impropriation

Definition

The act of impropriating; putting an ecclesiastical benefice or tithes in the hands of a layman, or lay corporation.

Etymology

From impropri(ate) + -ation.

Example Sentences

• "[…] this practice of impropriation, which was first set on foot by unjust and sacrilegious bulls from Rome, is justly offensive both to God and good men; as misderiving the well-meant devotions of charitable and pious souls into a wrong channel."
• "His first work […] attacked the impropriation of tithes by laymen and emphasised the divine punishments customarily inflicted upon the sacrilegious."
• "Bishop Richard Watson's bag of some £2,200 a year was made up from […] five other impropriations to the Bishopric of Llandaff, and two to the Archdeacon of Ely."