Ironside, Gilhert, D.D., a bishop in the Church of England during the period of the Restoration. Of his early history but little is known to us. He was the rector of a small church in an obscure little village in Dorsetshire when he was promoted to the see of Bris- tol immediately after the Restoration. Wood (Affien. Oxon. iii, 940) says of him that he owed his promotion to a poor bishopric solely to his great wealth. He died in 1671. Bishop Ironside is the author of a work en- titled The Sabbath (Oxford, 1637, 4to). See Stoughton, Eccles. Ilisfori/ of England (Church of the Restoration), i, 494.
Iroquois. See Indians.
Ir'peel (Hebrew Yirpeel', PXQ'11', resto)-edhv God; Sept. If()0rt)/\), a city in the tribe of Benjamin, men- tioned between Rekem and Taralah (.Josh, xviii, 27). The associated names only aiford a conjectural position somewhere in the district west of Jerusalem, possibly at el-Kustttl (Lat. castelliuri), on a conical hill about half waj- betn-een Kuloniyeh (Lat. colonia) and Soba (Rob- inson, Researches, ii, 328).
Irregularity is a technical term for the want of the necessary canonical qualifications for the acquisition and exercise of an ecclesiastical office. These requisite qualiticiitions are set forth in canones or regulcB enacted from time to time by the Church for that purpose. It was based tirst on the apostolic examples given in 1 Tim. iii, 1 sq. ; v, 22 ; Tit. i, 6 sq. ; and, after the notion of the Levitical priesthood gained ground among the clergy, on the regulations of the O. Test., which were explained in a mythical sense. The qualifications themselves can all be reduced to this, that the party ordained should not be in disrepute for crime, or in a state which would ren- der him unfit lor and incapable of ordination. Innocent III (in c. 14, X. De purrjatione canonica [v, 33] an. 1207) distinguishes " nota delicti" and " nota defectus" as " im- pedienta ad sacros ordincs promovendum ;" and subse- quent canonists have therefore divided the impediments m a like manner. In early times divers expressions were made use of to designate these impediments, but since Innocent III irregularitas has become the techni- cal name of them in canon law (c. 33, X. De testibus [ii, 20] an. 1203). See Incapacity.
The Greek Church in general adhered more to the principles which had been established during the first six centuries (see Canones Apostolorum, Cone. Neoceesar. an. 314, can. 9 [c. 11, dist. xxxiv] ; Concil. Nicmn. eod. an., TrulUauum, an. 692, can. 21), whilst the Evangelical Church has so far adopted also later regidations, which were in accordance with its general spirit. The formu- las of confession and ecclesiastical discipline still con- tinue, however, to refer expressly to the above-named passages of Scripture.
I. Ir regularity on A ccount of a Crime.— The apostle demands that he who is to assume an office over the congregation shoidd be unimpeached. Church disci- pline has gradually defined the offenses which compose irregularity. Originally it consisted of all offenses that necessitated public penance; after the 9th century, of such as were jinblicly known (delictum manifestum, no- iorium), and all faults entailing dishonor, in which the "infamibus port* non pateant dignitatum" of c. 87, De
regalis juris, was practically adhered to (comp. c. 2, Cod. .Just. " de dignitatibus," xii, 1, Constantin.). There are, besides, other offenses named by the law which, even though secret {delicta occulta), constitute irregularity, namely, heresy, apostasy, schism, simony, anabaptism, subreption of the ordination, promotion without passing through the regular hierarchical degrees, ministration without consecration, performance of worship whilst un- der excommunication or interdict, disregard of the rule of celibacy, etc. (see Thomassin, Vetus et nova ecdesim disciplina, pt. ii, lib. i, cap. Ivi-lxv ; Ferraris, Bihliotheca canonica, s. v. Irregularitas, art. i, No. 11 ; Ersch und Gruber, Encijklopddie, s. v. Ordination).
Whilst the Greek Church generally adhered to these regulations, the Evangelical Church naturally deviates from them in many particulars, in consequence of the absence of an ecclesiastical hierarchy, the abolition of the rule of celibacy, etc. That a person who has under- gone punishment for crime is incapable of being ordain- ed is self-evident. If a party is in bad repute, the con- gregation has a right to oppose his appointment, in case the imputations are well founded. This is a law among all Christian denominations.
The Romish Church suppresses the consequences of irregularity on account of crime by means of a dispen- sation which the bishops are empowered to give when the crime is not public, except in case of premeditated murder (Concilium Trident. Sess. xxiv, cap. 6, " De re- form, verb. ;" Sess. xiv, cap. 7, " De reform."). In this case the dispensation can come only from the pope him- self. So also for public offences, except he delegates special powers to the bishop for that purpose. In the Greek Church, on the contrary, the strict regulations of old are maintained, whereby irregularity for heavy offences cannot be removed (Thomassin, Vetus et nova eccles. disciplina, cap. Ix, § 12),
II. Irregularity caused by Want of Qualification. — Irregularity for offence constitutes also irregularity for want of sufficient qualification, as it entails the loss of good reputation (defectus fumce) ; to this are, however, added other causes which are considered as defects. Among these are :
1. Defectus cetatis (want of the canonical age). — The age appointed for ordination has undergone various changes. According to the present canon law, the pri- mary consecration of the Romish Church can be impart- ed in the seventh year ; it is the tonsure (c. 4, De tem- jwrib. ord. in vi [1, 9] Boniface VHI; Cone. Trid. Sess. xxiii, cap. 4, " De reform."). The age demanded fur the other orders is : for subdeacons, the twenty-second ; dea- cons, the twenty-third; presbyters, the twenty-fifth; bishops must be over thirty (Cone. Trid. Sess. xxiii, cap. 12, " De reform."). Yet the pope can grant dispensa- tions. In the Greek Church, the old rule demanding that deacons should be twenty years old when ordainecl, and presbyters thirty, is still retained (Nov. Justin, cxxxvii, cap. 1 ; Cone. Trullianum, can. xii). The evangelical churches generally require full majority, or twenty-five years ; in some countries ordination is given at twenty- one. Dispensations are also granted under certain cir- cumstances. The Church of England requires candi- dates to deacons' orders to be twenty-three, presbyters twenty-four, and bishops thirty.