Proprietary church

A proprietary church, in Latin ecclesia propria and in German Eigenkirche, was in the Middle Ages a church, abbey or cloister built on private ground by a feudal lord who kept proprietary interests in it, above all the right of advowson, the right to nominate its clergy. The institution grew out of feudalism: the founding lord might be a layman, bishop or abbot, but only the diocesan bishop could consecrate the church or ordain its priest, and the Council of Trosly in 909 defined such churches as the dominium of the lord but the gubernatio of the bishop. Carolingian reforming councils formulated rules for them in 808 and 818 to 819, and their number in Germany reached its maximum in the ninth and tenth centuries. The proprietor could sell, lend, lease, bequeath or mortgage the altar, provided the church stayed a church, but could not alienate the land set aside to support the priest. Ulrich Stutz argued that the institution existed especially in areas that had never been Roman, and the benefice system and the Investiture Controversy are tied to it.