FACULTY, in Law, a privilege granted to a person, by favour and indulgence, of doing what, by law, he ought not to do.
For granting these privileges, there is a court under the archbishop of Canterbury, called the court of the faculties. The chief officer of this court is styled master of the faculties, and has a power of granting dispensations in divers cases: as to marry without the bans being first published, to eat flesh on days prohibited, to ordain a deacon under age, for a son to succeed his father in his benefice, a clerk to hold two or more livings, &c.