Proprietary church

Own churches (Latin ecclesia propria or propriae hereditatis ) were places of worship ( churches, monasteries ), the ( local nobility, the dukes and counts of the Frankish Empire times up to the king ) were built on private land mostly lay in the early Middle Ages. About the own churches or monasteries own the landlord had the right of investiture, ie the inputs and dismissal of the pastor or the abbots without authorization by the diocesan bishop. The reason Mr. Vogt was his own church. There were him, although the uses of income ( tithes and basic income) to, but he had come up for the needs of the Church and pastoral care. In return, the private church Lord and his family were included in the prayers ( Memoria ); this was - at least in theory - the main reason for the foundation of churches and monasteries on their own soil. The bishop, in turn, found himself often because of his dwindling influence forced himself to raise own churches and to occupy with loyal and educated outdoors.

Reached a climax the proprietary church system in the 9th and 10th centuries. As could be bought, bartered and inherited the private churches and monasteries own, they increasingly lost its religious purpose - although the churches themselves could not be profaned. Clergy offices were often bought by simony, often unsuitable clergy or even laymen were appointed who stood out due to an immoral lifestyle and disobedience to the diocesan bishop. If a full command of the landlord under standing serf was used as a priest, this could be used in addition to menial jobs. In the Cluniac monastic reform movement attempted to counteract these developments. Louis the Pious regulated 818/19 the proprietary church system such that the full ownership of the landlord was lost, and he could no longer completely bare of their fortune from his own church.

The dispute over the occupation of the bishoprics and abbeys empire intensified in the 11th century in the Investiture Controversy between king and pope. By Pope Alexander III. and by the third Lateran Council in 1179, the private church law of the laity was transformed into a right of patronage. The landlords of the right of proposal to be appointed clergy was granted, the Office gave the bishop.

Although the proprietary church system is judged mostly negative since the reforms of the 11th century, made ​​it possible due to the rudimentary development of the diocesan church organization often only the pastoral care of the rural population.

Remains of the proprietary church system can be found to this day in the Church and in the royal patronage churches and chapels in the UK ( " royal peculiars " ), of which Westminster Abbey is the most important.