DISPENSATION, a license granted by the pope for that which is ordinarily prohib ited. The nature and limits of the dispensing power have been the subject of much discussion not only in controversy with Protestants, but among Roman Catholics them selves. It is held by the extreme advocates of papal power, that the pope may dispense in any divine law, except the articles of faith; by others, that his dispensing power does not extend to express precepts of the New Testament; some say that his D. is valid only when it proceeds upon just cause; some, that it is not properly a relaxation of the law's obligation, but merely a declaration that in the particular case the law is not appli cable. The usage of the church of Rome, however, agrees with the opinions of her theologians in making the pope supreme in releasing from oaths and vows; and a decree of the council of Trent anathematizes all who deny the power of the elnirell to grant dis pensations for marriages within the prohibited degrees of the Mosaic law; whilst the multiplied prohibited degrees of the canon law give much occasion for the more frequent exercise of the same power.—Nothing really of the nature of a D. is known in any Prot estant church. The only kind of dispensations now in use in England, are those
granted by a bishop to a clergyman, to enable him to hold more benefices than one, or to absent himself from his parish. Formerly, the pope's dispensations in England, as elsewhere, prevailed against the law of the land, not in ecclesiastical matters only, but in all that large department of civil affairs which, by an interested fiction, was brought within the scope of ecclesiastical government. This abuse was swept away at the reformation, by 25 henry VIIL c. 21. The power of the pope was then conferred on the archbishop of Canterbury, in so far as it -vat not.contrary to the law of God. Tho granting of special licenses of marriage, and the like, is the only form in which it is ever exercised.
In former times, the crown claimed a dispensing power in civil, similar to that which belonged to the pope in ecclesiastical matters. The power was grossly abused by James II., and was consequently expressly abolished by the bill of rights. The privilege of granting pardons in capital cases is the only form in which the dispensing power of the crown still exists.