reservation

[Fr., from Low Lat. reserva tio, from Latin reservatus, pa. par. of reservo =to reserve (q. v.); Sp. reservacion; Ital. riservazione.] I. Ordinary Language: 1. The act of reserving or keeping back; reserve; the concealment or keeping back of something from disclosure. 2. The act of reserving, keeping back, or withholding. "When a landed estate is sold with a reservation of a perpetual rent."-Smith: Wealth of Nations , bk. i., ch. v. 3. That which is reserved, kept back, or withheld; something not expre ed or disclosed, or not given up or brought forward. "Ev'n then she cries, the marriage vow A mental reservation must allow." Dryden: Juvenal, sat. vi. 4. A tract of public land reserved for schools, the use of Indians, etc. 5. The state of being treasured up, or kept in store; custody, reserve. II. Law : A clause or part of an instrument by which something is reserved, not conceded or granted; a proviso. (1) Mental Reservation : [MENTAL-RESERVATION.] (2) Papal Reservation : Church Hist.: A practice introduced by John XXII. and continued by Clement VI. and Gregory XI., of reserving to the Holy See the power of electing bishops, formerly po e ed by the clergy and people of the several cities. Reservations were abolished by the Council of Con stance, March 25, 1436. (3) Reservation of the Eucharist : Ecclesiol. & Church Hist .: The practice in the Roman and Greek Communion of reserving the Eucharist for the sick. Among the Latins it is also reserved for Exposition and the adoration of the people, and for Benediction. The reserved Eucha is kept in a tabernacle (q. v.), usually on the high altar, but in some churches in a side chapel, The Greeks reserve the Eucharist in a place behind the altar, called artophorion . In both communions a light is kept burning before the place in which the Eucharist is reserved. In the English Prayer Book there is a rubric directing that if any of the consecrated elements remain, "the priest and such other of the communicants as he shall then call unto him, shall immediately after the ble ing reverently eat and drink the same." In some Ritualistic Churches, however, the Eucharist is reserved, and a lamp kept burning before it. In such cases those pa ing the altar genuflect. rě-şerv-a-tive, a. [English reserv (e); -ative.] Tending to reserve or keep; reserving. keeping.