RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Patronage
code, inasmuch as patronage includes certain duties, such as that of building, and of administering church properties, which, as a rule, can be enforced only by external compulsion. The right of patronage is either real or personal. The former inheres in real estate, and its rights and duties are determined by ownership. The latter inheres in a physical or legal person. The patronage may be spiritual, lay, or mixed, according always to the respective status of the patron. A common right of patronage may be held by several persons. The right of patronage is secured, first, by the title of acquisition. The ordinary title is provided by the establishment of an ecclesiastical foundation, or of a mere churchly benifice, and the assumption of the legal obligations imposed thereby. The foundation must cover the three items of ground, erection, and maintenance. The consent of the ecclesiastical superiors is also necessary, but this may be given tacitly. Except by way of foundation a right of patronage can not now be established without a papal privilege. The second essential to the creation of a right of patronage is personal qualification. The person (physical) must be an active member of the Roman Catholic Church in good standing. All the unbaptized are excluded (pagans and Jews), and also heretics, schismatics, apostates, and those under the ban of the Church. In practise non-Catholics still exercise the right, Jews excepted. Juridical persons (e.g., stock companies) may exercise the right although their agents be unqualified, provided the object of such juridical person subserve a particular confession. Thirdly,the right of patronage can be obtained only over the proper objects, such as parish churches, chapels, oratories and their accompanying benefices, and canonries; but not over bishoprics or episcopal positions. Patronage includes a number of rights and duties. The latter are of little importance in common law. The former are either honorary, beneficial, or intended to secure the interest of the patron in the foundation. Among the rights one is that of presentation, by virtue of which the patron may present a properly qualified person to the ecclesiastical superior, usually the bishop, under whom a vacancy has occurred. He is, however, limited to the candidate proving the highest apparent fitness. A spiritual patron has six months, a lay patron four months, in which to nominate his candidate; but this rule varies under different codes. The lay patron may also nominate several candidates from whom the bishop may make his choice (see Nomination, Alternative Right of). If an improper candidate is presented by a spiritual patron the right for that occasion is lost, but a lay patron may nominate again if his nominating period has not passed. The right of nomination does not belong to the patron absolutely; the first positions in the cathedral and collegiate chapters may be sought only through papal privilege. Of honorary rights in the real sense, that of precedence over other laymen in processions inside or outside of the church is the only one secured by common law; by particular rights and the law of custom come the privileges to a prominent seat in the church, to the church-prayer, and to burial within the church or church-yard in a prominent place and free of cost.
Of rights of benefit the common law, in case the patron has become destitute through no fault of his own and can not support himself, secures him maintenance by the church, provided he is a descendant of the original founder and sufficient funds are left over after providing for the proper religious services. The interest of the patron in the maintenance of the foundation is secured by the right to take cognizance of the administration of the property, to propose the removal of obvious abuses and unfaithful administrators, and in urgent cases to propose extraordinary reforms. He has the right to be heard when church property is to be sold, and when the selling of the original endowment is in question his consent is necessary. Finally, his agreement is required to proposed alterations of the institution or benefice. The duties of the patron by common law are, in case he draws an income from the church's estate, to pay for the repair and restoration of the parish church and parish house. In case he draws no income, his failure to repair and rebuild results in the lapse of his right of patronage. By statute laws, the duties of the patron with respect to repair and rebuilding are much more comprehensive. The right of patronage may be transferred, by sale, exchange, or testament, with the property in which it inheres. The personal patronage passes to the civil-law heirs of the patron, unless special disposition of it has been made by the patron. When it is restricted to a particular family, it disappears if the family becomes extinct. Personal patronage may be donated only with the consent of the ecclesiastical superiors, except when a lay patronage is turned into a spiritual one, or a common right is transferred to a fellow patron. If sold for money it becomes void, because a simony is involved in the transaction. A patronage right becomes extinct when the patron waives his right, when no qualified patron exists, as at the extinction of the family, when the object disappears, as in case of the suppression of the institution or benefice, by right of " unhindered occupation " on the part of the church superiors, by committing an offense punishable according to church law, such as simony, killing or maiming a clergyman belonging to the church in question, attacking the property of the church, and by the heresy, apostasy, or schismatism of the patron; and by papal annulment.
Patronage has been non-existent on the left bank of the Rhine, in Oldenburg, Hesse, Hamburg, and Liibeck, since 1801. The same civil 6. Status: law applies to the Evangelical bodies Evangelical, as to the Roman Catholic Church. The application of the " body of canon law " is valid, being inherent in the patronage received by the Evangelical churches and prevailing in various states; while the legal status is similar to that of Roman Catholic patronage. There is no mixed patronage. The nomination is presented to the church government or consistory, which has the power to confirm, and is limited by the recommendation of the consistory as to fitness. According to Prussian law the patron must subject his candidate to a trial sermon and examination, and must give the congregation an opportunity to state objections to his doctrine or character. The Evan-
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