[ad. late L. jūstificātiōn-em (Augustine, etc.), n. of action f. jūstificāre to JUSTIFY. Cf. F. justification (12th c. in Godef.), perh. the immediate source.]
† 1. Administration of justice or the law; execution of sentence; capital punishment. Obs.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. xiii. (Skeat), l. 88. How should mercie been proued, and no trespasse were, by due iustification to be punished?
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 211. Whan he shall Iustificacion done, he sholde noone dyuersite of Persones make.
1450–80. trans. Secreta Secret., 18. Vnto the tyme that god hath herde hem and done his iustificacioun in vengeaunce doyng.
[1878. Veitch, Border Hist. & Poetry, ix. 286. A not less memorable case of ‘justification,’ was that of Adam Scott.]
† 2. An ordinance; an ordained form. Obs.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. lv. 131. Goode it is to me, lorde, þat þou hast mekid me, þat I mowe lerne þi iustificacions.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Luke i. 6. Walking in al the commaundements and iustifications of our Lord without blame.
1609. Bible (Douay), Num. ix. 3. Let the children of Israel make the Pasch in his time … according to al the ceremonies and iustifications therof.
3. The action of justifying or showing something to be just, right or proper; vindication of oneself or another; exculpation; † verification, proof (obs.). b. That which justifies; a justifying circumstance; an apology, a defence.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 507. With many couert wordys to the … iustyfycacion of hymselfe and excusynge of his owne dedys.
1555. Eden, Decades, 240. Yet was he gladde to haue it tryed by iustice for the better iustification of his cause.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 39. Neither was she unmindfull of this Lord Norris, whose Father … in the business of her Mother, dyed in a Noble cause, and in the justification of her innocencie.
1729. Butler, Serm. Forgiveness, Wks. 1874, II. 109. Nothing can with reason be urged in justification of revenge.
1823. De Quincey, Lett. Educ., ii. (1860), 32. The metre, and the style … would immediately have lost their justification.
1870. Mrs. Riddell, Austin Friars, iii. She could plead so much in her own justification.
4. Theol. The action whereby man is justified, or freed from the penalty of sin, and accounted or made righteous by God; the fact or condition of being so justified.
Protestant theologians regard justification as an act of grace in which God accounts man righteous, not owing to any merit of his own, but through imputation of Christ’s righteousness, as apprehended and received by faith. Roman Catholic theologians hold that it consists in man’s being made really righteous by infusion of grace, such justification being a work continuous and progressive from its initiation.
[1382. Wyclif, Rom. v. 16. Sothli dom of oon in to condempnacioun, grace forsothe of manye giltis in to justificacioun.]
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 31. This grace is called the grace of iustificacyon, or grace iustifyenge, for it iustifyeth our soules before god.
1565. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., III. xi. § 2 (1632). We simply expound justification to be an acceptation, whereby God receiving us into favour, taketh us for righteous, and we say that the same consisteth in forgivenesse of sinnes, and imputation of the righteousnesse of Christ.
1571. 39 Articles Ch. Eng., xi. Of the iustification of man…. That we are iustified by fayth onely, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. Ibid., xii. Good workes, which are the fruites of fayth, and folowe after iustification.
1585. Hooker, Serm. Justification, § 5. The first receipt of grace in their [Papists’] divinity is the first iustification: the increase thereof, the second iustification.
1675. Brooks, Gold. Key, Wks. 1867, V. 61. Justification doth not increase or decrease, but all sin is pardoned at the first act of believing.
1771. Wesley, Wks. (1872), V. 57. The plain Scriptural notion of justification is pardon, the forgiveness of sins.
1837. Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1855), I. I. vi. 381. The tenet of justification or salvation by faith alone, called, in the barbarous jargon of polemics, solifidianism.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess., I. 6. They have seen so much goodness without faith,… that they begin to preach justification by sincerity as a more human, if not a more divine formula than justification by faith.
1885. Catholic Dict., 495/2. To the Catholic, sanctification and justification are the same thing, or at most two aspects of the same thing—viz. of the act by which God makes a soul just and holy in his sight.
5. Law. a. The showing or maintaining in court that one had sufficient reason for doing that which he is called to answer; a circumstance affording grounds for such a plea. b. The justifying of bail: see JUSTIFY 7 b.
1529. [see JUSTIFY 7 a].
1660. Trial Regic., 19. If you have any thing of Justification, plead Not guilty.
1781. W. Blackstone, Rep., II. 1179. After many nugatory notices of justification, the defendant’s bail appeared in Court to justify.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v., If the action concern a local thing, a Justification in one place is not a Justification in another place.
1883. Wharton’s Law-Lex. (ed. 7), s.v., A defence of justification is a defence showing the libel to be true, or in an action of assault showing the violence to have been necessary.
1886. Philadelphia Times, 10 April (Cent.). Mr. M—— said that Recorder S—— had fixed bail at $25,000, and justification in $50,000 would be enough.
6. The action of adjusting or arranging exactly; spec. in Type-founding and Printing: see JUSTIFY v. 9.
1672. T. Marshall, Lett. to Dr. Fell, 19 Jan. (in H. Hart, Cent. Typogr. Oxford, 165/2). To expedite ye justification of Matrices.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Foundery, The justification, as to thickness, is made on a piece of marble; and for the height on an iron compository. The justification of the height is guided by the m of some body of characters already justified.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 132. Where a line is even spaced, and yet requires justification. Ibid., 133. No reasonable excuse either for bad justification or improper spacing.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, III. 644. When he comes to the end of his line, and finds that he has a syllable or word which will not fill out the measure, he has to perform a task which requires considerable care and taste. This is called justification.
