Note 749 — XIV. OF CERTAIN CUSTOMS.

Commoners were ennobled by the grant of letters of nobility, whilst nobles whose ancestors had derogated were rehabilitated. However, commoners who had become wealthy often asked and obtained letters of rehabilitation, and, therefore, pretended to be of noble origin. “Rehabilitation,” according to Thomas Blountʼs Law Dictionary, 1717, was in England: “one of those exactions ... claimed by the Pope ... and seems to signify a Bull or Breve for re-enabling a spiritual person to exercise his function, who was formerly disabled; or a restoring to former ability.”