Chapter 11

SeePeloponnesian War; also Judeich in Pauly-Wissowa,Realencyclopädie.

DECEMBER(Lat.decem, ten), the last month of the year. In the Roman calendar, traditionally ascribed to Romulus, the year was divided into ten months, the last of which was called December, or thetenthmonth, and this name, though etymologicallyincorrect, was retained for the last or twelfth month of the year as now divided. In the Romulian calendar December had thirty days; Numa reduced the number to twenty-nine; Julius Caesar added two days to this, giving the month its present length. TheSaturnaliaoccurred in December, which is therefore styled “acceptus geniis” by Ovid (Fasti, iii. 58); and this also explains the phrase of Horace “libertate Decembri utere” (Sat.ii. 7). Martial applies to the month the epithetcanus(hoary), and Ovid styles itgelidus(frosty) andfumosus(smoky). In the reign of Commodus it was temporarily styledAmazonius, in honour of the emperor’s mistress, whom he had had painted as an Amazon. The Saxons called itwinter-monath, winter month, andheligh-monath, holy month, from the fact that Christmas fell within it. Thus the modern Germans call itChristmonat. The 22nd of December is the date of the winter solstice, when the sun reaches the tropic of Capricorn.

DECEMVIRI(“the ten men”), the name applied by the Romans to any officialcommissionof ten. The title was often followed by a statement of the purpose for which the commission was appointed,e.g.Xviri legibus scribundis, stlitibus judicandis, sacris faciundis.

I. Apart from such qualification, it signified chiefly the temporary commission which superseded all the ordinary magistrates of the Republic from 451 to 449B.C., for the purpose of drawing up a code of laws. In 462B.C.a tribune proposed that the appointment of a commission to draw up a code expressing the legal principles of the administration was necessary to secure for theplebsa hold over magisterial caprice. Continued agitation to this effect resulted in an agreement in 452B.C.between patricians and plebeians that decemvirs should be appointed to draw up a code, that during their tenure of office all other magistracies should be in abeyance, that they should not be subject to appeal, but that they should be bound to maintain the laws which guaranteed by religious sanctions the rights of the plebs. The first board of decemvirs (apparently consisting wholly of patricians) was appointed to hold office during 451B.C.; and the chief man among them was Appius Claudius. Livy (iii. 32) says that only patricians were eligible. Mommsen, however, held that plebeians were legally eligible, though none were actually appointed for 451. The decemvirs ruled with singular moderation, and submitted to theComitia Centuriataa code of laws in ten headings, which was passed. So popular were the decemvirs that another board of ten was appointed for the following year, some of whom, if the extant list of names is correct, were certainly plebeians. These added two more to the ten laws of their predecessors, thus completing the Laws of the Twelve Tables (seeRoman Law). But their rule then became violent and tyrannical, and they fell before the fury of theplebs, though for some reason, not easily understood, they continued to have the support of the patricians. They were forced to abdicate (449B.C.), and the ordinary magistrates were restored.

II. The judicial board of decemvirs (stlitibus judicandis) formed a civil court of ancient origin concerned mainly with questions bearing on the status of individuals. They were originally a body of jurors which gave a verdict under the presidency of the praetor (q.v.), but eventually became annual minor magistrates of the Republic, elected by theComitia Tributa.

III. The priestly board of decemvirs (sacris faciundis) was an outcome of the claim of theplebsto a share in the administration of the state religion. Five of the decemvirs were patricians, and five plebeians. They were first appointed in 367B.C.instead of the patricianduumviriwho had hitherto performed these duties. The board was increased to fifteen in the last century of the Republic. Its chief function was the care of the Sibylline books, and the celebration of the games of Apollo (Livy x. 8) and the Secular Games (Tac.Ann.xi. 11).

IV. Decemvirs were also appointed from time to time to control the distribution of the public land (agris dandis adsignandis; seeAgrarian Laws).

Bibliography.—B. G. Niebuhr,History of Rome(Eng. trans.), ii. 309 et seq. (Cambridge, 1832); Th. Mommsen,History of Rome, bk. ii. c. 2, vol. i. pp. 361 et seq. (Eng. trans., new ed., 1894);Römisches Staatsrecht, ii. 605 et seq., 714 (Leipzig, 1887); A. H. J. Greenidge,Legal Procedure of Cicero’s Time, p. 40 et seq., 263 (Oxford, 1901); J. Muirhead,Private Law of Rome, p. 73 et seq. (London, 1899); Pauly-Wissowa,Realencyclopädie, iv. 2256 et seq. (Kübler).

(A. M. Cl.)

