| 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. |
