Popularly the term benefice is
often understood to denote either certain property destined
for the support of ministers of religion, or a spiritual
office or function, such as the care of souls, but in
the strict sense it signifies a right, i.e. the right
given permanently by the Church to a cleric to receive
ecclesiastical revenues on account of the performance
of some spiritual service. Four characteristics are
essential to every benefice:
1.
the right to revenue from church property, the beneficed
cleric being the usufructuary and not the proprietor of
the source of his support;
2. a twofold perpetuity, objective and
subjective, in as much as the source of income must be
permanently established and at the same time the appointment
to the benefice must be for life, and not subject to revocation,
save for the causes and in the cases specified by law;
3. a formal decree of ecclesiastical
authority giving to certain funds or property the character
or title of a benefice;
4. an annexed office or spiritual function
of some kind, such as the care of souls, the exercise
of jurisdiction, the celebration of Mass or the recitation
of time Divine Office.
This last mentioned element is fundamental, since a benefice
exists only for the sake of securing the performance of
duties connected with the worship of God, and is based
on the Scriptural teaching that they who serve the altar
should live by the altar. In fact, as Innocent III declares,
the sole purpose of the foundation of benefices was to
enable the church to have at her command clerics who might
devote themselves freely to works of religion. |
