Advowson
Advowson (
The word derives, via French, from the Latin advocare, from vocare "to call" plus ad, "to, towards", thus a "summoning".[2] It is the right to nominate a person to be parish priest (subject to episcopal – that is, one bishop's – approval), and each such right in each parish was mainly first held by the lord of the principal manor. Many small parishes only had one manor of the same name.[3]
Origin
The creation of an advowson was a secondary development arising from the process of creating
Where parish churches existed on manors established before the Norman Conquest of 1066, the position is less clear and records generally are scarce from which to reconstruct a history. Britain was split into dioceses, however, and many parish churches were established long before that time, and the process of their creation was likely similarly performed by Anglo-Saxon thanes as by Norman lords and feudal barons. Initially feudal lords exercised seigneural dominium over these new parish churches, exacting an introit fee on appointment, and an annual rent thereafter. The restriction of these seigneural rights to that of 'advowson', purely a right of presentation, developed with the process of Gregorian Reform; in consequence of which payments from spiritual income to lay lords were forbidden.[4] The new process was performed in conjunction with the bishop of the diocese in which the manor was situated.
The lord of the manor, having incurred a very great expense in building the church and parsonage and having suffered a loss of income due to his donation of property to the glebe, quite reasonably insisted on the right to select the individual who would act as parish priest, from which office he could not be ejected by the lord until the priest's death. The bishop, without whose
The advowson, being real property could be "alienated" (i.e. disposed of) by sale or gift of the patron, but with special licence from the overlord as was required for the alienation of the manor itself.[5]
Presentation by turns
Where a manor was split into
Where manors were split into three or more moieties or "purparties", the turns of presentation expanded accordingly. Bishops then sought to convert existing portionary churches into presentation by turns; but portionary arrangements nevertheless survived in several parishes into the 19th century; and a few still operate (though in name only, the portions being united into a single incumbent). Patrons in need of ready cash might seek to capitalize on the value of their advowsons by selling turns of presentation; either the next turn singly, or alternate future turns as a long-term asset.
Encroachment of canon law
Canon law, however, by the 12th century, decreed that the right to present belonged to the saint to whom the church was dedicated and that only ecclesiastical courts could rule on cases involving advowsons. King Henry II's Constitutions of Clarendon held otherwise, and after Thomas Becket's murder, the king once more ruled that cases involving advowsons should be heard by secular courts.[3]
Effect of the Reformation
In the
There were also many lords of manors and patrons of appurtenant livings who were
Legal status
Legally, advowsons were treated as
Following reforms of parish administration in the late 19th century (principally the imposition of secular parishes and wider county and district authorities), the advowson had negligible commercial value. The Benefices Act 1898 (Amendment) Measure 1923 phased out advowsons so that they could not be sold or inherited after two vacancies occurred after 14 July 1924 and enabled their elimination earlier by direction of the current patron.
The rich body of common law regarding advowsons can sometimes become relevant in modern times when dealing with disputes over modern incorporeal hereditaments, such as farming allotments, that are not handled by statute or adequately settled by other common law. An example is the 1980 case of First Victoria National Bank v. United States.[12]
Value
Advowsons were valuable assets for a number of reasons, principally as a means for the patron to exert moral influence on the parishioners, who were his manorial tenants, through the teaching and sermons of the parish priest. The manor was a business enterprise, and it was important for its commercial success that all who lived there should live and work in harmony for a common purpose, and should obey the law of the land and of the manorial court. Such a law-abiding attitude could be fostered by a suitable parish priest, and clearly the appointment of a priest who preached against this would be a disaster for the interests of the lord of the manor. An appointment could also be used to provide an income for a valued servant in holy orders (such as a chaplain or secretary), or as a reward for past services rendered to the patron by the appointee.
A benefice generally included use of a house, i.e. a
Advowsons were frequently used by lords and landowners as a means of providing a career and income for a younger son who, due to the custom of primogeniture, would not inherit any of the paternal lands. If the father did not already own a suitable advowson, he might purchase one for this purpose.
Value as historical records
The records of historic presentations to manors are held amongst the
Current position
In the 20th century, it became the policy of many English sees (dioceses) to acquire the advowsons to the parish churches within their area. This gave the bishop total control over the selection of parish priests, which might give him political as well as religious influence over a parish. The distribution of the church income away from a select few means the days of the fiercely independent, often
Inheritants of any part of these lands could be expressed to hold the right of advowson appurtenant to their lands, in many cases impliedly, but not so in registered land. In most instances, lay holders are willing to donate them without payment to the diocese, on being asked to do so in a polite letter from the bishop.
