ADO
ADO
platanu Their doarine is alfo called the Spanijh herefy, from the names, country, &c. of the founders, and chief ad- vocates of it.
The Adoption differ from the Bonofiani chiefly in point of time, thefe latter having maintained much the fame do&nne of the fonfhip of Ch rift. —Whether the Adoptiam arc Nefto- rians, is a queftion ftrongly controverted among eccleftaftical writers. V. Vogt. Bibl. Hift. Haetet. ADOPTION, ( Cycl. ) — Adoption was allowed among the Greeks to fuch as had no ifl'uc of their own ; excepting thofe who were not Kygio* iat/U, their own mafters, e. gr. flaves, women, madmen, infants, or perfons under twenty years of age ; who being incapable of making wills, or managing then- own eftates, were not allowed to adopt heirs to them. Fo- reigners being incapable of inheriting at Athens, if any fuch were adopted, it was necefiary firft to make them free of the city. The ceremony of Adoption being over, the adopted had his name inrolled in the tribe and ward of his new father ; for which entry a peculiar time was allotted, viz. the feftival
©ataxia.
To prevent rafh and inconfiderate Adoptions, the Lacedemo- nians had a law, that Adoptions fhould be tranfa&ed, or at leaft confirmed, in the prefence of their kings. The children adopted were invefted with all the privileges, and obliged to perform all the duties, of natural children ; and being tints provided for in another family, ceafed to have any claim of inheritance, or kindred, in the family which they had left, unlefs they firft renounced their Adoption ; which, by the laws of Solon, they were not allowed to do, unlefs they had firft begotten children, to bear the name of the perfon who had adopted them : thus providing againft the ruin of families, Which would otherwife have been extinguifhed by the defer- tion of thofe who had been adopted to prefefve them. If the children adopted happened to die without children, the inhe- ritance could not be alienated from the family into which they had been adopted, but returned to the relations of the Adopter. It fliould feem, that by the Athenian law, a perfon, after having adopted another, was not allowed to marry, without permiffion from the magiftrate : in effect, there are inftances of perfons, who being ill ufed by their adoptive children, pe- titioned for fuch leave. However this be, 'tis certain feme men married after they had adopted fons : in which cafe, if they begat legitimate children, their eftates were equally fhared between the begotten and adopted. Pott. ArchjeoL Gra-c. 1. 4. c. 15. p 342. fcq.
Befides the formalities prefcribed by the Roman law, divers other methods have taken place ; which have given denomi- nations to divers fpecies of Adoptions, among the Gothic na- tions, in different ages. As,
Adoption by t eft anient, that performed by appointing a per- fon heir by will, on condition of his affuming the name, arms, &c. of the Adopter.
Of which kind, we meet with divers inftances in the Reman hlftory. Vid, Cyel.
Some refemblance of it we alfo find in the hiftory of our own nation and age.
Adoption by baptifm is that fpiritual affinity which is con- traced by godfathers and godchildren in the ceremony of baptifm.
This kind of Adoption was introduced into the Greek church, and came afterwards in ufe among the antient Franks, as ap- pears by the capitulars of Charlcmaign.
The prcfents which the godfathers made in this folemnity, called ftliolatus, filiolathan, arid filioiagium, are proofs of this practice. In reality, the godfather was fo far confidercd as adoptive father, that his godchildren were luppofed to be en- titled to a fhare in the inheritance of his eftate. Du Gang. Glofl". Lat. T. 2. p. 438. tn voc. Filiolus.
Adoption by arms was when a prince made a prefent of arms to a perfon, in confideration of his merit and valour a . — Thus it was that the king of the Heruli was adopted by Theodoric ; Athalaric by the emperor Juftinian; and Cofroes, nephew of the king of Perfia, by the emperor Juftin. This method of Adoption, pra&ifed in Germany, was called barbarous, by way of oppofition to the Roman cuftom. The obligation here laid on the adoptive fon was, to protect and defend the father from injuries, affronts, &c b . — And hence the ceremony of dubbing knights took its origin, as well as name e . — [ a Vid. 01. Magn. Epit. 1. 8. c. 2 and 3. p. 264. feq. Jornand. de Reb. Getic. p. 140. Cajfiod. Ep. 2. 1. 4. b V. Obferv. Halenf. T. 2. obf. 3. §. 2. p. 43. « V. Seld. Till. Hon. p. 865.]
The barbarous Adoption differed from the Roman, in that the latter was performed by writing, the former by the de- livery of military weapons. It may be added, that the barba- rous kind ordinarily gave no right of inheritance ; though among the Franks, thofe adopted per ha/lam did inherit. Obferv. Hal. loc. cit.
Adoption by hair, Adoptio per capUhtm, or crinem, was per- formed by cutting off the hair of a perfon, and giving it to the adoptive father. Vid. Cycl.
