Immovable Feasts. See Feasts.
Immunities of the Clergy. See I-mmuxity.
Immunity, Ecclesiastical. In ecclesiastical ju- risprudence a distinction is made between ecclesiastical imnumity {immunitas ecclesiasticci) and the immunity of the Church (immunitas ecclesice). The latter is the right of refuge or asylum (q. v.), the former denotes the exemption of the Church from the general obligations of the community. The ministers of religion have at all times and in all countries enjoyed particidar privi- leges and liberties. This was the case with the priests of pagan Eome, whose privileges were transferred to the Christian clergy by Constantine. Among these privi- leges we notice particularly exemption from taxes (cen- sus), from menial service (munera sordida), etc. To this was added also the privilege of separate spiritual ju- risdiction. See Jurisdiction, Ecclesiastical. These immunities belonged to the members of the clergy, their wives, children, domestics, and to the goods of the Church, but did not extend to their private pro]ierty, or to persons entering the clergy simply to free themsehres from civil charges. In 532 Justinian added to these privileges that of guardianship, permitting presbyters, deacons, and subdeacons to act as guardians or trustees, but not extending the privilege to bishops or monks (Nov. cxxiii, cap. 5 ; Anth. Presbyteros C. cit. i, 3). The ancient Germans also granted great privileges to their priests. Julius Cfesar considered them as the next class to the nobility, and said, " Magno (Druides) sunt apud eos honore" (De bello Gallico, lib. vi, cap. 13). " Druides a bello abesse consueverunt, neque tributa una cum reli- quis pendunt, militise vocationis omniumque rerum ha- bent immunitatem" (ib. cap. 14). When Germany was Christianized, the clergy preserved the same privileges, besides those granted them by the Eoman law, which was recognised as the standard (secundum legem Roma- nuni ecclesia vivit \_Lex Ribuaria, tit. Iviii, § 1, etc.]). The stipulation of the third Council of Toledo in 589, can. 21 (c. 69, can. xii, qu. ii) that the auditors, bishojjs, and clergy should not be subject to compulsory services, was also granted afterwards (Capitulare a. 744, cap. 7 ; com- pare Benedict's Capitularien-sammlung, lib. iii, cap. 290). The protection which the Church granted to all who connected themselves with it soon became a source of great protit; it was known in the 6th century under the name of mitium, or mittium legitimum (Roth, Gesch.d. Beneficialwesens [Erlangen, 1850], p. 163 sq.). To this right of protection of the Church was subsequently add- ed that of collecting and appropriating to its own use the taxes which would otherwise have been levied on its proteges by the fiscal officers : this right ^^■as called emunitas, and was conferred by the kings. These fiscal taxes included fines, etc., of which the holders of immu- nities became the recipients. In after times the Church obtained also the right of assembling armies, which was called tei'i'itor-ium (see Formida; A ndegavenses, 4, 8, 21, 22, etc.), and which laid the foundation of the subse- quent ecclesiastical principalities (see Rettl)erg, Kir- chengeschichte Deutchlands, vol. ii, § 97 ; Waitz, Deutsche
BIMUTABILITY
520
BIPANATION
VerfassungsgescMchte, ii, 290 sq., 570 sq.). These im- munities were further specified in the laws of the Frencli kingdom (see Capitula synodi Vermmis a. 755, c. 19, 28 ; Cap. Moiens. a 756, c. 8, etc.), as were fJso those of tlie individual members of tlie clergy, and of the Church properties. St. Louis decided that each church should have a piece of land (niansus) free from all taxations, etc. {Ccqnt a. 816, c. 10, 25; can. xxiii, qu. viii). Such properties subject to taxes as did come into the hands of the Chinch did not, however, become free on that ac- count, unless bv an especial favor of the king (Ccqnt. Hi, Caroli 21. a. 812, c. 11 ; Capit. iv, Ludov. a. 819, c. 2). The immunities were, however, greatly abused, and lost their importance, notwithstanding the decisions of the Council of Trent, Sess. xxv, cap. 20 (" Ecclesise et eccle- siarum personarum immmiitatem Dei ordinatione et ca- nonicis sanctionibus constitutam esse"), and the bull In cana Domini (q. v.). To what extent the properties of the clergy and of the Church are now free has been settled by subsequent decrees. As a rule, the clergj- are free from the general taxes, and from the personal duties of private citizens. The candidates for priests' orders and students in theology are usually exempt from mil- itary ser\-ice. The chiu-ches and their property enjoy generally the same privileges as the government build- ings and state property. Personal immunity from taxes, military services, etc., is regularly granted to the clergy, as also to teachers, in Protestant as well as in Rom'an Catholic countries. See Herzog, Recd-Encyklopiadie, vi, 642 ; Gosselin, Power of the Pope (see Index) ; Augusti, Eandbuch d. christ. A rchdol. i, 303 sq.
Immutability, the divine attribute of unchange- ■ableness indicated in the great title of God, I Ait. So James i, 17 : "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turn- ing." Psa. xxxiii, 11 : " The counsel of the Lord stand- eth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all genera- tions ;" cii, 25-27 : " Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endiu-e; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." God is immutable as to his essence, being the one necessarj^ being. He is immutable also m ideas and knowledge, since these are eternal. " If we consider the natm-e of God, that he is a self-existent and independent Being, the great Creator and wise Governor of all things ; that he is a spiritual and simple Being, without parts or mixture such as might induce a change ; that he is a sovereign and uncontrollable Being, whom nothing from without can affect or alter ; that he is an eternal Being, Avho always has and always will go on in the same ten- or of existence ; an omniscient Being, who, knowing all things, has no reason to act contrary to his first re- solves; and in all respects a most perfect Being, who can admit of no addition or diminution ; we cannot but believe that, both in his essence, in his knowledge, and in his will and purposes, he must of necessity be un- changeable. To suppose him otherwise is to suppose him an imperfect being; for if he change it must be either to a greater perfection than he had before or to a less; if to a greater perfection, then was there plainly a defect in him, and a privation of something better than what he had or was ; then, again, was he not al- ways the best, and consequently not always God : if he change to a lesser perfection, "then does he fall into a defect again ; lose a perfection he was possessed once of, and so ceasing to be the best being, cease at the same time to be God. The sovereign periection of the Deity, therefore, is an invincible bar against all mutability; for, whichever way we suppose him to change, his su- preme excellency is nulled or impaired by it. We es- teem changeableness in men either an imperfection or a fault: their natural changes, as to their persons, are from weakness and vanity ; their moral changes, as to