Degradation

In ecclesiastical law. A censure by which a clergyman is deprived of the holy orders which he had as a priest or deacon. DEGREE (Fr. degre, from Lat. gradus, a step in a stairway; a round of a ladder). A remove or step in the line of descent or consanguinity. The state or civil condition of a person. The ancient English statute of additions, for example, requires that in process, for the better description of a defendant, his state, degree, or mystery shall be mentioned. An honorable state or condition to which a student is advanced in testimony of proficiency in arts and sciences. They are of pontifical origin. See 1 Schmidt, Thesaurus, 144; Vicat, Doctores; Minshew, Diet. "Bachelor"; Merlin, Repert; Van Espen, pt. 1, tit. 10; Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib. xi. c. 2, — ^for a full account of this matter. DEHORS (Fr. out of; without). Something out of the record, agreement, will, or other thing spoken of; something foreign to the matter in question, DEI GRATIA (Lat. by the grace of God). An expression used in the titles of sovereigns, and considered as one of the prerogatives <Sf royalty, propria jvra majesta Us, although anciently a part of the titles of inferior ofl Scers and magistrate^, ecclesiastical and civlL Spelman.

The act of depriving a priest of his orders or benefices or of both, either by word of mouth or by public reproach, and a solemn ceremony of stripping from the offender the vestments of his office. The mode of proceeding in the trial of clergymen is determined by canons in the various dioceses. The same term is applied to the loss, by a peer, of his rank as such, as when he is deprived thereof by act of parliament. 2 Steph. Com. 608. Degradation must be distinguished from disqualification for bankruptcy, under stat. 34 & 35 Vict. c. 50.

In English law. Deprivation of dignity or rank; the depriving of a peer of his nobility, or a clergyman of his holy orders and ecclesiastical distinctions.

A deprivation of dignity; dismission from office. An ecclesiastical censure, whereby a clergyman is divested of his holy orders. There are two sorts by the canon law, — one summary, by word only; the other solemn, by stripping the party degraded of those ornaments and rights which are the ensigns of his degree. Degradation is otherwise called "deposition," but the canonists have distinguished between these two terms, deeming the former as the greater punishment of the two. There is likewise a degradation of a lord or knight at common law, and also by act of parliament. Wharton.

[Lat. degradatio, from de, priv., and gradus, rank.] In English law. Deprivation of dignity or rank; the depriving a peer of his nobility, or a clergyman of his holy orders and ecclesiastical distinctions. 1 Bl. Com. 402. Selden's Tit. of Honor, 787. Staundf. PL Cor. 130, 138. Anciently, the peculiar punishment of a clerk (clencus,) convicted of a crime. Bract, fol. 123 b. Called, also, disgrading. Cowell. Bk>unt. J>EQB.EE, Degre. L.Fr.&Eng. [Lat. gradus; Gr. ^adfiog.] A step. A term employed in the law of descent to denote the distance from one person to another in the lines of consanguinity, the nearest relatives being always separated from each other by one degree.* Oradus est distan Ua cognatorum. Meinece. M. Jur. Civ. lib. 1, tit. 10, g 153. A person added to a person in the line of consanguinity makes a degree. Take the son and add the father, it is one degree. Take away one of the number of persons, and you nave the number of degrees. If there be four persons, it is the third degree, if five, the fourth, &c. Co. Litt. 23 b. See Oradus. Le primer degree arndaunt; the first degree descending. Britt. c. 1 1 9. Les autres degres plus hautz; the other higher degrees. Id. ibid. Degree en degree; degree by degree, step by step, from one degree or step to another. Id. per tot. Degree p Uyn; a full degree; a degree occupied by a person. Id. Degre vogde; a vacant or empty degree, {gradus vacuus.) Id. Kelham translates this last expression, " a void space;" but it obviously means a degree unoccupied by a person, or made vacant by death. The figures or diagrams used in the old books to represent succession, descent or relationship by Imes right or direct, and tra Dsverse, collateral, or obliqne, are frequently in the form of a series of steps upward and downward, supposed to be filled or occupied by persons. See Oradus, Linea, DEGUERPY8. L. Fr. Abandoned. £^elkam.

punishment tn the ecclestastical law, is a censure by which a clergyman is deprived of his holy orders, which he had as a priest or deacon. - DEGREE, descents. This word is derived from the French degré, which is itself taken from the Latin gradus, and aignifies literally a step in a stair-way, or the round of a ladder. Figuratively applied and as it is understood in law, it is the distance between those who are allied by blood; it means the relations descending from a common ancestor from generation to generation, as by so many steps. Each generation lengthens the line of descent one de! gree, for the degrees are only the generations marked in a line by written. Vide Consanguinity, Line, and also Ayliff’s Parergon, 209; Toull. Dr. Civ. Fran. liv. 3, t. 1, ¢. 3, n. 158.