DECHEN, ERNST HEINRICH KARL VON(1800-1889), German geologist, was born in Berlin on the 25th of March 1800, and was educated in the university in that city. He subsequently studied mining in Bochum and Essen, and was in 1820 placed in the mining department of the Prussian state, serving on the staff until 1864, and becoming director in 1841 when he was stationed at Bonn. In early years he made journeys to study the mining systems of other countries, and with this object he visited England and Scotland in company with Karl von Oeynhausen (1797-1865). In the course of his work he paid special attention to the coal-formation of Westphalia and northern Europe generally, and he greatly furthered the progress made in mining and metallurgical works in Rhenish Prussia. He made numerous contributions to geological literature; notably the following:—Geognostische Umrisse der Rheinländer zwischen Basel und Mainz mit besonderer Rücksicht auf das Vorkommen des Steinsalzes(with von Oeynhausen and La Roche), 2 vols. (Berlin, 1825);Geognostische Führer in das Siebengebirge am Rhein(Bonn, 1861);Die nutzbaren Mineralien und Gebirgsarten im deutschen Reiche(1873). But his main work was a geological map of Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia in 35 sheets on the scale of 1 : 80,000, issued with two volumes of explanatory text (1855-1882). He published also a small geological map of Germany (1869). He died at Bonn on the 15th of February 1889.

(H. B. W.)

DECIDUOUS(from Lat.decidere, to fall down), a botanical and zoological term for “falling in season,” as of petals after flowering, leaves in autumn, the teeth or horns of animals, or the wings of insects.

DECIMAL COINAGE.1Any currency in which the various denominations of coin are arranged in multiples or submultiples of ten (Lat.decem), with reference to a standard unit, is a decimal system. Thus if the standard unit be 1 the higher coins will be 10, 100, 1000, &c., the lower .1, .01, .001, &c. In a perfect system there would be no breaks or interpolations, but the actual currencies described as “decimal” do not show this rigid symmetry. In France the standard unit—the franc—has the 10 franc and the 100 franc pieces above it; the 10 centime below it; there are also, however, 50 franc, 20 franc, 5 franc, 2 franc pieces as well as 50 and 20 centime ones. Similar irregularities occur in the German and United States coinages, and indeed in all countries in which a decimal system has been established. Popular convenience has compelled this departure from the strict decimal form.

Subject to these practical modifications the leading countries of the world (Great Britain and India are the chief exceptions) have adopted decimal coinage. The United States led the way (1786 and 1792) with the dollar as the unit, and France soon followed (1799 and 1803), her system being extended to the countries of the Latin Union (1865). The German empire (1873), the Scandinavian States (1875), Austria-Hungary (1870, developed in 1892) and Russia (1839 and 1897) are further adherents to the decimal system. The Latin-American countries and Japan (1871) have also adopted it.

In England proposals for decimalizing the coinage have long been under discussion at intervals. Besides the inconvenience of altering the established currency, the difficulty of choosing between the different schemes propounded has been a considerable obstacle. One plan took the farthing as a base: then 10 farthings = 1 doit (2½d.), 10 doits = 1 florin (2s. 1d.), 10 florins = 1 pound (20s. 10d.). The advantages claimed for this scheme were (1) the preservation of the smaller coins (the penny = 4 farthings); and (2) the avoidance of interference with the smaller retail prices. Its great disadvantage was the destruction of the existing unit of value—the pound—and the consequent disturbance of all accounts. A second proposal would retain the pound as unit and the florin, but would subdivide the latter into100 “units” (or farthings reduced 4%) and introduce a new coin = 10 units (2.4d.). By it the unit of account would remain as at present, and the shilling (as 50 units) would continue in use. The alteration of the bronze and several silver coins, and the need of readjusting all values and prices expressed in pence, formed the principal difficulties. A third scheme, which was connected with the assimilation of English to French and American money, proposed the establishment of an 8s. gold coin as unit, with the tenpenny or franc and the penny (reduced by 4%) as subdivisions. The new coin would be equivalent to 10 francs or (by an anticipated reduction of the dollar) 2 dollars. None of these plans has gained any great amount of popular support.

For the general question of monetary scales seeMoney, and for the decimal system in reference to weights and measures seeMetric SystemandWeights and Measures.

(C. F. B.)

1For “decimal” in general seeArithmetic.

DECIUS, GAIUS MESSIUS QUINTUS TRAJANUS(201-251), Roman emperor, the first of the long succession of distinguished men from the Illyrian provinces, was born at Budalia near Sirmium in lower Pannonia inA.D.201. About 245 the emperor Philip the Arabian entrusted him with an important command on the Danube, and in 249 (or end of 248), having been sent to put down a revolt of the troops in Moesia and Pannonia, he was forced to assume the imperial dignity. He still protested his loyalty to Philip, but the latter advanced against him and was slain near Verona. During his brief reign Decius was engaged in important operations against the Goths, who crossed the Danube and overran the districts of Moesia and Thrace. The details are obscure, and there is considerable doubt as to the part taken in the campaign by Decius and his son (of the same name) respectively. The Goths were surprised by the emperor while besieging Nicopolis on the Danube; at his approach they crossed the Balkans, and attacked Philippopolis. Decius followed them, but a severe defeat near Beroë made it impossible to save Philippopolis, which fell into the hands of the Goths, who treated the conquered with frightful cruelty. Its commander, Priscus, declared himself emperor under Gothic protection. The siege of Philippopolis had so exhausted the numbers and resources of the Goths, that they offered to surrender their booty and prisoners on condition of being allowed to retire unmolested. But Decius, who had succeeded in surrounding them and hoped to cut off their retreat, refused to entertain their proposals. The final engagement, in which the Goths fought with the courage of despair, took place on swampy ground in the Dobrudja near Abritum (Abrittus) or Forum Trebonii and ended in the defeat and death of Decius and his son. Decius was an excellent soldier, a man of amiable disposition, and a capable administrator, worthy of being classed with the best Romans of the ancient type. The chief blot on his reign was the systematic and authorized persecution of the Christians, which had for its object the restoration of the religion and institutions of ancient Rome. Either as a concession to the senate, or perhaps with the idea of improving public morality, Decius endeavoured to revive the separate office and authority of the censor. The choice was left to the senate, who unanimously selected Valerian (afterwards emperor). But Valerian, well aware of the dangers and difficulties attaching to the office at such a time, declined the responsibility. The invasion of the Goths and the death of Decius put an end to the abortive attempt.

