DEAN 



DEATH 



713 



was given to a monk placed in charge of ten others, 



for whose discipline or execution of appointed 

 tasks lie was responsible (St Augustine, JJe Mor. 

 'l. < 'nt/i. i. :tl ) ; and in the legislation of Justinian 



tin- word has yet another sense, being applied to 

 the puMir oltioen having superintendence of 

 funeral^ i A ../-,-//. 4.'{, 59). In the Visigothic and 

 Anglo Saxon codes tlie ili-i-initix is a judge of lirst 

 inMance or other legal officer having jurisdici ion 

 within a tithing, for every hundred consisted of ten 

 districts, called tithings, and in every tithing was a 

 constable or civil dean. The monastic model was 

 adapted to collegiate and other churches having a 

 large stall' of clergy, and the dean in such churches 

 pi->iiled over ten canons or prel>endaries, though 

 this rule ( >f nuniher does not seem to have been 

 strictly required. In conformity with this, the 

 spiritual governors, the bishops, divided each 

 diocese into deaneries or decennaries ( Lat. decent, 

 1 ten ' ), corresponding to tithings, each of which was 

 the district of ten parishes or churches, over every 

 one of which a dean was appointed, who in the 

 cities or large towns was called the dean of the city 

 or town, and in the country, dean of Christianit;/, 

 or rural <i>-nn. In the English Church there are 

 the following dignitaries who bear this name : 



( 1 ) In the province of Canterbury it is part of 

 the dignity of the archbishop to have prelates to be 

 his officers, and of these the Bishop of London is 

 liis provincial dean ; and when a convocation is 

 assembled, the archbishop sends to him his mandate 

 for summoning the bishops of the province. This 

 is the sole example of the kind. 



(2) Honorary Deans, as the Dean of the Chapel 

 Royal of St James's. See CHAPEL ROYAL. 



(3) Deans of Peculiars, as of Battle in Sussex, 

 founded by William the Conqueror in memory of 

 his conquest. There are also the Deans of the 

 Arches in London, of Bocking in Essex, and of 

 Croydon in Surrey, who have jurisdiction, but no 

 cure of souls. 



(4) Deans of Chapters, as at Canterbury, St 

 Paul's, &C., who are governors over the canons in 

 cathedrals and collegiate churches. Their appoint- 

 ment is in the direct patronage of the crown, which 

 may appoint by letters-patent ; and the dean so 

 appointed is entitled to be installed. The dean of 

 a chapter must reside eight months in the year, and 

 he may hold one benefice with his deanery. The 

 income of the office is, in the case of Durham, 

 3000; of St Paul's, Westminster, York, and 

 Manchester, 2000; of other cathedrals, 1000, 

 except St Davids and Llandatt', which have 700. 

 See CATHEDRAL. 



(5) Rural Deans. This is a very ancient office 

 of the church, but custom gradually transferred 

 its duties to the archdeacon, as in the visitation 

 of churches, parsonage-houses, &c. Rural deans, 

 however, may act as deputies to the bishop and arch- 

 deacon ; and since 1850 the office has been revived 

 with great advantage, and in well-ordered dioceses 

 allbrds a useful channel of communication lietween 

 the bishop and his clergy, and a means of joint 

 action in matters affecting the church. There are 

 altogether nearly six hundred rural deaneries in 

 England and Wales. 



In the universities of Oxford and Cambridge the 

 dean is the officer who superintends the discipline 

 of the college and the chapel services. At ('mist 

 Church, Oxford, which is a cathedral, the dean is 

 master of the college. 



In the Roman Curia the Cardinal -bishop of 

 Ostia is ex officio dean of the College of Cardinals ; 

 but while the head of foreign collegiate churches 

 is styled dean, the officer bearing that title 

 in cathedral churches is inferior in rank to the 

 provost in some cases, and in others to the vicar- 

 general ; and in feudal times the clerks who acted 



as deputies for the lay al>l>ots of impropriated 

 foundations were also styled deans. 



l-an, F<H:I:ST OK, a picturesque hilly tract, 34 

 si|. miles in extent, in the west of Glooewfcanhira, 

 between the Severn and the Wye, and within the 

 hundred of St Briavels, w an ancient nival forest. 

 It was almost entirely disafforested by Charles I., 

 on a sale to Sir John Win tour, but was re-afforexted 

 by act of parliament very shortly after the Restora- 

 tion. The greater part still remains crown property ; 

 and about one-half is appropriated for the growth 

 of timber for the navy. It is divided into six 

 ' walks,' which contain woods of oak, beech, &c. 

 There are coal and iron mines, and quarries of 

 stone suitable for building and making grindstones, 

 troughs, and rollers. Persons born in the hundred, 

 and residing and working a year and a day in the 

 mines, become, on registration, free miners. Their 

 ancient privileges, entitling them exclusively to 

 grants or the crown mines ( subject to the right of 

 the crown to put on a fifth man for every four 

 miners, now commuted for a royalty ), and, formerly, 

 to timber for the mines, were regulated and enforced 

 by the Mine Law Court, held at the Speech House, 

 within Dean Forest, where the Verderer's Court is 

 still held ; but have, with some variations, been 

 defined and confirmed by several acts and commis- 

 sioners' awards of the present century. Dean Forest 

 is under the control or the Commissioners of Woods 

 and Forests, one of whom, as 'gaveller,' has the 

 supervision of the mines, and a deputy-surveyor, 

 deputy -gaveller, registrar, four verderers (whose 

 office, since the extermination of the deer in 1854 

 is almost a sinecure), and other officials. 



Dean of Faculty. See ADVOCATES. 



Dean of Guild, in Scotch burghs, was the 

 head of the mercantile Ixxly called the Guild- 

 brethren (see GUILDS). In former times (Act 1593, 

 chap. 180) he was a judge in mercantile and mari- 

 time causes within the burgh, but for a very long 

 period he has been rather what might be called a 

 Scotch kind of yEdile (<j.v.). His chief duty is now 

 to see that buildings within the burgh are erected 

 according to law, and, in case of their falling into 

 a ruinous condition, to order them to be pulled 

 down. Though in some of the larger burghs the 

 dean of guild is still ( 3 and 4 Will. IV. chap. 76, 

 sect. 22) a member of the town-council ex officio, 

 his jurisdiction is altogether separate from that of 

 the bailie-court. In Edinburgh the Dean of Guild 

 Court, in addition to the dean of guild, consists of 

 five members of the town-council, and five registered 

 electors of the city, not being councillors, of whom 

 three must be architects, civil engineers, ordained 

 surveyors, or master-builders. They are assisted 

 by the law assessors of the magistrates of the city. 

 No building can be either erected or demolished, 

 or even materially altered, without a warrant from 

 this court. Ventilation and sanitary arrangements 

 are under tl<e control of this court. OppoatioD to 

 the granting of the warrant may be otlcred either 

 by a private party or by the corporation acting for 

 the public interest. The enforcement of the Act 

 1698, chap. 8, as to the height of buildings, the thick- 

 ness of the walls, &o., lies within the province of 

 the Dean of Guild Court. The judgment* of the 

 Dean of Guild Court may be reviewed by the Court 

 of Session. 



Death. It is one of the fundamental doctrines 

 of physiology, that every part of the organism has 

 ite own definite term of vitality, and that there is 

 a continuous succession of the destruction of old 

 cells and the formation of new ones in all tissues, 

 and especially in those in which the most active 

 vital changes are going on, as, for example, in the 

 nervous and muscular tissues. Even the most 

 solid portions of the animal frame, such as the 



