DEPOSITION. (We of the penalties which can be inflicted on a clergyman. As long as NV:1-4 practically emmeeted with the right to serve in a particular ellureli. the with drawal of this right was equivalent to exclusion from all el••ieal rights: but with the development of the clergy as a privileged order. and when absolute ordinations and changes of place bee:1111e C:1111111(111, deposit loll in the st rioter sense was con fined to the withdrawal of local ri•lits, and the term degradation came into use in the twelfth (Tinton . to signify removal of clerical rights. Owing to the belief among Roman that holy orders are indelible, the spiritual powers of a deposed priest are held to remain, but he has no right to exercise them, and it he attempts to do so commits an additional grave sin. In ease the penalty is remitted upon his proved repentance, needs, of course. no reordination. Bishops could formerly be deposed by their metropolitan with twelve other bishops as assessors; the right was later reserved to the l'ope. The solemn degradation of a priest in cluded many awe-inspiring ceremonies, such as the removal, piece by piece, of all the sacred vest ments designating the successive orders to which he had attained. the scraping of the thumb and linger which had been anointed at ordination, and the shaving of the head to obliterate the ton sure; but it is practically obsolete. Only the
bishop can depose a priest, and he requires for solemn degradation the assistance of at least six dignified clerics learned in the law.
In England a minister may be deposed by a bishop with the assistance of such of his ad visers as may conveniently be had. In Scotland the power belongs to the Church courts. A minis ter there deposed necessarily loses not only his ecclesiastical dignity, but the temporalities of his benefice as well, which becomes vacant the same as if he were dead. In the United States the power to depose is exercised by the various religious bodies, but the practical result is nothing more than exclusion from the pulpit of the particular denomination. The reasons which may justify such action are scandalous or im moral conduct, preaching or publishing doctrines contrary to the Church standards, or contuma cious disrespect for Church authority. See ORDERS, HOLY; DISCIPLINE, ECCLESIASTICAL. Consult Kober, Die Deposttir and Degradation nark den Grundsiitzen des It Irehcnreehts (Tiibin gen. 1867).