DESERTION
750
DESHON
into the question raised by modern critics as to
whether the geography of tlie Exodus had different
meanings in different parts of the Pentateuch. The
desert of Juda, too, plays an important part in the
Bible. It lies to the west of the 'iirabah, the Jordan,
and the Dead Sea. To it belong the deserts of En-
gaddi, that of Thecua, and that of Jericho, near the
city of the same name. To the east of Palestine are
the deserts of Arabia, Moab, and the desert of Idumea,
near the Dead Sea. We are told (Ex., iii, 1) that
Moses fed the flocks of Jethro, and led them to the
interior parts of the desert. This desert was in the
land of Madian, close to the Red Sea, and in it was
Mount Horeb, which St. Jerome says was the same
as Sinai. The desert to which David fled from Saul
(cf. I Kings, xxiii, 14) was the desert of Ziph, which
lies south of the Dead Sea and Hebron. John the
Baptist lived and taught in the desert of Judea, west
of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, near Jericho. Finally,
the scene of Christ's temptation (Matt., iv, 1-11), of
which St. Mark adds (i, 1.3): "He was with wild
beasts", was most likely in the 'arabah to the west of
the Jordan. But this is only speculation.
Smith, Hialorical Geography of the Holy Land (London, 1897); Cheyne, Encyclopedia Biblica (London, 1899); Hastings, Diet, of the Bible; Vigourodx, Diet, de la Bible.
J. A. HOWLETT.
Desertion, the culpable abandonment of a state, of a stable situation, the obligations of which one had freely accepted. In civil life the word usually desig- nates the offence committed by a soldier who, by flight, forsakes his military obligations. As regards Christian life, desertion may have for its object any state, from the highest to the lowliest, to which Chris- tians may be called. The first kind of desertion is the abandonment of the state and obligations imposed by baptism and is known as apostasy {apostasia a fide). A second kind of desertion is when the baptized has been admitted by ordination to the ranks of the clergy and thereafter abandons his clerical state and its obli- gations {apostasia ab online). The abandonment of the religious state is still another kind of apostasy [apostasia a religione). (See Apostasy.) But this expression is used only in connexion with those orders which take solemn vows ; abandonment of the religi- ous life as followed in congregations imder simple vows, is mere desertion, although by some it is incor- rectly designated as apostasy. This desertion does not incur the excommunication to which religious apostates are sentenced, though it entails suspension for clerics (Deer. Auctis admodum of the S. C. of Bishops and Regulars, 4 Nov., 1892), and generally terminates in dismissal or expulsion.
The term desertion is also applied to a cleric's aban- donment of his benefice, whether it be residential or non-residential. If the benefice be residential, there is occasion to proceed against the culprit according to the Council of Trent (Sess. VI, c. i; Sess. XXIII, c. i; Sess. XXIV, c. xii). The first text applies to bishops and pro\ddes that, after six months, the absent prelate be deprived ipso facto of a quarter of the annual revenue of his benefice ; that if he remain ab- sent for six additional months he be denied another quarter's revenue and finally, that if he fail to return to his charge the metropolitan or the suffragan bishops must denounce him to the pope within three months, and his punishment may even amount to the pri- vation of his benefice. The second text concerns parish priests and other clerics having the care of souls: it deprives the guilty party of the revenue of his benefice in proportion to the length of absence ; at the same time the bishop can proceed against the ab- sentee by ecclesiastical censures, and finally deprive him of his benefice if he does not return within six months after receiving a warning or official summons. The thinl text relates to canons and other clerics who possess even a simple benefice, obliging them to resi-
dence for the choir-otfice, the celebration of Mass and
other analogous charges: the absentee loses ipso facto
the daily distributions (see Benefice) ; the niunber
of days of absence may not exceed three months in
any year; otherwise he forfeits half the revenue of
his benefice; if he repeats the offence a second year,
he forfeits all the revenue; and if his absence be still
prolonged he can be deprived of the benefices by ca-
nonical sentence. For the very rare case of non-resi-
dential benefice which the beneficiary has totally
abandoned, canonists consider that it becomes vacant
after ten years, according to the terms of c. viii, De
cler. non resid., Ill, tit. iv.
In judicial matters there is desertion of suit or of appeal when the plaintiff, after instituting a proceed- ing or lodging an appeal, fails to comply within the required time with the judicial acts demanded by the court. In the first instance, the judge, having estab- lished the neglect of the plaintiff, declares the suit abandoned. The judge from whom appeal is taken should appoint a time for the appellant to present his appeal to the new judge (c. xxxiii, and Clem., iv, De appell., II, tit. xxviii). The appeal should be termi- nated within a year or two (e. v, and Clem., iii, De appell.). However, this system is not strictly ob- served.
Finally, since the married state supposes that man and wife dwell together, desertion is the unjustified abandonment of the conjugal domicile by one or the other, especially by the wife who is bound to follow her husband to his new domicile. This desertion, which recent civil legislation considers a legitimate cause for separation and even for divorce, is considered by canon law merely a delict that gives the deserted party the right to recall the fugitive through judicial authority, either ecclesiastical or secular (c. xiii, De restit. spol., II, tit. xiii). If the wife separates for a legitimate reason, on account of the adultery or heresy of her husband, because of ill-treatment by him or in order to escape a serious danger that would result from continued dwelling with him, such desertion is not held to be malicious; it is, however, the duty of the proper judge to pass upon it.
For the first case see the canonists, De dericis non residenli'
bus. III, tit. iv- for the second, De appellationibus, II, tit.
xxviii; for the third, Sanchez, De Matrimonio. 1, ix, disp. iv;
EsMEiN, Le mariage en droit canonigue (Paris, 1891 ). II, 96, 308.
A. BOUDINHON.
Deshon, George, priest of the Congregation (or Institute) of St. Paul the Apostle, b. at New London, Conn., U. S. A., 30 January, 1823; d. in New York, 30 December, 1903. He was a graduate (1843) of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was a classmate and roommate of General U. S. Grant. His standing in class was high (second) and he afterwards taught mathematics and ethics at the Acad- emy. Deshon was promoted to the rank of captain, but resigned his commission, was received into the Church in 1851, and soon after became a novice in the Redemptorist Order. He was ordained priest in 1855 and became associated with Fathers Hecker, AVal- worth, Hewit, and Baker, all regularly employed in missionary work. With them he obtained in 1858 a dispensation from his vows as a Redemptorist and assisted in the formation of the new Paulist Institute, the first house and church of which were built in New York in 18.'>9. He remained in this house during the rest of his life, being novice-master for several years, and afterwards assistant superior and in charge gen- erally of the temporal interests of the community, which owed much to his business ability. He also superintended throughout the building of the church of St. Paul the Apostle, in which his skill and knowl- edge as an engineer, acquired at West Point, were of great service.
Father Deshon spent a considerable part of his time on the missions, in which he was specially eminent in
