Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Dispensation

Dispensation , noun

[French dispensation, Latin dispensatio.]

1.
The act of dispensing or dealing out; distribution; often used of the distribution of good and evil by God to man, or more generically, of the acts and modes of his administration.
To respect the dispensations of Providence. — Burke
2.
(Theology) That which is dispensed, dealt out, or appointed; that which is enjoined or bestowed
(Theology) A system of principles, promises, and rules ordained and administered; scheme; economy; as, the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations.
Neither are God's methods or intentions different in his dispensations to each private man. — Rogers
3.
The relaxation of a law in a particular case; permission to do something forbidden, or to omit doing something enjoined; specifically, in the Roman Catholic Church, exemption from some ecclesiastical law or obligation to God which a man has incurred of his own free will (oaths, vows, etc.).
A dispensation was obtained to enable Dr. Barrow to marry. — Ward