The Medieval Church in the Isles, Part 17: Abuses of the Benefice System

While the Gregorian Reforms of the 11th century and the Concordants of London (1107) and of Worms (1122) corrected certain abuses both by the Church and by lay monarchs, along with establishing the principle that the Pope rather than a king had the right to invest bishops and abbots, created a situation in which the lands of a parish were considered a temporality and thus subject to feudal law.

Appropriation was the act of monasteries assuming control of a parish and the income of its rectory, a practice followed by cathedral chapters and in the Late Middle Ages by collegiate churches, where the benefice was referred to as a prebend, which provided an income to a major canon, and by the universities growing up, all of which were then controlled by the Church.

In these cases in which an ecclesiastical foundation or corporation acted as rector, usually the great tithe or parsonage (two-thirds) went to the appropriator with the lesser tithe or vicarage (one-third) left to support the on-site vicar parochial (vicar portionary).  Too often, however, the body doing the appropriating kept both the parsonage and the vicarage to itself, paying a curate or vicar pensionary a measly stipend plus the altarage to perform the duties for the cure of souls.

Impropriation was similar to appropriation, only with a benefice placed in the hands of a layman.  This was prohibited in the Concordant of Worms, but papal dispensations were frequently granted, especially in the Late Middle Ages, when enough time had passed.  In the Church of England after the Dissolution of Monasteries, this occurred frequently.

Commendam was when a benefice, particularly of a monastery, fell vacant and its management was placed in trust with one outside the community, often the bishop.  Before the Concordant of Worms, laymen and laywomen also became commmendators, becoming lay abbots/abbesses or lay priors/prioresses, with the practice being especially widespread in the Frankish realms.

Originally supposed to be temporary, in the Early Middle Ages this was often abused by the positions being given out to secular (primarily bishops) or even temporal (non-ecclesiastical lords and gentry) favorites of the king or lord, especially in the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.  The income of the foundation was split, with two-thirds going to the commendator and the entire foundation having to make do with the remaining one third.

The practice became widespread once again in the High Middle Ages, though, in the Isles, at least, commendam was restricted to clergy.

Pluralism, called multiplism in Scotland, was one result of this abuse of benefices in the Church, the situation widespread in the Late Middle Ages in which a single bishop or priest held several different benefices.

To cite just a few (of innumerable) examples from The Medieval Church in Scotland: Its Constitution, Organization, and Laws,

A Master William in the mid-13th century was both Archdeacon of St. Andrews and a canon of Glasgow cathedral.

William Greenlaw in the mid-14th century was Archdeacon of St. Andrews, Dean of Glasgow, and a canon of Elgin cathedral (Moray).

Thomas Bell in the early 15th century was a canon of Aberdeen, a canon of Brechin cathedral, the vicar perpetual (portionary) of Montrose, and the Official of Brechin.

John Senes in the mid-15th century was a canon of Glasgow cathedral, a canon of Aberdeen cathedral, and Official-General of St. Andrews.

Andrew Liel at the dawn of the 16th century was treasurer of Aberdeen cathedral and a canon pensionary of Brechin cathedral.

Andrew Dunbar in the mid-16th century was dean of Elgin cathedral (Moray), a canon of Glasgow cathedral, and Official-General of Glasgow.

One of the most notorious cases of pluralism in the High Middle Ages comes from the late 13th century Church in England, in which Bogo de Clare, third son of Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hereford and 6th Earl of Gloucester, and also cousin of later Kings of Scots Robert the Bruce, held two canonries, three cathedral and collegiate church diginities, and the rectories of twenty-four parishes, despite not being ordained.  He was made rector of this first two parishes at the wise age of seven.

Nonresidency of clergy resulted from both pluralism and appointment of favorites to benefices merely for income enhancement.  This frequently happened with younger sons of nobility and gentry in minor orders, who later often resigned their benefice before ordination to the priesthood.

It was as well frequent in parishes appropriated to cathedrals and to collegiate churches, where the actual rector was also a prebendary canon living in or near his cathedral or collegiate church, though by the Late Middle Ages, many of the prebendaries were also absentee there as well.  This latter case was why many foundations at the end of the Late Middle Ages required in their charters for canons to be residentiary, as in the case of the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas in Biggar, Lanarkshire (1545).