Adoption by matrimony is the taking the children of a wife or hufband, by a former marriage, into the condition of pro- per or natural children a j and admitting them to inherit on
the fame footing with thofe of the prefent marriage. This is a practice peculiar to the Germans ; among whom, it is more particularly known by the name of Einkhidfchaft b , among their writers in Latin, by that of unio prclium, or union of iffues. But the more accurate writers obferve, that this is no Adoption c . — [■' Hartung. ubi fupra, p. 1 8. Nov. Liter. Germ, an. 1709. p. 457. Gail. 1. 2. obferv. 125. Wood, Lift.. Jmper. Law, 1. 1. c. 2- p- 125. b Bibl. Jur. Imper. c. 4. pof. 1. §. 14. p. 309. c See Adfiliation.j Among the Turks, by the law of Mahomet, Adoption is no impediment of marriage c . The ceremony of Adoption is performed by obliging the perfon adopted to pafs through the ihirt of the Adopter. Hence, among that people, to adopt is exprefled by the phrafe, to draw another through my fhirt d .— [ c Koran, c. 33. See alfo Sale, Not. ad loc. d D'Herh. Bibl. Orient, p. 47, in voc. Ahrat.]
It is faid that fomething like this has alfo been obferved among the Hebrews ; where the prophet Elijah adopted Elifha for his fon and fuccellbr, and communicated to him the gift of pro- phecy, by letting fall his cloak, or mantle on him. But Adoption, properly fo called, does not appear to have been praetifed among the antient Jews : Mofcs fays nothing of it in his laws; and Jacob's Adoption of his two grandfons, Ephraim and Manafleh, is not fo properly an Adoption, as a kind of fubftitution, whereby thofe two fons of Jofeph were allotted an equal portion in Ifrael with his own funs. Some have confidercd the law among the Ifraelites, by which one brother was under an obligation to marry the widow of another, who died without children, as a kind of Adoption ; the children born of the feeond marriage being looked upon as belonging to the deceafed brother, and going by his name. V. Calmet's Di£t. in. voc. Adoption,
- Tis the ufual opinion, that Adoption and emancipation are
abolifhed in all countries governed by cuftomary laws ; par- ticularly in Germany. M. de Kulpis c has fliewn the con- trary ; and as the Adoption of princes fhould feem moll liable to fuch an abolition, in regard Adoptions are only fief ions of the civil law, which feems hereby to infringe on the na- tural law, to which alone princes are fubjecf, that author gives a curious detail of inftances of fuch Adoptions of princes, both in antient and modern hiftory, among the Jews, Ro- mans, Goths'* Franks, Germans, Spaniards, Italians, &c In effect, the feveral pretentions of the French, Spaniards, and houfe of Auftria, to the kingdom of Naples, are founded on no other than the fucceflive Adoptions, which their laft queen Joan made of princes of the houfe of Anjou and Arra- gon, for her heirs and fucceftbrs f . — [ e Vid. Kulp. Ltjff. Acad. 4. de Adoptione Sc Emancipations Prlncipum. Jour, des Scav. T. 34. p. 323. feq. { Mem. de Trev. an. 1721. p. I438. feq.]
Adoption is ftill faid to fubfift, in fome meafure, even among private perfons in Xaintogne, and fome provinces of France. Trev, Diet. Univ.
In our own hiftory, king Stephen, to put an end to the dis- putes about the fucceflion, adopted Henry II. as hrs fon and fucceflbr, in exclufion of his own fon William, who was in- duced by oath to acknowledge the new right of fucceflion £ ; the charter of which Adoption is ftill extant in Brompton. Queen Elizabeth alfo promifed to adopt Mary queen of Scots, and procure her to be declared heir aparent to the Englifh throne by act of parliament, on condition of her marrying the earl of Leicefter h . — [& Bromp. Coll. 1037. ^'^- Anc. Mod. T. 21. p. 149. h Madenz. Scot. Writ. T. 3. p. 149.]
Adoption is alfo ufed, in theology, for a federal acf of God's free grace ; whereby thofe that are regenerate by faith, are admitted into his houfhold, and entitled to a fhare in the in- heritance of the kingdom of heaven. V. Pfaff. Lift. Theol. P. 2. c. 8._ §. 4. p. 477.
Adoption is fometimes alfo ufed, in fpeaking of the antient clergy, who had a cuftom of taking a maid or widow into their houfes, under the denomination of an adoptive or fpiri- tual fifter, or niece. Du Gang. Glofl. Lat. T. I. p. 66. See Adoptive.
Adoption is alfo ufed in fpeaking of the admiflion of perfons into certain hofpitals, particularly that of Lyons ; the admi- nistrators whereof have all the power and rights of parents over the children admitted. Mem. de T'rev. 1713.
Adoption is alfo ufed for the reception of a new academy into the body of an old one.
In which fenfe, Adoption amounts to much the fame with Incorporation.
The French academy of Marfeilles was adopted by that of Paris ; on which account, we find a volume of fpeeches ex- tant, made by feveral members of the academy of Marfeilles, deputed to return thanks to that of Paris, for the honour. V. Bibl. Franc. Sept. 1726. p. 203. feq. In a fenfe, not unlike this, Adoption is alfo applied by the Greeks, to the admitting a monk, or brother, into a monaftic community ; fometimes called fpiritual Adoption. V. Du Gang. Gloff. Grasc. in voc. A&*posroi«, A&Mpoweiwjfi
ADOPTIVE, (Cycl.) — In ecclefiaftical writers we find adoptive
women, or lifters, adoptive fatminec, or furores, ufed for thofe
2 ". hand*
