COM 
ecclefiaftical living cotiira jus pofitivum : and there are fe~ 
vc-ral forts of commendams ; as a commendam Jemeftns, 
■which is for the benefit of the church, without any regard 
to the commendatory, being' only a provilional apt of the 
ordinary, for lupplying the vacation of fix months, in 
which time the patron is to prelent his clerk, and is but 
a fequeftration of the cure and fruits until fuck time as 
the clerk is prelented: commendam retinere is fora bilhop 
to retain benefices, on his preferment; and thefe com¬ 
mendams are granted on the king’s mandate to the arch- 
bilhop, expressing his conlent, which continues the in¬ 
cumbency, lo that there is no occafion for inliitution. A 
commendam recipere is to take a benefice de novo in the 
bilhop’s own gift, or in the gift of fome other patron, 
whole conlent mull be obtained. Dyer, 228. 3 Lev. 381. 
Hob. 143. Danv. 79. 
A commendam may be temporary for fix or twelve 
months, for two or three years, or it may be for life, 
when it is equal to a prefentation, without inftitution or 
jnduftion. But all difpenfations beyond fix months were 
only permillive at firft, and granted to perlbns of merit: 
the commendam retinere is for one or two years, and fome- 
times for three or iix years, and doth not alter the eftate 
which the incumbent had before: a commendam retinere, 
as long as the commendatory fiiould live and continue 
bilhop, hath been held good. Faugh. 38. The commendam 
recipere mult be for life, as other parfons and vicars enjoy 
their benefices; and as a patron cannot prelent to a full 
church, fo neither can a commendam recipere be made to 
a church that is then full. Show. 414. A benefice cannot 
be commended by parts, any more than it may be pre- 
fented unto by parts; as that one lhall have the glebe, 
another the tithes, See. Nor can a commendatory have a 
juris utrum, or take to him and his fucceflbrs, lue or be 
fued, in a writ of annuity, &c. But a commendatory in 
perpetuum may be admitted to do it. 11 Hen. IV. Thefe 
commendams are now in raft feldom or never granted to 
any but hilltops; and in that cafe the bilhop is made 
commendatory of the benefice while he continues bilhop 
of fuch diocele; as the objeft is to make an addition to a 
fmail bilboprick: and it would be unreafonable to grant 
it to a bilhop for life, who might afterwards be translated 
to one of the richelt fees. 
COMMEN'DATARY, f. One that holds a living in 
commendam. 
COMMENDA'TION, f. Recommendation; favoura¬ 
ble reprefentation.—This jewel and my gold are yours, 
provided I have your commendation. Sbakefpeare. —Fraife; 
declaration of efteem.—His fame .would not get fo fweet 
and noble an air to fly in as in your breath, lo could not 
you find a fitter fubjeft of commendation. Sidney. —Ground 
of praife.—Good-nature is the mod godlike commendation 
of a man. Dryden. —Mefiage of love: 
Ilatk you, Margaret, 
No princely commendations to my king!— 
—Such commendations as become a maid, 
A virgin, and his fervant, fay to him. Sbakefpeare. 
COMMENT)ATORY, adj. Favourably reprefentative; 
containing praife—We bellow the flounlh of poetry on 
thole conimt ndatory conceits, which popularly fet forth the 
eminency of this creature. Brown. 
COMMENDA' BUS, f in the feodal fyftem, one who 
lives under the proteftion of a great man. Commendati 
homines were perfons who, by voluntary homage, put 
themfelves under the proteftion of any fuperior lord : for 
ancient homage was either predial, due for fome tenure, 
orperfonal, which was by compulfion, as a fign of neceffary 
futrjeftion ; or voluntary, with a defire of proteftion; and 
thole who, by voluntary homage, put themfelves under 
the proteftion of any man of power, were Sometimes 
called homines ejus commendati, as 01 ten occurs in Doomf- 
day. Commendati dimidii were thofe who depended on two 
feveral lords, and paid one half of their homage to each ; 
and fub-commendati were like under-tenants under the 
command of perfons that were themfelves under the tom- 
C O M 85^ 
ma.nd of fome fuperior lord : alfo there were dimidii fub - 
commendati, who bore a double relation to fuch depend¬ 
ing lords. This phrale feems to be Hill in ufe in the 
uiual compliment, “ Commend me to fucli a friend,” &c. 
which is to let him know, “ I am his humble fervant.” 
