DEAN
660
DEATH
pense and absolve in certain cases. They can also in-
stitute an inquiry or informative process to be after-
wards transmitted to the bishop. Furthermore, they
are to see that the churches in their district are well-
ordered both in spiritual and in temporal affairs, and
they can grant leave of absence to priests for short
periods. They also have charge of the solemn instal-
lation of parish priests, care for them in grave illness,
and provide for their decent burial. They possess
also, in some places, certain honorarj' rights, e. g. precedence, and occasionally some distinction in dress.
In countries where canon law is not in full vigour the
powers and rights of rural deans vary greatly ; in fact,
each diocese may be said to have its own peculiar cus-
toms and regulations. In some English dioceses the
deans merely preside at the monthly conference; in
others the bishop gives them faculties to dispense in
certain cases, and they have care of the temporalities
of the churches in their districts when there is a change
of rector. In Ireland the deans can grant certain dis-
pensations, and absolve from reserved sins ; they also
have to guard against the growth of abuses among
the clergy. They transmit to the clergj' the orders of
the bishop and render to him an annual account as to
the state of the parishes in their care. Quite similar
are the provisions of the Third Plenary Council of
Baltimore (cap. iv, nos. 27-30) for the office of dean in
the United States.
Deans of Chapters. — The first dignitary of a chapter is variously styled. Sometimes he is called archdea- con, or archpriest ; in other places he is called the pro- vost or dean. The office is in the appointment of the pope. The dean takes precedence of all the other members of the chapter in choir and processions and other similar functions, and also during the capitular deliberations. His rights or prerogatives are to cele- brate Mass when the bishop is prevented from so doing. He also administers the last sacraments to the ordinary and celebrates the funeral Mass. During Divine Office he gives the signal to commence etc., and he also corrects mistakes and remedies abuses at variance with the diocesan decrees and local approved custom. He is bound to be present in choir and to give a good example to the chapter, both in his be- haviour and in the manner in which he recites or sings the various portions of the Divine liturgy.
In modern Catholic universities the dean is an officer chosen by the professors of his faculty to represent them as a body, to preside over their meetings, and to supervise the regularity of the ordinary academic exercises. His authority is based partly on the papal documents of foundation, partly on the enactments of the university authorities, and partly on custom.
The following are the decanal offices now existing in the Church of England ; honorary deans, e. g. the dean of the Chapels Royal; dean of peculiars, i. e. having jurisdiction but no cure of souls; provincial dean, an office always held by the (Protestant) Bishop of Lon- don; deans of chapters, who rule over the canons of cathedral or collegiate churches, and are bound to be in residence for eight months in the year; rural deans who act as deputies for the bishop or archdeacon. In the English universities (Cambridge, Oxford), the dean has the care of the discipline of the college and the ar- ranging of the chapel services.
(See also Akchdeacon; Archpriest; Deacon; Vicar-Gener.^l. For the office of Dean of the Sacred College, see Cardinal.)
Bahgiluat, Prwlect. Jut. eccl. (24th ed.. Paris, 1907); Deshates, Memento Juris eccl. (Paris, 1897); Thomassin, Vetua ac nova ecc. discipL. Ill, lib. II; Benedict XIV, De syriodo diacesand, III, 3; Bouis, De capitulis (Paris, 1862); Wernz, Jus decrelalium, II, 1013 sqq.; von Scherer, Hand- buch d. KirchenrechU (Graz, 1886), I, 618-22; Rev. cath. de Louvain, 18(53, III; Phillimore, Ea:l. Laws of the Church of England (London, 1873). See the Ada el Decreta of the Synods of Westminster. Maynooth (1900), the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (18841. and the important .\ets of the Roman Council of 1725; Canon Law, Rural Deans in Am. Eccl. Rev. (Philadelphia, 1890). 90-97. David DunfORD.
Dean, Rural. See Dean.
Dean, William, Venerable, b. in Yorkshire, Eng- land, date uncertain, martyred 28 .\ugust, 1588. He studied at Reims andwas ordained priest atSoissons, 21 December, 1581, together with the martyrs George Haydock and Robert Nutter. Their ordination coin- cided with the time that the news of Campion's martyr- dom reached the college. Dean said his first Mass 9 Jan- uary and left for England 25 January, 1581. He is called by Champney "a man distinguished by the sound- ness of his morals and learning". He was banished W'ith a number of other prie.sts in 1585, put ashore on the coast of Normandy, and threatened with death if he dared to go back to England. Nevertheless he quickly returned to his labours there and w-as again arrested, tried, and condemned for his priesthood, 22 August, 1 588. The failure of the Spanish Armada, in spite of the loyalty manifested by English Catholics at that crisis, brought about a fierce persecution and some twenty- seven martyrs suffered that year. Six new gibbets were erected in London, it is said at Leicester's instigation, and Dean, who had been condemned with five other priests and four laymen, was the first to suffer on the gal- lows erected at Mile End. With him suffered a layman, the Venerable Henry Webley, for relieving and assisting him. At the martyrdom Dean tried to speak to the people, " but his mouth was stopped by some that were in the cart, in such a violent manner that they were like to have prevented the hangman of his wages". Seven martyrs suffered on the same day. Leicester died on 5 September, within a week of their execution.
Challoxer. Missionary Priests (1741), I, 209; Stow. An- nates (1615), 749; Douay Diaries: MoRRis, Troubles of Our Catholic Forefathers, II, 72, 156, 157.
Bede Camm. Deanery. See Dean.
Dease, Thomas, b. in Ireland, 1568; d. at Galway, 1651. He sprang from an ancient Irish family atone time possessing considerable landed property in Cavan and Westmeath. In youth he acquired some profi- ciency in the Irish language, in which language he wrote some poems. Having determined to become a priest, he proceeded to Paris, where after ordination he spent the first years of his priesthood. During this time he became rector of the Irish Seminary, the precursor of the present Irish College. In 1622 he was consecrated Bishop of Meath, returning to Ireland the same year. In spite of persecution and penal laws he continued loyal to England and preached loyalty to his flock. He regarded with disfavour the Confedera- tion of Kilkenny, and resisted all the arguments and entreaties of the primate to join it. This conduct l^rought him toleration, if not favour, from the Gov- ernment, though it made him unpopular with his Catholic fellow-countrymen. And it specially an- noyed the nuncio, Rinuccini, who charged him with having sown the seeds of enmity between the- Con- federate generals Preston and O'Neill. The news of Dease's death was therefore received, in 1648, by the nuncio with little regret. But the news turned out false, and the nuncio writing to Rome reported that the bishop still lived "to try the patience of the good".
Brady, Episcopal Succession (Rome, 1S76); Meehan. Irish Hierarchy in the Seventeenth Century (DubHn, 1872); Gilbert. History of Irish Affairs (Dublin, 1880); Boyle, The Irish Col- lege in Paris (Dublin, 1901); Hdtton, The Embassy to Ireland (Dublin. 1873).
E. A. D 'Alton.
Death, Prepar.^tion for. — Spiritual writers are as one in declaring that ordinarily the only adequate preparation for death is a righteous life. It is a com- monplace with them that the tendency to think of this preparation as a set exercise without much, if any, reference to one's previous career represents a miser- able error. There is no way, of course, to conibat the
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