DISPENSATION is a term used by the canonists to signify an act of jurisdiction by which the rigour of the general law is relaxed in a particular case. Regarded from this point of view a dispensation is considered by the canonists not to be an exception to, but a complement of, the law, and it is granted with discretion in cases where the law would otherwise work injustice. “Fuit dispensatio inventa, ut esset pars distributivae justitiae.” The exercise of this jurisdiction in the earlier days of the Christian church was vested in respect of minor matters in the bishops, and in more important matters in the provincial councils; but by degrees this latter jurisdiction came to be exercised by the patriarchs exclusively, and ultimately, in the case of the Western Church, by the Pope alone, who, at the time of the Reformation of the Anglican Church, had acquired for the Holy See supreme authority in all the more important matters of dispensation. It was one object of the Parliament of England, by the statute “concerning Peter Pence and Dispensations” (25 Henry VIII. c. 21), to divest the Pope of the exercise of any powers of dispensation within the realm of England, by forbidding the king and his subjects to sue to the Pope or to the Holy See for any dispensation. The Parliament further vested the power of granting dispensations, such as had been hitherto obtained from the see of Rome, in the archiépiscopal see of Canterbury—subject, however, to the limitation that they should be only granted for such causes as were not contrary or repugnant to Holy Scripture or to the laws of the realm, and for this purpose the archbishop of Canterbury was empowered to constitute a sufficient commissary, and a clerk who should write and register all such dispensations. The ...

DIVINE. These are otherwise called “the ways of God,” and denote those schemes or methods which are devised and pursued by the wisdom and goodness of God, in order to manifest his perfections and will to mankind, for the purpose of their instruction, discipline, reformation, and advancement in rectitude of temper and conduct, in order to promote their happiness. These are the grand ends of the divine dispensations; and in their aptitude to promote these ends consist their excellence and glory. The works or constitutions of nature are, in a general sense, divine dispensations, by which God condescends to display to us his being and attributes, and thus to lead us to the acknowledgment, adoration, and love, of our Creator, Father, and Benefactor. The sacred Scriptures reveal and record other dispensations of divine providence, which have been directed to the promotion of the religious principles, moral conduct, and true happiness of mankind. These have varied in several ages of the world, and have been adapted by the wisdom and goodness of God to the circumstances of his intelligent and accountable creatures. In this sense the various revelations which God has communicated to mankind at different periods, and the means he has used, as occasion has required, for their discipline and improvement, have been justly denominated divine dispensations. Accordingly, we read in the works of theological writers of the various dispensations of religion; that of the patriarchs, that of Moses, and that of Christ, called the dispensation of grace, the perfection and ultimate object of every other. All these were adapted to the conditions of the human race at these several periods; all, in regular succession, were mutually connected and rendered preparatory one to the other; and all ...