Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

342

DEDICATE

DECREPIT

receding of the sea from the land. Callis, Sewers, (53,) 65. See RELICTION. DECBEPIT. This term designates a per son who is disabled, incapable, or incompe tent, either from physical or mental weak ness or defects, whether produced by age or other causes, to such an extent as to render the individual comparatively helpless in a personal conflict with one possessed of ordi nary health and strength. 16 Tex. App. 11. DECRETA. In the Roman law. Judi cial sentences given by the emperor as su preme judge. Decreta conciliorum non ligant reges nostros. Moore, 906. The decrees of coun cils bind not our kings. DECRETAL ORDER. In chancery practice. An order made by the court of chancery, in the nature of a decree, upon a motion or petition. An order in a chancery suit made on mo tion or otherwise not at the regular hearing of a cause, and yet not of an interlocutory nature, but finally disposing of the cause, so far as a decree could then have disposed of it. Mozley & Whitley. DECRETALES BOKTFACII OCTA VI. A supplemental collection of the canon law, published by Boniface YIII. in 1298, called, also, "Liber Sextus Decretalium," (Sixth Book of the Decretals.) DECRETALES GREGORII NONT. The decretals of Gregory the Ninth. A col lection of the laws of the church, published by order of Gregory IX. in 1227. It is com posed of five books, subdivided into titles, and each title is divided into chapters. They are cited by using an X, (or extra;) thus "Cap. 8 X de Regulis Juris," etc. DECRETALS. In ecclesiastical law. Letters of the pope, written at the suit or in stance of one or more persons, determining some point or question in ecclesiastical law, arid possessing the force of law. The decre tals form the second part of the body of can on law. This is also the title of the second of the two great divisions of the canon law, the first being called the "Decree," (decretum.) DECRETO. In Spanish colonial law. An order emanating from some superior tribu nal, promulgated in the name and by the au thority of the sovereign, in relation to eccle- •iastical matters. Schm. Civil Law, 93, note.

DECBETUM. In the civil law. A species of imperial constitution, being a judgment or sentence given by the emperor upon hearing of a cause, (quod imperator cognoscens decrevit.) Inst. 1, 2, 6. In canon law. An ecclesiastical law, in contradistinction to a secular law, (lex.) 1 Mackeld. Civil Law, p. 81, § 93, (Kauf mann's note.) DECRETUM GRATIANI. Gratian's decree, or decretum. A collection of eccle siastical law in three books or parts, made in the year 1151, by Gratian, a Benedictine monk of Bologna, being the oldest as well as the first in order of the collections which to gether form the body of the Roman canon law. 1 Bl. Comrn. 82; 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 67. DECROWNING. The act of depriving of a crown. DECRY. To cry down; to deprive of credit. "The king may at any time decry or cry down any coin of the kingdom, and make it no longer current." 1 Bl. Comm. 278. DECURIO. In the provincial adminis tration of the Roman empire, the decurions were the chief men or official personages of the large towns. Taken as a body, the decurions of a city were charged with the entire con trol and administration of its internal affairs; having powers both magisterial and legisla tive. See 1 Spence, Eq. Jur. 54. DEDBANA. In Saxon law. An actual homicide or manslaughter. DEDI. (Lat. I have given.) A word used in deeds and other instruments of con veyance when such instruments were made in Latin, and anciently held to imply a war ranty of title. DEDI ET CONCESSI. I have given and granted. The operative words of con veyance in ancient charters of feoffment, and deeds of gift and grant; the English "given and granted" being still the most proper, though not the essential, words by which such conveyances are made. 2 Bl. Comm. 53, 316, 317; 1 Steph. Comm. 164, 177, 473, 474. DEDICATE. To appropriate and set apart one's private property to some public use; as to make a private way public by acts evincing an intention to do so.

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