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EXECUTION EXEQUIES. 



the sheriff, marshal, or other officer, to whom it is 

 directed, to cause the judgment of the court to be 

 executed ; as that a debt shall be levied against one 

 uarty in favour of another ; or that a punishment .-ha 1 1 

 be inflicted, which has been awarded after due trial 

 and conviction of the accused. Execution is granted 

 by a court only upon the judgments given by the 

 same court, not upon those pronounced by another ; 

 for where satisfaction of a judgment given by one 

 court is sought in another, a trialmust be had in such 

 other, and a new judgment there given, on which 

 exec ution issues. Executions are of various descrip- 

 tions , according to the kind of satisfaction ordered, 

 as a capias ad satis faciendum, or an arrest for giving 

 satisfaction, by which the sheriff', &c., is ordered to 

 arrest and imprison the party against which it is 

 issued, until he satisfies a certain debt declared by 

 the judgment to be due, or is otherwise discharged 

 by order of law ; a fieri facias ,by which it is ordered 

 that the amount of the debt be made of the goods and 

 chattels of the party against which the execution is 

 issued, for the satisfaction of the same ; a levari facias, 

 by which the officer is ordered to cause satisfaction 

 of the judgment by a levy on the goods or lands of 

 the debtor ; an elegit, by which the judgment is 

 ordered to be satisfied by setting off all the goods 

 and half the lands of the debtor, by appraisement, to 

 the creditor, in satisfaction of his debt, whereas, by 

 tile levari facias , the goods of the debtor are sold by 

 the officer, and the proceeds in money are paid over 

 to the creditor ; and the statute merchant or staple, 

 in England, whereby execution issues upon an 

 acknowledgment by the debtor, with certain forms 

 before some magistrate, and a record thereof, that he 

 is indebted in a certain amount to the creditor ; this 

 is, hi fact, obtaining a judgment for the debt before 

 'it is due, so that, on its becoming due, execution 

 issues immediately without trial. The order issuing 

 to an officer to execute a judgment given on an 

 indictment, varies according to the penalty inflicted 

 by the law for the crime or delinquency of which the 

 party is convicted. 



EXECUTION. See Capital Punishment. 



EXECUTOR, in law, is one appointed by a man's 

 last will, to carry its provisions into execution after 

 the testator's death. The testator may, by the 

 English law, appoint any person of sound mind and 

 discretion, though under some legal disabilities, as to 

 contracting and transacting business in general, such 

 as a married woman, or a minor. The duties of execu- 

 tors, and of administrators, are, in general, the same ; 

 the difference of the two depending mostly on the 

 mode of appointment, the executor being nominated 

 by the testator, the administrator being appointed by 

 the judge of probate ; and often an administrator 

 is appointed to administer upon an estate under a 

 will, as where the testator does not name an executor 

 or where the executor named declines, or where the 

 executor or administrator first assuming the trust has 

 died, or is discharged by the court, where adminis- 

 tration on the estate has once been granted and com- 

 menced, and, before it is completed, a new appoint- 

 ment is necessary, the person so appointed is called 

 an administrator de bonis non, " with the will 

 annexed," if there be a will. The administrator, 

 with the will annexed, assumes the duties that would 

 have belonged to the executor, if one had been 

 appointed, or if the one appointed had acted, or had 

 continued to act. Though a testator is at liberty to 

 appoint any person to be his executor, with some 

 few exceptions, the judge of probate is restricted, in 

 the appointment of an administrator, whether it be 

 the one on an estate of a person dying intestate, or 

 " with the will annexed," and whether it be the one 

 originally appointed or the one appointed de bonis 



non ; for the widow and nearest of kin to the testator 

 have a right to the appointment, unless they are under 

 some legal disability. The statutes more generally 

 provide, that the nearest of kin of the age of twenty- 

 one shall have the administration, either jointly with 

 the widow, if there be one, or on her declining, or 

 on there being some legal objection to her appoint- 

 ment. By other statutes on this subject, it is left to 

 the discretion of the judge of probate, of the orphan's 

 court, or of the magistrate, whoever he be, having 

 this jurisdiction, to appoint either the widow or the 

 next of kin. The principal creditors of the deceased 

 are next entitled to this appointment. But a liberal 

 discretion is generally vested in the magistrate as to 

 this appointment. The same judge who appoints 

 the administrator has the power of revoking the 

 appointment. 



An executor de son tort, that is, an executor of his 

 own wrong, is one who meddles with the administra- 

 tion of the goods of a person deceased, without any 

 authority so to do, and he is accordingly answerable 

 to the rightful executor, or administrator, when one 

 is appointed. It is the duty of an executor, or 

 administrator, after the will is proved, if the estate is 

 to be administered under a will, to give notice of his 

 appointment, make an inventory of the estate, and 

 return it to the probate office or court ; to take care 

 of the personal property of the deceased, and see that 

 it is not wasted ; to collect the debts due to the estate, 

 and, finally, to distribute the effects or their proceeds 

 among the creditors, until their demands are paid, and 

 then among the heirs and legatees, according to the 

 directions of the will of the deceased, or according to 

 the dispositions of the law, in case of its being the 

 estate of a person dying intestate, or what is called, 

 in the civil law, an estate ab intestato. In collecting 

 the effects and debts, and so in investing the pro- 

 ceeds pending the administration, the executor, or 

 administrator, for the most part, acts according to 

 his own discretion ; but in making a distribution of 

 them among the heirs or legatees, he is particularly 

 directed by the judge of probate. In the former 

 case, he accordingly acts at his peril, and is liable, 

 as are also his sureties, for his managing the estate 

 with proper discretion ; but in distributing the effects 

 and proceeds, he acts under a judicial decree, and so 

 is secure from any personal liability. 



EXEGESIS (from the Greek l&rnfi;) ; the inter- 

 pretation of the Scriptures. The science which lays 

 down the principles of the art of sacred interpreta- 

 tion, may be called exegetics ; though it is also desig- 

 nated by another name, hermeneutics. As the sacred 

 books were composed by authors of a distant age 

 and country, and in foreign languages, it is evident, 

 that, in order to understand them, it is necessary to 

 have not only a profound knowledge of the lan- 

 guages, but also a mass of historical, geographical, 

 and antiquarian knowledge ; and as the knowledge 

 of Christian doctrine must be drawn from the Scrip- 

 tures, it follows that the whole study of theology 

 must proceed from exegesis. The most celebrated 

 exegetic authors among the church fathers were 

 Origen, Chrysostom,Theodoret, Diodorus of Tarsus, 

 and Jerome. In the middle ages, when people con- 

 fined themselves almost exclusively to the P'ulgate, 

 or Latin translation, which was in common use, and 

 most of the theologians were ignorant of the lan- 

 guages, exegesis was very much neglected. But the 

 study was revived by the reformation, and the last 

 century shows a multitude of eminent exegesists, par- 

 ticularly in the Protestant church, and especially in 

 Germany. 



EXEQUIES (funeral rites). In the Catholic 

 church, this ceremony does not involve the idea of 

 interment so much as of solemn masses which are 



