Degradation

Degradation, a deprivation of dignity; dismissal from office. An ecclesiastical censure, whereby a clergyman is divested of his holy orders. There ae two sorts by the canon law; one, summary, by word only; the other, solemn, by stripping the party degraded of those ornaments and rights which are the ensigns of his degree. Degradation is otherwise called deposition, but the canonists have distingui-shed between these two terms, deeming the former as the greater punishment of the two. There is likewise a degradation of a lord or knight at Common Law and also by Act of Parliament, 13 Car. 2, c. 16.