Chapter — Konings, Theologia Moralis
CHAPTER VII: ON DISPENSATION FROM LAW
- Definition. Dispensation is a relaxation from the obligation of a law, made by one who has legitimate authority, for some case in which the law otherwise would oblige.
It is said: 1° relaxation from the obligation of a law. Therefore it differs a) from a privilege, which does not necessarily exempt from law, since privileges beyond law are given; b) from a license, by which the obligation of law is not relaxed, as in dispensation, but only a condition is posited, which having been posited, the law no longer has place: thus a Bishop can with cause give license for entering monasteries of nuns, yet of himself he cannot dispense from this law.
It is said: 2° for some case in which the law otherwise would oblige. Hence it differs a) from abrogation and cessation of a law, by which a law ceases to oblige for all, or ceases to be a law; b) from being excused from a law and being dispensed from it; for the cause on account of which I can be dispensed from a law is not required to be of such a kind that by its own force the law ceases to oblige, which they call being excused from the law; otherwise dispensation would effect nothing, and would be a simple declaration. Thus he who is gravely sick is said to be excused from fasting; but he who experiences some inconvenience in fasting, but not so grave that by this very fact he is excused from fasting, will sometimes be able to be dispensed from it.
- Division. Dispensation can be:
1° Licit or illicit, according as it is made with 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 pure, or conditioned or with a burden, according as it is given simply or with a condition added.
4° Subreptitious or obreptitious, according as in the petition something that must be manifested is kept silent, or on the contrary something false is asserted.
5° Total or partial, according as it frees one from the whole law or from a part of the same.
6° Express or tacit, according as it is granted either in express words, or is deduced from some fact.
7° Necessary or free, according as in law, such a cause existing, it is decreed that it is to be granted by the superior, or is left to his judgment.
We must treat 1° of the power of dispensing; 2° of the causes required for dispensing; 3° of the cessation of dispensation.