The early phase of appropriation of parish churches in Medieval England

Abstract

From around 1180 onwards, economic considerations led monastic patrons to aim at appropriating parish churches, the spiritual corporation thereby becoming rector of the church. If a monastic advowson carried the right to a rent, originally the patron was only entitled to a fixed money rent in respect of the parish revenues. Thus, such a patron was not able to benefit from population growth, which led to a continuous increase of parish revenues with the rent remaining stable, while from 1180 onwards, inflation diminished the real value of the rent. The solution was seen in obtaining a grant of appropriation from the local bishop, allowing monastic patrons to take the benefice completely into their own hands. It is striking that similar, and likewise profound, changes can be observed, occurring concurrently and for the same reasons, in manorial estate management (‘farming out of manors’ – ‘direct management’). In allowing appropriation, at first bishops were prepared to acknowledge monastic ambitions to adapt forms of exploiting parish revenues to the dynamic economic change that was taking place. This was probably because monastic patrons were not likely to oppose substantial reforms in the field of episcopal diocesan administration, such as abolishing hereditary benefices, and lay influence over parish churches. When these reforms began to take effect, however, the alienation of parish revenues, a natural consequence of appropriation, increasingly met with criticism, and eventually, at the Council of London in 1268, regulations were introduced to curb appropriations. Thus, the early phase of appropriation of parish churches in medieval England had come to a close. The situation in the Lincoln diocese suggests that early phase also to have been the pivotal one.