Jus patronatus

The right of patronage in Catholic canon law (Jus patronatus or ius patronatus) is the set of rights and obligations of someone, known as the patron in connection with a gift of land (benefice). It is a grant made by the Church out of gratitude towards a benefactor.

The right of patronage is designated in Papal letters as "ius spirituali annexum" and is therefore subject to ecclesiastical legislation and jurisdiction as well as civil laws relating to the ownership of property.

In the Eastern Catholic Churches, the founder of a church was permitted to nominate an administrator for the temporal goods and indicate to the bishop a cleric suitable for appointment. In the Latin Church, the Synod of Orange in 441 granted a right of "presentation" to a bishop who had built a church in another diocese and the Synod of Toledo in 655 gave a layman this privilege for each church he built, but the founder had no proprietary rights.

In the countries occupied by the Germanic tribes, on the basis of the individual temple and church rights found in their national laws, the builder of a church, the feudal lord or the administrator possessed full right of disposal over the church founded or possessed by him, as his own church (ecclesia propria) and over the ecclesiastics appointed by him. However, the appointment and dismissal of ecclesiastics at least formally was made subject to the consent of the bishop. In the course of the Investiture Controversy, however, the private right over churches was abolished, although to the lord of the estate, as patron, was conceded the right of presenting a cleric to the bishop (ius praesentandi) on the occasion of a vacancy in the church. In England, unusually, this latter right was regulated by the Common Law, and referred to as advowson.

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