Proprietary church

In the later Roman Empire the church had been centrally organized: all monasteries and churches within a diocese, including their personnel and their properties, were under the jurisdiction of the local bishop. As early as the late 5th century, Pope Gelasius I listed conditions under which bishops could consecrate new churches within the metropolitan see of Rome. One of the conditions was that the new establishment be endowed with sufficient means to provide for vestments, lights, and the support of the priest serving there. Sometimes the church was part of a large estate; others were themselves vast landed estates. Early Middle Ages The development of proprietary churches was a product of feudalism. The founding lord or seigneur might be a layman, bishop, or abbot, but only the diocesan bishop had the authority to consecrate the church or ordain the priest to serve there. The Council of Trosly (909) defined such churches as the dominium of the seigneur, but the gubernatio of the bishop. It was the responsibility of the bishop to ensure that the building was kept in good repair and appropriately lighted, and to determine the parochial boundaries. Within the Carolingian empire, the rules concerning proprietary churches had been expressly formulated in the ninth century, at the reforming councils of 808, under Charlemagne and of 818/9, under Louis the Pious. Then proprietary churches had been officially recognized, but the capitulations identify some of the associated excesses, for it was agreed that the proprietor should not appoint nor depose priests without the assent of the bishop, nor appoint unfree persons. Every church was to be provided with a manse and its garden that were free of seigneurial dues, where the priest could support himself, providing spiritual services. The rights of proprietarial founders were also delimited and protected, for the bishop could not refuse to ordain a suitable candidate; the legislation also protected the founder's right over proprietary abbeys to appoint a member of the founding family. A practice developed in 8th-century Germany of donating a proprietary church to a larger church or cathedral with certain ==Lorsch Abbey==

An example of a proprietary church is Lorsch Abbey, founded in 764 by the Frankish Count Cancor and his widowed mother Williswinda as a church and monastery on their estate, Laurissa. They entrusted its administration to Cancor's nephew Chrodegang, Archbishop of Metz, who became its first abbot. In 766 Chrodegang resigned the office of abbot, in favour of his brother Gundeland. == See also ==