DE'I GRA'TIA (Lat. " by the favor of God ") is a formula taken from several apos tolical expressions in the New Testament. It is believed to have been first formally used by the bishops at the council of Ephesus, 931 Am. Afterwards, it came to be appended by archbishops, bishops. abbots, abbesses, deans, monks, and even chaplains, to their titles, in letters, and other documents, as a humble expression of dependence on the Most High. After the middle of the 13th c., when the sanction of the pope began to be considered necessary to ecclesiastical offices, the higher clergy wrote Dei et Apostoliete sedis gratiei, "by the favor of God and the apostolic see." At a later period, many of them preferred to write miseratione divina, permine dir'ina, and the like; but they still continued to be styled by others Del grata. In the British islands, this style was generally dropped about the time of the reformation. but it was occasionally'
given to the archbishops of Canterbury and York, even after the beginning of the 17th century. Beginning with the times of the Carlovingians. many temporal princes, earls, and barons made use of the formula D. G.; and before the 15th c., no idea of independ ence or of divine right seems to have attached to it. But in 1442, king Charles VII. of France forbade its use by the comte d'Armagnac, and in 1449, obliged the duke of Bur gundy to declare that he used it without prejudice to the rights of the French crown. These instances show that it had now begun to be regarded as belonging exclusively to sovereigns who owed no allegiance to any other earthly potentate or power. In this way, what was originally a pious expression of humility, came to be looked upon as an assertion of the doctrine of the " divine right " of kings.