Among the sentences pronounced by ecclesiastical judges are:
1. Definitive, a sentence which closes and puts an end to a controversial suit, and has reference to the chief subject or principal matter in dispute;
2. Interlocutory, a sentence which determines or settles some incidental question which has arisen in the progress of an ecclesiastical suit;
3. Deprivation, a sentence by which the vicar or rector of a parish is formally deprived of his preferment after due hearing and examination.