ADO 



ADO 



entitled to a iTiare in the iniieritance of hir cftatc, Dii- 

 Caiige. 



An OPTION by hair, aclcplio per cap'iUnm, or crineni, was 

 pcrfoniiL'd by cuLting oft the hair of a pcrfoir, and ;;iviiig it 

 to the adoptive fatht'-. It was tluis that pope Johji V'llf. 

 adopted Bofon kin^ of Arlcr! ; which, perhaps, is tlie only 

 ir.llance in hillory, of adoption in the order of eccltlialUcs ; 

 a law that profelfes to imitate nature, not daring to give 

 children to thofe in whom it would be thought a crime to 

 beget any. 



Adoption /y ntalrimony, is the taking the children of a 

 wife or hufhand, by a former marriage, into the condition 

 of proper or natural children ; and admitting them to in- 

 herit on the fame footing with thofe of the prefent marri- 

 age. This is a praftice peculiar to the Germans ; among 

 whom it is more particularly known by the name of einkin/lf- 

 chaft ; among their writers in Latin, by that of vn'in prol'iiim. 

 Or union ofi[jiics. But the more accurate writers obierve, 

 that this is no adoption. See Adfii.iation. 



Adoption by SithJIititle. See Levirate. 



Adoption by tejlament, that performed by adopting a 

 perfon heir by will, on condition of his afl'uming the name, 

 arms, &;c. of the adopter. 



Of which kind, we meet with divers inftances in the Ro- 

 tnan hillory. 



Adoption was allowed among the Greeks to fuch as had 

 no ifl'ue of their own ; excepting thofe who were not 

 xufioj lavTjiv, their own mafters, e. gr. flaves, women, mad- 

 men, infants, or perfons under twenty years of age ; who 

 being incapable of making wills, or managing their own 

 ellates, were not allowed to adopt heirs to them. Fo- 

 reigners being incapable of inheriting at Athens, if any 

 fuch were adopted, it was neceffary firft to make them free 

 of the city. The ceremony of adoption being over, the 

 adopted had his name inrolled in the tribe and ward of his 

 new father ; for which cntiy a pecuhar time was allotted, 

 viz. the feftival SxpynAia. 



To prevent radi and inconfiderate adoptions the Laccdx- 

 monians had a law, that adoptions fliould be traiifacted, or 

 at leaft confirmed, in the prefenee of their kings. The 

 children adopted were inverted with all the privileges, and 

 obliged to perform all the duties, of natural children ; and 

 being thus provided for in another family, ceafed to have 

 any claim of inheritance, or kindred, in the family which 

 they had left, unlefs they firft renounced their adoption ; 

 which, by the laws of Solon, they were not allowed to 

 do, unleis they had firil begotten children, to bear the 

 name of the perfon who had adopted them : thus provid- 

 ing againft the ruin of families, which woidd otfierwife 

 liave been extinguifhcd by the defeition of thofe who had 

 been adopted to preferve them. If the children adopted 

 happen to die without children, the inheritance could not 

 be alienated from the family into which they had been 

 adopted, but returned to the relations of the adopter. 

 It (hould feem that by the Athenian law, a perfon, 

 after having adopted another, w;is not allowed to marry, 

 without permilfion from the magiftrate : in elfeft, there are 

 inftances of perfons, who being ill ufed by their adop- 

 tive children, petitioned for fuch leave. However this 

 be, it is certain fome men married after they had adopted 

 fons ; in which cafe, if they begat legitimate children, 

 their eftates were equally fliared between the begotten 

 and adopted. 



Among the Turks, by the law of Mahomet, adoption is 

 no impediment of marriage. The ceremony of adoption is 

 performed by obliging the perfon adopted to pafs through 



tlie lliirt of the adopter. Hence, among that people, to 

 adopt is cx|>rened by the phral'e, to Jraiu another through 

 my Jbirl. 



Du-Cange fnppofcs . that the adoption of Godfrey of 

 Bouillon by Alexius, who iiamid him champion of the 

 empire, and dignified his homage with the filial name and 

 rites of adoption, was of this kind. 



It is faid that fomething hke this has alfo been obfervcd 

 among the Hebrews ; where the prophet Eli'jah adopted 

 Elilha for his foil and fuceeffor, and communicated to him 

 the gift of prophecy, by letting fall his cloak, or mantle, on 

 him. I Kings xix. 19. 2 Kings ii. 15. But adoption, 

 properly fo called, does not appear to liavc been praclifed 

 among the ancient Jews. Tilofes fays nothing of it in liis 

 laws ; and Jacob's adoption of his two gnuidfons, Ephraiin 

 and ManafTch (Gen. xlviii. i.) is rather a kind of fubftltu- 

 tion, by which he intended that the two fons of Jofepli 

 fliould liave each his lot in Ifrael, as if they h<.d been liis 

 own fons. Calmet. 



In the Eaft, the praftice of adoption is ftiU continued. 

 Pitts (Account of the Religion and Manners of the Ma- 

 hometans, p. 217. 225) informs us, tliat his patron, who 

 was an old bachelor, being taken ill and likely to die in his 

 pilgrimage to Mecca, took off his own girdle and put it on 

 him, and at the fame time put on himfelf tlie girdle of 

 Pitts. In fpeaking of him afterwards, his patron called 

 him his fon ; and occafionally faid to him, though I never 

 •was married myfelf, yet yoiijliall be marriee/, in a little time, 

 and then your children Jl^all be ?nine. Lady Montague (Let- 

 ter xhi. vol. ii. p. 189.) fays, that adoption is very common 

 amongft the Turks, and yet more common amongft the 

 Greeks and Armenians. With this view, and in order to 

 prevent their eftates from faUing into the Grand Signior's 

 treafuiy, they chufe a child of either fex, among the meant ft 

 people, and caiTy the child and its parents before the Cadi, 

 and there declare they receive it for their heir. The pa- 

 rents, at the fame time, renounce all future claim to it ; a 

 writing is drav.n and witnefled, and a child, thus adopted, 

 cannot be difinherited. 



By the Genloo laws (Halhed's, p. 2C>^.) information 

 muft be given to the magiftrate, by the perfon who ii de- 

 firous of adopting a child, and a ;//^^ or facvifice performed ; 

 and he is alfo to give gold and rice to the father of the 

 child. A woman is not allowed to adopt a child witiiout 

 her hufband's order : and he who has no fon, or grandfon, 

 or great grandfon, has liberty to adopt a fon ; but while 

 he has one adopted fon, he is not permitted to adopt a 

 fecond. 



Adoption is alfo ufed, in Theology,, for a federal aft of 

 God's free grace ; whereby thofe that are regenerate by 

 faith, are admitted into his houlhold, and entitled to a fhare 

 in the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. 



Adoption, in the more general fcripture fenfe of the 

 term, denotes that aft of divine grace or favour, by which 

 fome of the human race are introduced into a peculiar rela- 

 tion to God, as his children and people. In this fenfe the 

 privilege of adoption belonged only to the Ifraelites or 

 Jews, before the coming of the Meffiah. See Exod. iv. 

 22. Jer. xxxi. 9. Luke i. 54. Rom. ix. 4, But tlie 

 Jews forfeited this honourable diftinftion, and were deprived 

 of the national privilege they had long enjoyed : and God 

 determined to admit the Gentiles into the ftate of fondiip 

 or adoption independently of any legal obfervances, and 

 merely on the condition of faith in Jelus Chrift. It has, 

 however, been a fubjeft of debate among divines whether 

 adoption bekmgs to Chriftiaos in general, in confequcncc of 



their 