See Aurelius Victor,De Caesaribus, 29,Epit.29; Jordanes,De rebus Geticis, 18; fragments of Dexippus, in C. W. Müller,Frag. Hist. Graec.iii. (1849); Gibbon,Decline and Fall, chap. 10; H. Schiller,Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, i. (pt. 2), 1883.

DECIZE,a town of central France, in the department of Nièvre, on an island in the Loire, 24 m. S.E. of Nevers by the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 3813. The most important of its buildings is the church of Saint Aré, which dates in part from the 11th and 12th centuries; there are also ruins of a castle of the counts of Nevers. The town has a statue of Guy Coquille, the lawyer and historian, who was born there in 1523. Decize is situated at the starting-point of the Nivernais canal. The coal mine of La Machine, which belongs to the Schneider Company of Le Creusot, lies four miles to the north. The industries of Decize and its suburbs on both banks of the Loire include the working of gypsum and lime, and the manufacture of ceramic products and glass. Trade is in horses from the Morvan, cattle, coal, iron, wood and stone.

Under the name ofDecetiathe place is mentioned by Julius Caesar as a stronghold of the Aedui, and in 52B.C.was the scene of a meeting of the senate held by him to settle the leadership of the tribe and to reply to his demand for aid against Vercingetorix. In later times it belonged to the counts of Nevers, from whom it obtained a charter of franchise in 1226.

DECKER, SIR MATTHEW,Bart. (1679-1749), English merchant and writer on trade, was born in Amsterdam in 1679. He came to London in 1702 and established himself there as a merchant. He was remarkably successful in his business life, gaining great wealth and having many honours conferred upon him. He was a director of the East India Company, sat in parliament for four years as member for Bishops Castle, and was high sheriff of Surrey in 1729. He was created a baronet by George I. in 1716. Decker’s fame as a writer on trade rests on two tracts. The first,Serious considerations on the several high duties which the Nation in general, as well as Trade in particular, labours under, with a proposal for preventing the removal of goods, discharging the trader from any search, and raising all the Publick Supplies by one single Tax(1743; name affixed to 7th edition, 1756), proposed to do away with customs duties and substitute a tax upon houses. He also suggested taking the duty off tea and putting instead a licence duty on households wishing to consume it. The second, anEssay on the Causes of the Decline of the Foreign Trade, consequently of the value of the lands in Britain, and on the means to restore both(1744), has been attributed to W. Richardson, but internal evidence is strongly in favour of Decker’s authorship. He advocates the licence plan in an extended form; urges the repeal of import duties and the abolition of bounties, and, in general, shows himself such a strong supporter of the doctrine of free trade as to rank as one of the most important forerunners of Adam Smith. Decker died on the 18th of March 1749.

DECKER, PIERRE DE(1812-1891), Belgian statesman and author, was educated at a Jesuit school, studied law at Paris, and became a journalist on the staff of theRevue de Bruxelles. In 1839 he was elected to the Belgian lower chamber, where he gained a great reputation for oratory. In 1855 he became minister of the interior and prime minister, and attempted, by a combination of the moderate elements of the Catholic and Liberal parties, the impossible task of effecting a settlement of the educational and other questions by which Belgium was distracted. In 1866 he retired from politics and went into business, with disastrous results. He became involved in financial speculations which lost him his good name as well as the greater part of his fortune; and, though he was never proved to have been more than the victim of clever operators, when in 1871 he was appointed by the Catholic cabinet governor of Limburg, the outcry was so great that he resigned the appointment and retired definitively into private life. He died on the 4th of January 1891. Decker, who was a member of the Belgian academy, wrote several historical and other works of value, of which the most notable areÉtudes historiques et critiques sur les monts-de-piété en Belgique(Brussels, 1844);De l’influence du libre arbitre de l’homme sur les faits sociaux(1848);L’Esprit de parti et l’esprit national(1852);Étude politique sur le vicomte Ch. Vilain XIIII(1879);Épisodes de l’hist. de l’art en Belgique(1883);Biographie de H. Conscience(1885).

