric I (1031-1055) was the first of its superiors to be made a prince of the empire, which dignity was subsequently held by several other of its abbots ; many of them also became bishops of the neighbouring sees. In 1581 the abbey was honoured by a visit from St. Charles Borromeo. After enjoying independence for a thousand years it was incorporated into the newly formed Swiss Con- gregation in 1617, since which date it has, in common with the other five Benedictine abbeys of Switzerland, been subject to the jurisdiction of the president of that Congregation. In 1799 it was burned and plundered by the soldiers of Napoleon's army, when amongst other valuable treasures, a seventh century MS. chronicle of the abbey perished. The printing press that had been set up in 1729 was also destroyed at the same time, but much of the melted type and other metal was saved and from it were made the pipes of the organ of St. Martin's church ac Dissentis, which is still in use. The abbey was rebuilt by Abbot Anselm Huonder, the last of its superiors to enjoy the rank and title of Prince of the Empire. During the nine- teenth century the monastery suffered greatly from misfortunes of various kinds, and so great was the relaxation of discipline in consequence that its recov- ery was almost despaired of. Abbot Paul Birker came from his abbey of St. Boniface at Munich to as- sist in restoring regular observance, bui so little suc- cess attended his efforts that he left Dissentis in 1861 and returned to Munich as a simple monk. The ab- bey has, however, survived those evil times and is in a satisfactory and flourishing condition. Dom Bene- dict Prevost, the eightieth who has ruled over its for- tunes, was abbot in 1908 of a community of between thirty and forty monks, who, among their other duties, served five public oratories and conducted successfully a gymnasium of nearly a hundred boys.
MiBiLLON, Annales Ordinis Sancli Benedicli (Paris, 1703- 17391; Yepez, Chroniam Generale Ord. S. P. N. Benedich (Ologne 1603); Brhnner. Bin Benediktinerbuch (Wurzburg, 1880); Album Benedictinum (St. Vincent's, Penn.. 1880).
G. Cyprian Alston.
Dissidents in Poland. See Pol.\nd.
Distraction (Lat. distrahere, to draw away, hence to distract) is here considered in so far as it is wont to happen in time of prayer and in administering the sacraments. It hardly needs to be noted that the idea of mental prayer and mind-wandering are de- structive of each other. So far as vocal prayer is con- cerned, the want of actual interior attention, if volun- tary, will take from its perfection and be morally reprehensible. Distractions, however, according to the commonly accepted teaching, do not rob prayer of its essential character. To be sure one must have had
the intention to pray and therefore in the beginnmg
some formal advertence; otherwise a man would not
know what he was doing, and his prayer could not be
described even as a human act. So long, however, a^
nothing is done outwardly which would be incompati-
ble with any degree whatever of attention to the func-
tion of prayer, the lack of explicit mental application
does not, so to speak, invalidate prayer. In other
words, it keeps its substantial value as prayer, al-
though, of course, when the dissipation of thought is
wilful our addresses to the throne of mercy lose a
great deal in efficacy and acceptability. This doc-
trine has an application, for example, in the case of
those who are bound to recite the canonical Ofiice and
who are esteemed to have fulfilled their obligation
substantially even though their distractions have been
abundant and absorbing. Voluntary distractions,
that is the conscious deliberate surrender of the mind
to thoughts foreign to prayers, are sinful because of
the obvious irreverence for God with Whom at such
times we are presuming to hold intercourse. The
guilt, however, is judged to be venial. In the admin-
istration of the sacraments their validity cannot be
assailed merely because the one who confers them
fails to, here and now, think of what he is doing. Pro-
vided he has the required intention and posits the es-
sentials of the external rite proper to each sacrament,
no matter how taken over he may be by outside re-
flections, his act is distinctly a human one and as such
its value cannot be impugned. Such a state of mind,
however, when it is wilful, is sinful, but the guilt is
not mortal unless one has thereby laid himself open to
the danger of making a mistake in what is regarded as
essential for the validity of the sacrament in question.
NoLDiN, Summa theologiw Tnoralis (Innsbruck, 1904); Lehm-
KUHL, Theologia tnoralis (Freiburg, 1887); Genicot, Theologiw
moralis institutiones (Louvain, 1898).
Joseph F. Delany.
Distributions (from Lat. distribxiere), canoni- cally termed distrubtiones quotidianw, are certain por- tions of the revenue of a church, distributed to the canons present at Divine service. There are many regulations concerning these distributions in the " Cor- pus Juris". The latest law on the subject is found in the decrees of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXII, cap. iii, De ref.), where it is ordained that bishops have power to set aside one-third of the revenues of officials and dignitaries of cathedral and collegiate chapters and convert this third into distributions for those who satisfy exactly their obligation of being personally present every day at the service to which they are bound. Canons retired on account of their age retain their right to the distributions, as do also capitulars who have received coadjutors, and supernumerary canons who are waiting a regular stall in the chapter. To earn these distributions it is necessary to chant the Office in common, according to the custom of the par- ticular church to which the beneficiary belongs. A mere corporal presence, however, without mental ap- plication to the services performed, will not entitle one in conscience to these emoluments.
Andre-Wagner. Did. du Droit Cath. (Paris, 1901); Fer- raris, Bibl. Can. (Rome, 1899). III.
\\'iLLiAM H. W. Fanning.
District o£ Columbia. See Washington.
Ditbmar (Thietmar), Bishop of Merseburg and medieval chronicler, b. 25 July, 975; d. 1 Dec, 1018. He was a son of Count Siegfried of Walbeck and a rela- tive of the imperial family of the Saxon Ottos. After receivinghis education in the monastic schoolsof Qued- linburg, Bergen, and Magdeburg, he became, in 1002, provost of the monastery of Walbeck which had been founded by his grandfather, was ordained priest in 1003 and consecrated fourth Bishop of Merseburg on 24 April, 1009. As bishop he worked with great en- ergy for the spiritual and temporal restoration of his
