OBL 
ftowed themfelves and their eftates on fome monaftery, and 
were admitted as lay-brothers. 
There were fome of the oblati, properly called donati, 
who gave their perfons, their families, and effects ; and even 
entered into a kind of fervitude themfelves, and their 
cefcendants. 
were admitted by putting the bell-ropes of the 
church round pa necks, and, as a mark of fervitude, a 
few pence on t he 
The sail eek religious habits, but different from thofe 
of ae 
‘archives of the abbey of St. Paul de Verdun is a 
_ in 1360, to a man of that abbey to marry 
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are faid to have taken their firft rife in the eleventh century. 
In the earlier times, thofe only are called oblati, whom 
their parents engaged from their infancy to the monaftic 
life. Thofe who embraged it themfelves, when at an age 
capable of choice, were called converts, converfi. 
The oblati made no profeffion; yet kept the celebate, 
lived in obedience to the fuperiors, and did the drudgery of 
the monaftery : yet they differed from the fervants of the 
houfe, who were allowed to marry. 
The oblati and donati were, an ai fervants by devo- 
tion, as the others were by conditio 
Helyot fays, the oblati differed from converts, inafmuch 
as the latter made the prone and wore the habit, which 
the former did not. 
BLATI were alfo, in France, a kind of lay-monks, an- 
ciently placed by the king in all the abbies and priories in 
his nomination; to whom the religious were obliged to give 
a monk’s allowance, on account — ringing the bells, 
and oe the church, and the 
hefe offices were ufually filed vith lame foldiers, and 
invalids, fome of whom had penfions on benefices, without 
any duty. But thefe oblati, with their penfions, al fince 
been all removed to the hotel of the Invalids at 
OBLATIONS, Orrerrines, properly peeved ‘things 
sai to God. 
he canon law, oblations are defined to be any thing 
and the church, #. ¢. to 
the priefts, whether bail be moveables, or immovea 
i0 $y VIZ. oblationbs 
aktaris, which t pared Ae 
JjunGorum, given 7 the laft wills 
church : oblationes mortuorum, thofe giv en by ae rations c 
the dead, at their burials: obdationes pes thofe 
by penitents : and oblattones pentecoftales, or Whithn-oferinge. 
Till the fourth century, the church had xed revenues, 
nor ee other means of fubfiftence but nee or voluntary 
oblation 
ae this term are now comprehended not only thofe 
perfon, when 
g 
OBL 
Offerings are made at the holy altar by the kin 
queen twe a times in the year on feftivals called « O ae 
days,” and diftributed by the dean of the chapel to the poor. 
he money in lieu of thefe accuftomed offerings is now fixed 
at 50 guineas a year, and paid by the privy purfe annually 
to the dean or his orders; for the diftribution of which 
ane aged i the dean direts proper lifts of poor people 
to be made out. 
OBLAY, in Geography, a town of Lithuania, in the pa- 
latinate of Wilna; 12 miles S. of Braflau. 
OBLIGATION, an a& whereby a perfon engages, or 
binds himfelf, or is bound by another, to - fom mething ; as 
to pay a fum of money, to be furety, or t 
The acceptance of a bill of exchange is a kind of obli- 
gation to pay it. 
All obligations arife from contracts, or quafi-contraéts ; 
from crimes, or quafi-c crimes 3 an oman law, were 
either civil, or pretorian ; i.e. either approved by the civil 
law, or Lganaria by the prztor 
are three kinds of obligations ; ; natural, civil, and 
mixt. 
Natural obligations are founded on the mere bond of 
natural equity, without any civil neceffity, and without pro- 
ducing any action of conftraint. Such are the obligations 
a minor is un 
Civil obligation is that fupported by civil authority 
alone, and which induces a conftraint, without any principle 
or foundation in natural equity. Such is the obligation on 
ft 
a man condemned unjuftly 
obligation, or an obligation both natural and 
civil, is that which, being fou - - ae ral equity, is 
farther confirmed and enforced b 
yc rity 
There are alfo perfonal ere pach sae obligations, 
obligations of gh Y> 
N, in a more ftr ia fenfe, denotes a bond co 
taining a penalty, with a condition annexed, for payment of 
money at a certain time; or for performance of covenant, or 
the — ae Bonp. 
or obligation, is faid to differ from a bill, in 
that the ee is commonly without a penalty, and without 
condition. Yet a bill may be obligatory. Coke on Little- 
: 
Till the Conqueft, writings were rendered jaa ge by 
certain marks of gold croffes, &c. ‘Fhe Normans firft in- 
troduced the cuftom of making bills and selene with a 
print or fealin wax, fet toevery one’s fignature, attelted by 
three witnefles. 
Osricartion, Moral, or Obligation of virtue, in Ethics. 
See Moral PHILOsSO OPHY, and VIRTUE. 
O ATO, inthe Jtalian Mufic, fignifies for, on a 
pye po or aeceffary, as doi violini obligato, on purpofe for 
two violins; and fo of other ae as con fagotto obligato, 
that mutt be played with a baffoon, 
Sometimes it fignifies confined, or stated, tie certain 
sli fubje&ted to certain hmits or laws, in order 
ange particular thing, to give fome Reiecin ex- 
of a paffion, action, &c. In this fenfe we fay, 
cntepunta obligato, fuga hain &e. alfo fay, the 
bligato, when it is only a ground of a certain num- 
ber, of ba which are to be repeated over and over ; fuch 
is the bafe to chacones, &c., and every bafe in which airs are 
confined to a certain feries - notes often repeated to dif- 
ferent trebles. See Groun 