COMMEN'DER, f. Praifer.— Such a concurrence of 
two extremes, by molt of the fame commenders and dif- 
provers. JVotton. 
COMMEN'DO, or Commani, or Kommani, a king¬ 
dom ol Africa, on the Gold Coafi, about twenty miles 
fquare, formerly a part of the_ kingdom of Fetu, or Zabu, 
but now an independent kingdom of itfelf. The natives 
are of a warlike difpofition, and lo numerous that the 
king is laid to be able, in this little kingdom, to raife art 
army of 20,000 men; his ordinary body-guard is com- 
pofed of 500 men, well armed. Molt writers luppofe that 
Commendo abounds in gold mines; but that the king, 
fearful of exciting the avarice of Europeans, prevent* 
their being wrought. 
COMMEN'DO (Grand), or Gu affo, a town of Africa, 
capital of the kingdom of Comrnendo, and refidence of 
the king, fituated at fome diftance from the coaft. It is 
well inhabited and large, containing about 400 houfes : 
four miles north of Little Commendo. 
COMMEN'DO (Little), a town of Africa, fituated on 
the Gold Coaft, dole to the Ihore of the Atlantic ; it was 
once a place of great note, and one of the finelt towns in 
Guinea. At prefent, it exhibits only the remains of a 
once flourilhing great city. Here the natives are in ge¬ 
neral turbulent, cunning, and deceitful; much addicted 
to lying and itealing. Their employment confilts either 
in filhing or in commerce, and their neighbours employ 
them as brokers and faftors. Every morning feventy or 
eighty large canoes may be feen upon the coaft filhing, 
or trading with the European (hipping in the road. About 
the middle of the day they put to Ihore, when the feuth- 
weft winds begin to blow, both for facility oi unloading, 
and for fecuring a market for their cargoes either at 
Great cr Little Commendo, where the inland negroes af- 
femble with the commodities of their feveral countries. 
No markets on earth are better lupplied with all forts of 
grain, roots, pulle, and full, than thefe, nor at a more 
reafonable price. Here the Englifh and Dutch have forts. 
Lat. 4. 54. N. Ion. o. 34. E. Greenwich. 
COMMENSA'LITY, f [from commenfalis, Lat.] Fel- 
lowfhip of table ; the cuftom of eating together.—They 
being enjoined and prohibited certain foods, thereby to 
avoid community with the Gentiles, upon promifeuous 
commsnfality. Brown. 
COMMENSURABI'LITYjy. Capacity of being com¬ 
pared with another, as to the meafure; or of being mea- 
fiured by another. Thus an inch and a yard are com- 
menlurable, a yard containing a certain number of inches: 
the diameter and circumference of a circle are incom- 
menfurable, not being reduceabie to any common mea¬ 
fure. Proportion.—Some place the effence thereof in the 
proportion of parts, conceiving it to confift in a comely 
commenfurability of the whole unto the parts, and the parts 
between themlelves. Brown. 
COMMEN'SURABLE, adj. [con and menfura , Lat.] 
Reducible to fome common meafure ; as a yard and a 
foot are meafured by an inch. 
COMMEN'SUR ABLE QUANTITIES, or Magni¬ 
tudes, are fuch as have fome common aliquot part, or 
which may be meafured or divided, without a remainder, 
by one and the fame meafure ordivilor, called theircom- 
mon meafure. Thus, a foot and a yard are commenfura- 
ble, becaufe thes e is a third quant ty that can meafure 
each, viz. an inch; which is 12 times contained in the 
foot, and 36 times in the yard. Commenfurables are to 
each other, as one rational whole number is to another; 
but incoinmenlurables are not fo : and therefore the ratio 
of commenfurables is rational 5 but that of incommen- 
furables irrational : hence alio the exponent of the ratio 
of commenfurables, is a rational number. 
COMMEN'SUR ABLE NUMBERS, whether integers. 
