benefice

benefice, a particular kind of land tenure that came into use in the 8th century in the kingdom of the Franks. A Frankish sovereign or lord, the seigneur, leased an estate to a freeman on easy terms in beneficium (Latin: “for the benefit [of the tenant]”), and this came to be called a beneficium, a benefice. The lease normally came to an end on the death of the seigneur or of the tenant, though holders of benefices often succeeded in turning them into hereditary holdings.

Although by the 12th century benefice was dying out as a term for feudal land tenure, it retained an important place in the law of the Western Church and later in that of the Church of England; it came to designate an ecclesiastical office to which the church attached the perpetual right of receiving income. In the early history of the church, all endowments were generally centralized under the administration of the bishop, and there was no endowment attached to a particular ecclesiastical office. By the 8th century, churches were being founded in villages by the seigneurs, usually laymen, who were allowed to appoint the priest. Parish churches thus fell into two groups, the earlier type founded and controlled by bishops and the later type under the control of the lay seigneurs. Both bishops and seigneurs began to treat each church and its endowments as property to be leased like any other part of their estates, and they appointed the priest by leasing to him as a piece of property the church and its endowment in return for his carrying out the spiritual duties and frequently the paying of some rent. The priest held the church for life, unless a term of years was specifically mentioned in the lease.

In the 12th century the procedure for granting ecclesiastical benefices was made to conform to the ideals of Pope Gregory VII (reigned 1073–85). A lay seigneur could not grant an ecclesiastical office directly to a priest or receive rent or payment for it. The lay seigneur became the patron of the church; he chose the priest but could not lease him the church or receive any rent for it. The church had to be leased or granted to the priest by the bishop. Once inducted or invested with the benefice, the priest held it for life or, if he resigned, until his resignation was accepted by the bishop. Otherwise he was bound to vacate the benefice only if he was deprived of it in a court of law or if he received another benefice, in which case he automatically vacated the first benefice unless he had a dispensation to hold two or more benefices in plurality.

The procedure in the Church of England for giving a benefice to a priest and the terms on which he holds it have been modified in two respects. First, the bishop has wider powers of refusing the patron’s nominee, and in a vacancy the parochial church council has the right to be consulted before an appointment is made. Second, the circumstances under which a priest can be removed from his benefice have been enlarged. In the Roman Catholic Church, the law concerning benefices has been set down in great detail in the Code of Canon Law (Codex Juris Canonici).

The benefice system, by making the parish priest dependent on no man’s pleasure for his income or continuance in office, gave him an immeasurable status and strength in carrying out his duties.