DECLARATION(from Lat.declarare, to make fully clear,clarus), formerly, in an action at English law, the first step in pleading—the precise statement of the matter in respect of which the plaintiff sued. It was divided into counts, in each of which a specific cause of action was alleged, in wide and general terms, and the same acts or omissions might be stated in several counts as different causes of actions. Under the system of pleading established by the Judicature Act 1875, the declaration has been superseded by a statement of claim setting forth the facts on which the plaintiff relies. Declarations are now in use only in the mayor’s court of London and certain local courts of record,and in those of the United States and the British colonies in which the Common Law system of pleading survives. In the United States a declaration is termed a “complaint,” which is the first pleading in an action. It is divided into parts,—thetitleof the court and term; thevenueor county in which the facts are alleged to have occurred; thecommencement, which contains a statement of the names of the parties and the character in which they appear; thestatementof the cause of action; and theconclusionor claim for relief. (SeePleading.)

The term is also used in other English legal connexions;e.g.the Declaration of Insolvency which, when filed in the Bankruptcy Court by any person unable to pay his debts, amounts to an act of bankruptcy (seeBankruptcy); the Declaration of Title, for which, when a person apprehends an invasion of his title to land, he may, by the Declaration of Title Act 1862, petition the Court of Chancery (seeLand Registration); or the Declaration of Trust, whereby a person acknowledges that property, the title of which he holds, belongs to another, for whose use he holds it; by the Statute of Frauds, declarations of trust of land must be evidenced in writing and signed by the party declaring the trust. (SeeTrusts.) By the Statutory Declarations Act 1835 (which was an act to make provision for the abolition of unnecessary oaths, and to repeal a previous act of the same session on the same subject), various cases were specified in which a solemn declaration was, or might be, substituted for an affidavit. In nearly all civilized countries an affirmation is now permitted to those who object to take an oath or upon whose conscience an oath is not binding. (SeeAffidavit;Oath.)

An exceptional position in law is accorded to a Dying or Deathbed Declaration. As a general rule, hearsay evidence is excluded on a criminal charge, but where the charge is one of homicide it is the practice to admit dying declarations of the deceased with respect to the cause of his death. But before such declarations can be admitted in evidence against a prisoner, it must be proved that the deceased when making the declaration had given up all hope of recovery. Unsworn declarations as to family matters,e.g.as to pedigree, may also be admitted as evidence, as well as declarations made by deceased persons in the course of their duty. (SeeEvidence.)

DECLARATION OF PARIS,a statement of principles of international law adopted at the conclusion (16th of April 1856) of the negotiations for the treaty of Paris at the suggestion of Count Walewski, the French plenipotentiary. The declaration set out that maritime law in time of war had long been the subject of deplorable disputes, that the uncertainty of the rights and duties in respect of it gave rise to differences of opinion between neutrals and belligerents which might occasion serious difficulties and even conflicts, and that it was consequently desirable to agree upon some fixed uniform rules. The plenipotentiaries therefore adopted the four following principles:—

1. Privateering is and remains abolished; 2. The neutral flag covers enemy’s goods, with the exception of contraband of war; 3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under the enemy’s flag; 4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective, that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy.

They also undertook to bring the declaration to the knowledge of the states which had not taken part in the congress of Paris and to invite them to accede to it. The text of the declaration concluded as follows:—“Convinced that the maxims which they now proclaim cannot but be received with gratitude by the whole world, the undersigned plenipotentiaries doubt not that the efforts of their governments to obtain the general adoption thereof will be crowned with full success.”

The declaration is of course binding only on the powers which adopted it or have acceded to it. The majority which adopted it consisted of Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia and Turkey. The United States government declined to sign the declaration on the ground that, not possessing a great navy, they would be obliged in time of war to rely largely upon merchant ships commissioned as war vessels, and that therefore the abolition of privateering would be entirely in favour of European powers, whose large navies rendered them practically independent of such aid. All other maritime states acceded to the declaration except Spain, Mexico1and Venezuela.

Although the United States and Spain were not parties to the declaration, both, during the Spanish-American War, observed its principles. The Spanish government, however, expressly gave notice that it reserved its right to issue letters of marque. At the same time both belligerents organized services of auxiliary cruisers composed of merchant ships under the command of naval officers. In how far this might operate as a veiled revival of the forbidden practice has now ceased to be a matter of much importance, the Hague Conference having adopted a series of rules on the subject which may be said to interpret the first of the four principles of the declaration with such precision as to take its place.

The New Convention on the subject (October 18th, 1907) sets out that, in view of the incorporation in time of war of merchant vessels in combatant fleets, it is desirable to define the conditions under which this can be effected, that, nevertheless, the contracting powers, not having been able to come to an understanding on the question whether the transformation of a merchant ship into a war vessel may take place on the high sea,2are agreed that the question of the place of transformation is in no way affected by the rules adopted, which are as follows:—

Art. i. No merchant ship transformed into a war vessel can have the rights and obligations attaching to this condition unless it is placed under the direct authority, the immediate control and the responsibility of the power whose flag it carries.Art. ii. Merchant ships transformed into war vessels must bear the distinctive external signs of war vessels of their nationality.Art. iii. The officer commanding must be in the service of the state, and properly commissioned by the competent authorities. His name must appear in the list of officers of the combatant fleet.Art. iv. The crew must be subject to the rules of military discipline.Art. v. Every merchant ship transformed into a war vessel is bound to conform, in its operation, to the laws and customs of war.Art. vi. The belligerent who transforms a merchant ship into a war vessel must, as soon as possible, mention this transformation on the list of vessels belonging to its combatant fleet.Art. vii. The provisions of the present convention are only applicable as among the contracting powers and provided the belligerents are all parties to the convention.See T. Gibson Bowles,Declaration of Paris(London, 1900); Sir T. Barclay,Problems of International Practice and Diplomacy(London, 1907), chap. xv.2.

