Chapter VII. On the Dispensation of Law

114. • DEFINITION. Dispensation is the relaxation of a law in a particular case.

DIVISION. Dispensation can be

1. Licit, or illicit, according as it is made for a just cause, or not.

2. Valid, or invalid, according as it either exempts from the observation of the law, or does not exempt.

3. Absolute, or conditioned, according as it is conceded simply, or with some condition added.

4. Subreptitious, or obreptitious, according as something that must be manifested is kept silent in the petition, or on the contrary something false is asserted ¹.

¹ Thus indeed many define subreption and obreption. But others use each word promiscuously in either sense, or even inversely apply each in the opposite sense. See Reiffenstuel (On book 1, title 3, no. 154).

One must treat 1. of the power of dispensing; 2. of the causes required for dispensing; 3. of the cessation of dispensation.