THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Bibliography: O. Mejer, Die Propaganda, ihre Provinzen und ihr Recht, 2 parts, (uittingen, 1852-53; Raphael do Martinis, Juris pontificii de propaganda fide, Rome, 1SSS sqq.; A. Pieper, Griindung und erste Einrichtunq der Propaganda-Kongregation, Munich, 1901; P. M. Baumgarten, Der Pabst, die Regierung und die Verwaltung der heiligen Kirche in Rom, pp. 353-368, Munich, 1904.
PROPERTY, ECCLESIASTICAL.
I. General History. Res Sacra? (§ 1). Res Religiosie (§ 2). Changes at the Reformation (§ 3). Jesuitical Theories (§ 4). Territorialism and Collegialism (§5). Distribution and Administration (§ 6). The State and Church Property (§ 7). II. In the United States.
1. Attitude of the States to Church Property.
2. Methods of Holding It.
3. American Rule of Specific Trusts.
4. Property and Church Divisions. Secession from Denomination (§ 1). Schism in Local Church (§2). Particular Cases (§ 3). Self-governing Churches (§4).
I. General History: Every Church requires external means of existence, the so-called temporalities, in order to maintain its institutional organism; and these it derives either from contributions or from other property at its command. Such property constitutes the patrimonium or peculium ecclesice. Of such things (res ecclesiastic a), those which are designated and accordingly consecrated for use in the sanctuary service are distinguished as res sacrce, sanctce, sacro-sanctw , for the reason that accordi. Res ing to Roman law they are withdrawn Sacrae. from trade (extra commercium): under canon law they do indeed stand in the light of property, but subject to the rule that they shall never be convertible in any way contrary to the sanctuary purpose to which they were once applied. Any crime committed against them bears its own stamp as such. To this category on the Protestant side belong church buildings, cemeteries, and church furniture; on the Roman Catholic side,' the same as prior to the Reformation, the churches, the altars, the utensils accessory to the worship, especially to the Mass or Holy Communion; such as the chalice and paten, which are to be wrought of precious metals, — contingently of tin, — but not of wood or glass; the Eucharist ic cruets (ampullce); likewise the monstrance (oxtcnsorium), for the reservation of the consecrated host, which on festival occasions is exposed for adoration; the censers (thuribula), crucifixes, images, lights, holy water basin, sprinkling brushes, banners, etc.; the sacred vestments; and bells.
When the Church was first recognized by the Roman State it was already in possession of property. Constantine decreed (321) that the churches might inherit through testamentary provisions; and similar principles obtained in the German realms.
The individual ecclesiastical foundations were regarded as titular possessors of this ecclesiastical estate, prior to the Reformation. In a natural sense, only man can be the possessor of rights; hence, also, of property rights. Legal construction, however, can think of an enduring purpose as property-holder: for instance, the purpose that at
a specified place and by a specified succession of persons the cure of souls shall be constantly exercised through the administration of word and sacraments; or the purpose that certain persons shall live together according to the rule of a certain order to the glory of God (the medieval term for property devoted to this end is res religiosa, from religio, in the sense of " monastic life," " monastery ")• or the purpose of healing the sick or
2. Res Re- caring for the poor; or that masses ligiosse. be read, or perpetual lamps be maintained, etc. The nature and course of the purpose in question are always defined. The legally effective arrangement by virtue of which this kind of ideal property-holder is qualified to stand as a so-called legal personality is called foundation or endowment; and in fact the like personalities themselves are then designated as foundations or endowments: church foundations, cloister endowments, hospital foundations, etc. If in the case of medieval donations and legacies the patron saint is named instead of the institution, this is only a popular expression. Again, where the idea occasionally expressed itself in earlier times that the subject of church property in the diocese was the metropolitan church, there is simply a product of the conditions whereby in the small Eastern episcopal provinces that church was the only parish church with full prerogatives.
This is not the place to take up in detail the obscure fancies that Christ, or the poor, are " owners of the Church's property"; however, the question is pertinent as to how the Reformation idea is related to the foregoing pre-Reformation views. The answer appears in the contemporary visitation minutes and church regulations, which latter nearly always contain a section with respect to church property. They both assume that the possessors of church property prior to the Reformation, namely the local parochial foundations, continue in possession, after the Reformation in so far as effective, of all the property rights to them belonging before the Reformation. They both 3. Changes strive to safeguard for them the preat the Ref- rogatives which belong to them under
ormation. this construction, against the manifold injuries wherewith they were threatened on account of confusing Reformatory misconceptions. It is obvious that a good many aspects of church property before the Reformation ceased with the Reformation: above all, the fraternity foundations that were frequently attached to town churches, mass endowments, vicarages, endowments of perpetual lamps, etc., because their very object was lost. The property conditions in question might have been diverted to the State exchequer as bona vacantia ; but in consequence of Luther's tract on " Spiritual Possessions " (Ordnung eines gemeinen Hastens, Rathschlag, vrie die geistlichen Giiter zu handeln sind, 1523) they were nevertheless, in so far as not simply applied to the actually needy pastoral estate, reserved frequently for distinctly new foundations, in order to serve as additional means for church purposes, education, care of the poor, etc., the so-called poorboxes (Gotteskasten), and the like.