Art. ii. Merchant ships transformed into war vessels must bear the distinctive external signs of war vessels of their nationality.

Art. iii. The officer commanding must be in the service of the state, and properly commissioned by the competent authorities. His name must appear in the list of officers of the combatant fleet.

Art. iv. The crew must be subject to the rules of military discipline.

Art. v. Every merchant ship transformed into a war vessel is bound to conform, in its operation, to the laws and customs of war.

Art. vi. The belligerent who transforms a merchant ship into a war vessel must, as soon as possible, mention this transformation on the list of vessels belonging to its combatant fleet.

Art. vii. The provisions of the present convention are only applicable as among the contracting powers and provided the belligerents are all parties to the convention.

See T. Gibson Bowles,Declaration of Paris(London, 1900); Sir T. Barclay,Problems of International Practice and Diplomacy(London, 1907), chap. xv.2.

(T. Ba.)

1At the 7th plenary sitting of the second Hague Conference (September 7th, 1907) the chiefs of the Spanish and Mexican delegations, M. de Villa Urratia and M. de la Barra, announced the determination of their respective governments to accede to the Declaration of Paris.2This relates to the incident in the Russo-Japanese War of the transformation of Russian vessels which had passed through the Dardanelles unarmed.

2This relates to the incident in the Russo-Japanese War of the transformation of Russian vessels which had passed through the Dardanelles unarmed.

DECLARATOR,in Scots law, a form of action by which some right of property, or of servitude, or of status, or some inferior right or interest, is sought to be judicially declared.

DECLINATION(from Lat.declinare, to decline), in magnetism the angle between true north and magnetic north,i.e.the variation between the true meridian and the magnetic meridian. In 1596 at London the angle of declination was 11° E. of N., in 1652 magnetic north was true north, in 1815 the magnetic needle pointed 24½° W. of N., in 1891 18° W., in 1896 17° 56′ W. and in 1906 17° 45′. The angle is gradually diminishing and the declination will in time again be 0°, when it will slowly increase in an easterly direction, the north magnetic pole oscillating slowly around the North Pole. Regular daily changes of declination also occur. Magnetic storms cause irregular variations sometimes of one or two degrees. (SeeMagnetism, Terrestrial.)

In astronomy the declination is the angular distance, as seen from the earth, of a heavenly body from the celestial equator, thus corresponding with terrestrial latitude.

DECOLOURIZING,in practical chemistry and chemical technology, the removal of coloured impurities from a substance. The agent most frequently used is charcoal, preferably prepared from blood, which when shaken with a coloured solution frequently precipitates the coloured substances leaving the solution clear. Thus the red colour of wines may be removed by filtering the wine through charcoal; the removal of the dark-colouredimpurities which arise in the manufacture of sugar may be similarly effected. Other “decolourizers” are sulphurous acid, permanganates and manganates, all of which have received application in the sugar industry.

DECORATED PERIOD,in architecture, the term given by Richman to the second pointed or Gothic style, 1307-1377. It is characterized by its window tracery, geometrical at first and flowing in the later period, owing to the omission of the circles in the tracery of windows, which led to the juxtaposition of the foliations and their pronounced curves of contre-flexure. This flowing or flamboyant tracery was introduced in the first quarter of the century and lasted about fifty years. The arches are generally equilateral, and the mouldings bolder than in the Early English, with less depth in the hollows and with the fillet largely used. The ball flower and a four-leaved flower take the place of the dog-tooth, and the foliage in the capitals is less conventional than in Early English and more flowing, and the diaper patterns in walls are more varied. The principal examples are those of the east end of Lincoln and Carlisle cathedral; the west fronts of York and Lichfield; the crossing of Ely cathedral, including the lantern and three west bays of choir and the Lady Chapel; and Melrose Abbey.

(R. P. S.)

DE COSTA, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN(1831-1904), American clergyman and historical writer, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the 10th of July 1831. He graduated in 1856 at the Biblical Institute at Concord, New Hampshire (now a part of Boston University), became a minister in the Episcopal Church in 1857, and during the next three years was a rector first at North Adams, and then at Newton Lower Falls, Mass. After serving as chaplain in two Massachusetts regiments during the first two years of the Civil War, he became editor (1863) ofThe Christian Timesin New York, and subsequently editedThe EpiscopalianandThe Magazine of American History. He was rector of the church of St John the Evangelist in New York city from 1881 to 1899, when he resigned in consequence of being converted to Roman Catholicism. He was one of the organizers and long the secretary of the Church Temperance Society, and founded and was the first president (1884-1899) of the American branch of the White Cross Society. He became a high authority on early American cartography and the history of the period of exploration. He died in New York city on the 4th of November 1904. In addition to numerous monographs and valuable contributions to Winsor’sNarrative and Critical History of America, he publishedThe Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen(1868);The Northmen in Maine(1870);The Moabite Stone(1871);The Rector of Roxburgh(1871), a novel under thenom de plumeof “William Hickling”; andVerrazano the Explorer; being a Vindication of his Letter and Voyage(1880).

