DISGRADING

disgrading.Hist.  1.  The  act  of  degrading.  2.  The  depriving  of  an  order;  the  depriving  of  a

“Disgrading,  or  degrading,  is  when  a  man  having  taken  upon  him  a  dignity  temporal  or

spiritual,  is  afterwards  thereof  deprived,  be  he  knight,  clerk  or  other.  Whereof  if  a  clerk  be

delivered to his ordinary, and cannot clear himself of the offence whereof he is convicted by the

jury,  he  shall  be  disgraded  for  it;  which  is  nothing  else  but  the  deprivation  of  him  from  those

orders he hath taken upon him, as priesthood, deaconship, or otherwise…. In like manner there is

disgrading  of a knight ….  And  it is worthy the observation, that by the canon law there are two

kinds of disgradings; the one summary, by word only, and the other solemn, by devesting the party

disgraded from those ornaments and rites which are the ensigns of his order or degree.” Termes de

la Ley 175–76 (1st Am. ed. 1812). [Blacks Law 8th]