An abstemius (plural abstemii) is one who cannot take wine without risk of vomiting. As, therefore, the consecration at Mass must be effected in both species, of bread and wine, an abstemius is consequently irregular. de jure divino vs. canonical law St. Alphonsus Liguori, following the opinion of Suarez, teaches that such irregularity is de jure divino (Latin: "of divine law"); and that, therefore, the Pope cannot dispense from it. The term is also applied to one who has a strong distaste for wine, though able to take a small quantity. A distaste of this nature does not constitute irregularity, but a papal dispensation is required, in order to excuse from the use of wine at the purification of the chalice and the ablution of the priest's fingers at the end of a Mass celebrated in the Tridentine Mass. In these cases the use of wine is a canonical law from whose observance the Church has power to dispense. A decree of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, dated 13 January 1665, grants a dispensation in this sense to missionaries in China, on account of the scarcity of wine; various similar rulings are to be found in the collection of the decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Views of Heretics Abstention from the use of wine has, occasionally, been declared obligatory by heretics. It was one of the tenets of Gnosticism in the 2nd century. Tatian, the founder of the sect known as the Encratites, forbade the use of wine, and his adherents refused to make use of it even in the Sacrament of the Altar; in its place they used water. These heretics, mentioned by St. Irenæus (Adversus haereses, I, xxx), are known as Hydroparastes, Aquarians, and Encratites. The great Manichaean heresy followed a few years later. These heretics, in their turn, professed the greatest possible aversion to wine, as one of the sources of sin. St. Augustine, in his book against heresies, ch. xlvi, says of them, Vinum non-bibunt, dicentes esse fel principum tenebrarum – " They drink no wine, for they say it is the gall of the princes of darkness." They made use of water in celebrating Mass. Aabstemii on a somewhat different principle have appeared in more recent times. These are total abstainers, who maintain that the use of stimulants is essentially sinful, and allege that the wine used by Christ