DE COSTER, CHARLES THÉODORE HENRI(1827-1879), Belgian writer, was born at Munich on the 20th of August 1827. His father, Augustin de Coster, was a native of Liége, who was attached to the household of the papal nuncio at Munich, but soon returned to Belgium. Charles was placed in a Brussels bank, but in 1850 he entered the university of Brussels, where he completed his studies in 1855. He was one of the founders of theSociété des Joyeux, a small literary club, more than one member of which was to achieve literary distinction. De Coster made his début as a poet in theRevue trimestrielle, founded in 1854, and his first efforts in prose were contributed to a periodical entitledUylenspiegel(founded 1856). A correspondence covering the years 1850-1858, hisLettres à Élisa, were edited by Ch. Potvin in 1894. He was a keen student of Rabelais and Montaigne, and familiarized himself with 16th-century French. He said that Flemish manners and speech could not be rendered faithfully in modern French, and accordingly wrote his best works in the old tongue. The success of hisLégendes flamandes(1857) was increased by the illustrations of Félicien Rops and other friends. In 1861 he published hisContes brabançons, in modern French. His masterpiece is hisLégende de Thyl Uylenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak(1867), a 16th-century romance, in which Belgian patriotism found its fullest expression. In the preparation for this prose epic of thegueuxhe spent some ten years. Uylenspiegel (Eulenspiegel) has been compared to Don Quixote, and even to Panurge. He is the type of the 16th-century Fleming, and the history of his resurrection from the grave itself was accepted as an allegory of the destiny of the race. The exploits of himself and his friend form the thread of a semi-historical narrative, full of racy humour, in spite of the barbarities that find a place in it. This book also was illustrated by Rops and others. In 1870 De Coster became professor of general history and of French literature at the military school. His works however were not financially profitable; in spite of his government employment he was always in difficulties; and he died in much discouragement on the 7th of May 1879 at Ixelles, Brussels. The expensive form in whichUylenspiegelwas produced made it open only to a limited class of readers, and when a new and cheap edition in modern French appeared in 1893 it was received practically as a new book in France and Belgium.

DECOY,a contrivance for the capture or enticing of duck and other wild fowl within range of a gun, hence any trap or enticement into a place or situation of danger. Decoys are usually made on the following plan: long tunnels leading from the sea, channel or estuary into a pool or pond are covered with an arched net, which gradually narrows in width; the ducks are enticed into this by a tame trained bird, also known as a “decoy” or “decoy-duck.” In America the “decoy” is an artificial bird, placed in the water as if it were feeding, which attracts the wild fowl within range of the concealed sportsman. The word “decoy” has, etymologically, a complicated history. It appears in English first in the 17th century in these senses as “coy” and “coy-duck,” from the Dutchkooi, a word which is ultimately connected with Latincavea, hollow place, “cage.”1Thede-, with which the word begins, is either a corruption of “duck-coy,” the Dutch articlede, or a corruption of the Dutcheende-kooi,eende, duck. TheNew English Dictionarypoints out that the word “decoy” is found in the particular sense of a sharper or swindler as a slang term slightly earlier than “coy” or “decoy” in the ordinary sense, and, as the name of a game of cards, as early as 1550, apparently with no connexion in meaning. It is suggested that “coy” may have been adapted to this word.

1Distinguish “coy,” affectedly shy or modest, from O. Fr.coi, Lat.quietus, quiet.

DECREE(from the past participle,decretus, of Lat.decernere), in earlier formDecreet, an authoritative decision having the force of law; the judgment of a court of justice. In Roman law, a decree (decretum) was the decision of the emperor, as the supreme judicial officer, settling a case which had been referred to him. In ecclesiastical law the term was given to a decision of an ecclesiastical council settling a doubtful point of doctrine or discipline (cf. alsoDecretals). In English law decree was more particularly the judgment of a court of equity, but since the Judicature Acts the expression “judgment” (q.v.) is employed in reference to the decisions of all the divisions of the supreme court. A “decreenisi” is the conditional order for a dissolution of marriage made by the divorce court, and it is made “absolute” after six months (which period may, however, be shortened) in the absence of sufficient cause shown to the contrary. (SeeDivorce.)Decreet arbitralis a Scottish phrase for the award of an arbitrator.

DECRETALS(Epistolae decretales), the name (seeDecreeabove), which is given in Canon Law to those letters of the pope which formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law; they are generally given in answer to consultations, but are sometimes due to the initiative of the popes. These furnish, with the canons of the councils, the chief source of the legislation of the church, and form the greater part of theCorpus Juris. In this connexion they are dealt with in the article on Canon Law (q.v.).

The False Decretals.A special interest, however, attaches to the celebrated collection known by this name. This collection, indeed, comprises at least as many canons of councils as decretals, and the decretals contained in it are not all forgeries. It is an amplification and interpolation, by means of spurious decretals, of the canonical collection in use in the Church of Spain in the 8th century, all the documents in which are perfectly authentic.With these amplifications, the collection dates from the middle of the 9th century. We shall give a brief account of its contents, its history and its influence on canon law.

