New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-01-27
TENURE Of CATHOLIC CHURCH
PROPERTY.

TENURE Of CATHOLIC CHURCH
PROPERTY.
We have encountered q good deal OF misrepre-
sentotioD IN our time, and have borne it with alt
possble meekness, as an evidence that THE TRIB-
UNE was not destitute Of influence but 10 10 il
stance has abuse been more malignant or menda-
cious than in relation to bill recently before the
Legislature Of this State 10 allow Catholic Bsh'
OPS TO hold real estate as trustees, and not az
their itdiydual property, as is nov the case. 10
regard to the question, We held tlat II the Cath
oiic Churches choose to have their property held
BY their Bishops the State has no right to inter-
fere, any more than in their religious matters
end that in tta! case it would be much better
that such property should be held in trust and
not in fee, so that If the Bishop should prove
villain the churches iced not all be turned out Of
house and home. HereupOn we were, and still
are, accufed of a willingness TO subject all the
Catholic congregations OF the State 70 Episcopal
tyranny. and We are even told that The TRIBUNE
desired that all such Churches as that of 81.
Lous, at Buffalo should be compelled, by she
civil power, to cease their resistance tasl on their
knees to the Bishop, and humbly kissing tue
ground, hand over their estates 10 his possession.
This every honest reader Of ours knows to be
false. So far are We from desiring the success of
the Bishop ia that contest, that we earnestly wish
there were, in the Catholic Church OF America,
many more such congregations to ASSERT their
traditional and legal rights, AMI to prevent the
Bishops from asserting power they do not en-
Joy, and, as we now proceed to show, never have
enjoyed, in any one of the States Of Europe.
The property Of the Church, its nature, It's le
gal tenure, the right Of administration aud Of sp-
plication Of the revenues for certain definite or
indefinite purposes, ives for centuries bone of
contention between the civil. or laic. aud the
spiritual. or clerical, powers. Perhaps nowhere
were shown so much abuse misrepresentation
snd bad faith, as ia the various aspects of this
subject, often VII lently aud son etimes legally,
during more thai thousand years.
Churcb-property, in the refotest epoch, origi-
mated exclusively with dotations-dOs, as it is
called in the Justinian code. When, with Con-
stantine, Christianity came into power, the
Church walked in the tracks of her predecessor,
the psgan establishment, by inheriting its m)ya-
bic property, temples, houses and estates.
In the times of the youth freshness vizor suf
innocence of Christianity is, in the few
centuries preceding the conversion OF Constantine
the Christian communities supplied the wants
Of their respective churches and their ministers,
snd thus neither the New Testament nor the
early Christian writers speak of any church prop
erty. At the time of the Apostles and After
ward, the mother community at Jerusalem had
common fluid to meet its expenses Wherever,
subsequently, such fund was organized it be-
lODgCd to the community, and nowhere exclusive
ly to the clergy. Constantine, however, confer
red on the churches the character OF a corpora
ton, or moral person, it was called, and thus
recognized their rights TO acquire and hold prop
erty ard estates. When the clergy shaped it.elf
more completely according to the Jewish her
arcby, it became distinct from the laity, and,
aided BY donations, engerdered the fact of seps-
rate church property, of which the clergy was the
administrator and usufructusry. But at that
time such property was nowhere distinctly TO-
vested in The person of Bishop or Curats. Va
Iious subterf0ges and tricks were used for the
acquisition and increase Of such property; and
the civil or imperial power was obliged 70 inter-
vtle and stop theu-of which evidence is to be
found in the Nerds Of Ju,tnan and other impe
rial edicts of his predecessors and successors.
From the beginning of the medieval epoch,
and after feudalism had shaped society bu'
chiefly from and after Carloyingan mes, EN-
perors, Kings Dukes, Bsrons and other mobiles
erected powerful bishoPrics and sbbeys, aud do
tated them with lands. All such donations were
Of f. udal tenure-fefs, with some special aud ex-
clu,ive immunities. They We're in every respect
different in nature and aim from the property Of
the psrish churches, erected in boroughs, vii
lagos, and communes By grants Of the master or
owner the baron or nobleman. In this way, the
parish churches acquired benefces or Ising..
Thus, in the course Of time, arose q church
property Of q two-fold kind. The one form
ing the dotatiOns of episcopal sees, abbeys,
snd various monasteries; the other be-
longing to parish churches. The latter
forms the principal object Of the present inquiry.
We cannot here eLumera.e all the various shame
full nantuvers used by the clergy during those
ages Of darkness and Of the grossest superstition
and b'eotIy for Increasing church property, aud
gaining control of the civil power or of the State
The principle that al church property belonssto