RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Patristios Patronage
Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1904), has begun to treat Christian Latin literature from the same point of view, a fact which gives good promise for the future that the principle advanced by the writer in his work will govern, viz., that literary-historical and not ecclesiastical or theological methods will come to prevail in this region. (G. Krugeb.)
Bibliography: For bibliography the two important works are Potthast, Wegweiser; and U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques, Paris, 1877 sqq.; cf. vol. i., pp. xvii.xviii. of this work. On the history and theory of patristics consult: A. Ehrhard, Die altchristliche Litteratur und ihre Erforschung, 2 vols., Strasburg, 1894; J. Daille, Treatise on the Right Use of the Fathers in the Decision of Controversies, London, 1842; J. J. Blunt, The Right Use of the Early Fathers, London, 1869; G. B. Crooks and J. F. Hurst, Theological Encyclopaedia, pp. 396-401, New York, 1894; H. B. Swete, Patristic Study, New York, 1902; L. Emery, Introduction a I'etude de la theologie protestante, Paris, 1904; W. Bright, The Age of the Fathers, London, 1903; P. Schaff, Theological Propaedeutic, pp. 273-276, New York, 1904;1 A. Fortescue, The Greek Fathers, London, 1908. To the works named in the text add: C. F. Rosier, Bibliothek der Kirchenvater in U ebersetzungen und Auszugen, 10 vols., Leipsic, 1776-86; E. B. Pusey, J. Keble and J. H. Newman, Library of the Fathers, Oxford, 1839 sqq.; A. B. Caillan and M. N. S. Guillon, Collectio selecta sanctorum ecclesice patrum, 148 vols., Paris, 1829-43.
PATRONAGE.
Early History (§ 1).
Germanic Formulation (§ 2).
Reform and Secular Encroachment (§ 3).
The Reformation (§ 4).
Status: Roman Catholic (§5).
Status: Evangelical (§ 6).
In the ecclesiastical sense, patronage is a term
applied to the right of a patron to nominate for
appointment to, and cooperative administration of,
a benefice. From early times a certain prerogative
in nomination for appointment and
i. Early administration has been relinquished
History, to those who erected ecclesiastical buildings, institutions, or offices; in short, to the sovereign landlords. In the orient, the Christian emperors from the second half of the fifth century imposed upon those who had begun a foundation the obligation of completing it; and if the foundation was testamentary, the obligation fell upon the heirs. In order to encourage the donators in this often neglected duty the imperial legislation extended to them, subject to the final decision of the bishops, a proportionate share in the administration by virtue of appointments. Justinian in 546 (Novella, cxxiii. 18) conferred upon them the right of presentation to the spiritual dignitary who had the function of appointment and was also frequently the same person as the administrator. Thus arose the possessor's or founder's right (Ktetorikon dikaion). This has never attained great significance from the point of view of constitutional history, and where it still exists it is strictly differentiated from the right of patronage imported into the orient in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In the West the Germans furnished the legal form for this institution for a long time to come. Canon 10 of the Synod of Orange (441), reference to which is often made, had conceded to the episcopus oedefica-
tor only the right of proposing candidates for a church built outside of his diocese but on property belonging to the bishopric. When in Gallic- Roman times a private right in church 2. Germanic property is spoken of, a merely " bare Formulation, right " is implied. A radical change, however, followed the entrance of the Germanic peoples into the Church. The conception prevailed with increasing weight that whoever erected a church on his land retained a right to the inheritable and alienable property, and full power of administering it. By the beginning of the eighth century the victory of proprietary church right was decisive, at least with reference to nonparish churches. Numerous documents show that churches were treated and alienated like other properties. Especially in the kingdom of the Franks, as a part of the general sequestration policy of Charles Martel and Pippin, the free churches descending from the Roman regime and wholly subject to the jurisdiction of the bishops were appropriated for the laity, so that the proprietary churches of kings and landed nobles were the majority. And in the ninth century the proprietary right became supreme by the surrender of the remaining churches on the part of the bishops. The proprietary right was sanctioned for the Frankish Church by Charlemagne (canon 54, Synod of Frankfort, 794), and for the Italian Church by Eugene II. (canons 21, 24, Synod of Rome, 826). It gained supremacy also in the districts that had remained Roman (e.g., Italy) and now became universal in Western Europe. The Carolingian legislation concerned itself with the subject in much detail; and as the synods and ecclesiastical administrative bodies became weaker and feudal conceptions stronger, the theory of private church right became continually more sharply defined. Under the regime of private church right the entire clergy of the lower churches was conceived as private. Every church with its possessions and incomes was considered the special property of its lord; that is, of the king, of a temporal magnate, of a bishopric, or of a cloister. It was no longer a legal subject or a public office. The lord was regularly and officially called senior; only rarely, and in private documents, was he called patronus. He had the power to determine the personnel which was to officiate in his church and to dispense or recall such ministration. The correct ecclesiastical terminology was retained to represent his right as that of presentation, the final decision being supposed to rest with the bishop. In practise, however, the lord had unlimited power of appointment and dismission. The enfeoffment conformed with the investiture of the private right or peculium of the German feudal land tenure. In most cases it was the non-servile, lifelong benefice, the free fief of the Frankish law, that the priest received. A churchbook was handed to him as a symbol of the use of his fief. As some of the land came to be withdrawn by the lord for raising revenue to defray material expenses devolving on him, or was sequestrated for private use, the clergy were more and more limited to the benefice in the narrower sense. The result was the decline and depreciation of the churchlands, and the differentiation of the previous simple
Patron ag-e