Many advowsons rest with the Church Society on the Protestant wing of the church, and on the Anglo-Catholic wing by The Church Union and Oxford Movement. Donation to one of these can help to seek to see that style of worship remains constant over generations in a parish with slightly less regard to reforms in either direction introduced by the local bishops, though in all cases the ultimate decisions to appoint and promote rest with the bishops. This is tempered by the central policies of many faiths, but particularly churches, of subsidiarity (local differentiation) which is opposed to dogma from senior figures.[17]
In 2019, Teresa Sutton argued for three specific reforms in the
"First, propose a sunset rule on individual private lay patronage providing that personal patronage may no longer be passed onto another individual.
Second, develop a nominal figurehead ‘charity patron’ role without formal rights of presentation for educational or guild patrons that are willing to retain supportive links with a church.
Finally, recognise value in the work of the patronage societies in reflecting churchmanship through provision for societies to assist parishes, but only where PCCs opt into continuing that arrangement at the point of vacancy."[18]
Anthony Jennings responded to Sutton's article describing her proposal to abolish private patronage as "drastic".[19]
In March 2021, the PCC of St Luke's, West Holloway announced it is seeking a patron other than the Church Pastoral Aid Society.[20] St Luke's is a member of Inclusive Church and flies an LGBT Pride flag, an outlook not shared by CPAS, according to Rev John MacKenzie, vicar of the church. The PCC believes that "the CPAS board of trustees did not want to give up this patronage without acquiring another in its place, but might be willing to swap". Writing about the system of patronage, Martin Wroe suggested it is "time to disempower some of these hidden hierarchies and place a little more trust in the local".[21]
See also
References
- ^ "advowson". Oxford English Dictionary third edition. Oxford University Press. December 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ Collins (1986), Dictionary of the English Language, London
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). - ^ ISBN 0-7524-2969-8.
- OCLC 138858.
- ^ Mirehouse, John (1824). A Practical Treatise on the Law of Advowsons. Joseph Butterworth & Sons.
- ^ Dickens, AG (1999), The English Reformation, London: Batsford, p. 364.
- MacLean, Sir John (1881–82), "The History of the Manors of Dean Magna and Abenhall" (PDF), Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 6: 177, note 5, archived from the original(PDF) on 29 April 2015.
- ^ History of Horton Court manor, Gloucestershire.
- ^ Neep & Edinger 1928, p. 10.
- ^ Neep & Edinger 1928, p. 8.
- ^ "Benefices (purchase of rights of patronage) measure, 1933". Retrieved 11 September 2018.
- ^ First Victoria National Bank vs. US, Resource, 1980, archived from the original on 15 May 2010, retrieved 1 December 2008
- ^ A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 5, the Hundred of Cleley pp 245-289. Victoria County History. 2002.
- ^ Law of Property Act 1925
- ^ For example, the advowson of the manor of Siston, Gloucestershire.
- ^ Debretts Peerage 1995 edition, p.162 as his father had been, in the 1968 edition for example.
- ^ "Church Society Trust - Clergy Appointments - Sole Patronage". Retrieved 16 October 2016.
- S2CID 203050109.
- ^ Jennings, Anthony (2020). "Private patronage and its future". Parson and Parish. 180: 18–21.
- ^ Ashworth, Pat (12 March 2021). "North London parish seeks patron other than CPAS". Church Times. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
- ^ Wroe, Martin (12 March 2021). "When parish and patron are at odds". Church Times. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
Bibliography
- Chadwick, Owen. The Victorian Church, Part II 1860-1901 (1970) pp 207–17.
- Neep, EJC; Edinger, George (1928), A Handbook of Church Law for the Clergy, London: AR Mowbray, p. 8.
- Smith, Peter M. "The advowson: The history and development of a most peculiar property." Ecclesiastical Law Journal 5#26 (2000): 320–339.
- Sutton, Teresa (2019). "Advowsons and private patronage" (PDF). Ecclesiastical Law Journal. 21 (3): 267–288. S2CID 203050109. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
External links
- MacLean, Sir John (1881–82), "The History of the Manors of Dean Magna and Abenhall" (PDF), Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 6, 167–71 ("History of presentations to the Rectory of Dene Magna, Gloucestershire, 1280–1879"), archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2015.