The author assumes the name of Isidore, evidently the archbishop of Seville, who was credited with a preponderating part in the compilation of theHispana; he takes in addition the surname of Mercator, perhaps because he has made use of two passages of Marius Mercator. Hence the custom of alluding to the author of the collection under the name of the pseudo-Isidore.

The collection itself is divided into three parts. The first, which is entirely spurious, contains, after the preface and various introductory sections, seventy letters attributed to the popes of the first three centuries, up to the council of Nicaea,i.e.up to but not including St Silvester; all these letters are a fabrication of the pseudo-Isidore, except two spurious letters of Clement, which were already known. The second part is the collection of councils, classified according to their regions, as it figures in theHispana; the few spurious pieces which are added, and notably the famous Donation of Constantine, were already in existence. In the third part the author continues the series of decretals which he had interrupted at the council of Nicaea. But as the collection of authentic decretals does not begin till Siricius (385), the pseudo-Isidore first forges thirty letters, which he attributes to the popes from Silvester to Damasus; after this he includes the authentic decretals, with the intermixture of thirty-five apocryphal ones, generally given under the name of those popes who were not represented in the authentic collection, but sometimes also under the names of the others, for example, Damasus, St Leo, Vigilius and St Gregory; with one or two exceptions he does not interpolate genuine decretals. The series stops at St Gregory the Great (d. 604), except for one letter of Gregory II. (715-731). The forged letters are not, for the most part, entirely composed of fresh material; the author draws his inspiration from the notices on each of the popes given in theLiber Pontificalis; he inserts whole passages from ecclesiastical writers; and he antedates the evidences of a discipline which actually existed; so it is by no means all invented.

Thus the authentic elements were calculated to serve as a passport for the forgeries, which were, moreover, quite skilfully composed. In fact, the collection thus blended was passed from hand to hand without meeting with any opposition. At most all that was asked was whether those decretals which did not appear in theLiber canonum(the collection of Dionysius Exiguus, accepted in France) had the force of law, but Pope Nicholas having answered that all the pontifical letters had the same authority (seeDecr. Gra.Dist. xix. c. 1), they were henceforward accepted, and passed in turn into the later canonical collections. No doubts found an expression until the 15th century, when Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464) and Juan Torquemada (d. 1468) freely expressed their suspicions. More than one scholar of the 16th century, George Cassander, Erasmus, and the two editors of theDecretumof Gratian, Dumoulin (d. 1568) and Le Conte (d. 1577), decisively rejected the False Decretals. This contention was again upheld, in the form of a violent polemic against the papacy, by the Centuriators of Magdeburg (Ecclesiastica historia, Basel, 1559-1574); the attempt at refutation by the Jesuit Torres (Adversus Centur. Magdeburg. libri quinque, Florence, 1572) provoked a violent rejoinder from the Protestant minister David Blondel (Pseudo-Isidorus et Turrianus rapulantes, Geneva, 1620). Since then, the conclusion has been accepted, and all researches have been of an almost exclusively historical character. One by one the details are being precisely determined, and the question may now almost be said to be settled.

In the first place, an exact determination of the date of the collection has been arrived at. On the one hand, it cannot go back further than 847, the date of the False Capitularies, with which the author of the False Decretals wasDate.acquainted.1On the other hand, in a letter of Lupus, abbot of Ferrières, written in 858, and in the synodical letter of the council of Quierzy in 857 are to be found quotations which are certainly from these false decretals; and further, an undoubted allusion in the statutes given by Hincmar to his diocese on the 1st of November 852. The composition of the collection must then be dated approximately at 850.

The object which the forger had in view is clearly stated in his preface; the reform of the canon law, or rather its better application. But, again, in what particular respects he wishes it to be reformed can be best deduced fromAim of the author.certain preponderant ideas which make themselves felt in the apocryphal documents. He constantly harps upon accusations brought against bishops and the way they were judged; his wish is to prevent them from being unjustly accused, deposed or deprived of their sees; to this end he multiplies the safeguards of procedure, and secures the right of appeal to the pope and the possibility of restoring bishops to their sees. His object, too, was to protect the property, as well as the persons, of the clergy against the encroachments of the temporal power. In the second place, Isidore wishes to increase the strength and cohesion of the churches; he tries to give absolute stability to the diocese and the ecclesiastical province; he reinforces the rights of the bishop and his comprovincials, while he initiates a determined campaign against thechorepiscopi; finally, as the keystone of the arch he places the papacy. These aims are most laudable, and in no way subversive; but the author must have had some particular reasons for emphasizing these questions rather than others; and the examination of these reasons may help us to determine the nationality of this collection.

The name of Isidore usurped by the author at first led to the supposition that the False Decretals originated in Spain; this opinion no longer meets with any support; it is enough to point out that there is no Spanish manuscript of theNationality of the collection.collection, at least until the 13th century. In the 16th century the Protestants, who wished to represent the forgeries in the light of an attempt in favour of the papacy, ascribed the origin of the False Decretals to Rome, but neither the manuscript tradition nor the facts confirm this view, which is nowadays entirely abandoned. Everybody is agreed in placing the origin of the False Decretals within the Frankish empire. Within these limits, three different theories have successively arisen: “At first it was thought that Isidore’s domicile could be fixed in the province of Mainz, it is now about fifty years ago that the balance of opinion was turned in favour of the province of Reims; and now, after the lapse of about twenty years, several authors have suggested the province of Tours” (P. Fournier,Étude sur les Fausses Décrétales). In favour of Mainz, especial stress was laid on the fact that it was the country of Benedictus Levita, the compiler of the False Capitularies, to which the False Decretals are closely related. But Benedict, the deacon of Otgar of Mainz, is as much of a hypothetical personage as Isidorus Mercator; moreover, in the middle of the 9th century the condition of the province of Mainz was not disturbed, nor were thechorepiscopimenaced. In favour of Reims, it has been pointed out that it was there that the first judicial use of the False Decretals is recorded, in the trials of Rothad, bishop of Soissons (d. 869), and of Hincmar the younger, bishop of Laon (d.c.882); and an application of the axiom has been attempted:Is fecit cui prodest. But both these trials took place later than 852, at which date the existence of the collection is an established fact; the texts of it were used, but they were in existence before. Between 847 and 852, the province of Reims was disturbed by another affair, that of the clergy ordained by Ebbo at the time of his short restoration to the see of Reims, in 840-841; these clerics, Vulfadus (afterwards archbishop of Bourges), and a few others, had been suspended by Hincmar on his election in 845. But the affair of Ebbo’s clergy did not become critical till the council of Soissons in 853; up till then these clergy had, so faras we know, produced no documents, and the citations from the False Decretals made in their later writings do not prove that they had forged them. Moreover, Hincmar would not have cited the forged letters of the popes in 852; above all, this theory would not explain the chief preoccupation of the forger, which is to protect bishops against unjust judgments and depositions. We must, then, look for conditions in which the bishops were concerned. It is precisely this which has suggested the province of Tours. Brittany, which was dependent on the province of Tours, had just for a time recovered its independence, thanks to its duke Nominoé. The struggle between the two nationalities, the Celt and the Frank, found a reflexion in the sphere of religion. The Breton bishops were for the most part abbots of monasteries, who had but little consideration for the territorial limits of the civitates; and many of the religious usages of the Bretons differed profoundly from those of the Franks. Charlemagne had divided up the Breton dioceses and established in them Frankish bishops. Nominoé hastened to depose the four Frankish bishops, after wringing from them by force confessions of simony; he then established a metropolitan see at Dol. Hence arose incessant complaints on the part of the dispossessed bishops, of the metropolitan of Tours, and his suffragans, notably those of Angers and Le Mans, which were more exposed than the others to the incursions of the Bretons; and this gave rise to numerous papal letters, and all this throughout a period of thirty years. There were requests that the bishops should be judged according to the rules, protests against the interlopers, demands for the restoration of the bishops to their sees. These circumstances fall in perfectly with the questions about which, as we have pointed out, the pseudo-Isidore was mainly concerned: the judgment of bishops, and the stability of the ecclesiastical organizations.

In the province of Tours, attempts have been made to define more clearly the centre of the forgeries, and the most recent authorities fix upon Le Mans. The sole argument, though a very weighty one, is found in the undeniable relation, revealed in an astonishing similarity both in expressions and composition, which exists between these forgeries and some other documents certainly fabricated at Le Mans, under the episcopate of Aldric (832-856), notably theActus Pontificum Cenomanis in urbe degentium, in which there is no lack of forged documents. These certainly bear the mark of the same hand.

Though we cannot admit that the False Decretals were composed in order to enforce the rights of the papacy, we may at least consider whether the popes did not make use of the False Decretals to support their rights. It isCanonical influence.certain that in 864 Rothad of Soissons took with him to Rome, if not the collection, at least important extracts from the pseudo-Isidore; M. Fournier has pointed out in the letters of the pope of that time, “a literary influence, which is shown in the choice of expressions and metaphors,” notably in those passages relating to therestitutio spolii; but he concludes by affirming that the ideas and acts of Nicholas were not modified by the new collection: even before 864 he acted in affairs concerning bishops,e.g.in the case of the Breton bishops or the adversaries of Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, exactly as he acted later; all that can be said is that the False Decretals, though not expressly cited by the pope, “led him to accentuate still further the arguments which he drew from the decrees of his predecessors,” notably with regard to theexceptio spolii. In the papal letters of the end of the 9th and the whole of the 10th century, only two or three insignificant citations of the pseudo-Isidore have been pointed out; the use of the pseudo-Isidorian forged documents did not become prevalent at Rome till about the middle of the 11th century, in consequence of the circulation of the canonical collections in which they figured; but nobody then thought of casting any doubts on the authenticity of those documents. One thing only is established, and this may be said to have been the real effect of the False Decretals, namely, the powerful impulse which they gave in the Frankish territories to the movement towards centralization round the see of Rome, and the legal obstacles which they opposed to unjust proceedings against the bishops.

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