ADVOWSON, the right of presentation to a vacant ecclesias tical benefice, so called because the patron defends or advocates the claims of the person whom he presents, or because he is the advocate, patron or defender of the church and benefice and is as such given the right to name the priest. At what period the right of advowson arose is uncertain; it was probably the result of gradual growth. The earliest trace of the practice is found in the decree of the council of Orange, A.D. 441, which allowed a bishop, who had built a church in the diocese of another bishop, to nominate the clerk, but not to consecrate the church. The 123rd Novel of Justinian, promulgated about the end of the 5th century, decreed "that if any man should erect an oratory, and desire to present a clerk thereto by himself or his heirs, if they furnish a competency for his livelihood, and nominate to the bishop such as are worthy, they may be ordained." The 57th Novel empowered the bishop to examine them and judge of their qualifications, and, where those were sufficient, obliged him to admit the clerk. In England, for quite two centuries after its conversion, the clergy administered only pro tempore in the parochial churches, receiving their maintenance from the cathedral church, all the appointments within the diocese lying with the bishop. But in order to promote the building and endowment of parochial churches, those who had contributed to their erection either by a grant of land, by building or by endowment, became entitled to present a clerk of their own choice to the bishop, who was invested with the revenues derived from such contribu tion. After the Norman Conquest, it became quite usual for patrons to appoint to livings not only without the consent, but even against the will, of the bishops.
Advowsons are divided into two kinds, appendant and in gross. The right of presenting, originally given to the person who built or endowed the church, gradually became annexed to the manor in which it was built, and where the right of advowson remains attached to the manor, it is called an advowson appendant, and passes with the estate by inheritance or sale without any special conveyance. But where, as is now generally the case, the right of presentation has been sold by itself, and so separated from the manor, it is called an advowson in gross. An advowson may also be partly appendant, and partly in gross; e.g., if an owner granted to another every second presentment, the advowson would be appendant for the grantor's turn and in gross for the grantee's.
Advowsons are further distinguished into presentative and colla tive. In a presentative advowson, the patron presents a clergyman to the bishop, with the petition that he be instituted into the vacant living, and the bishop then, if the presentee be a fit clerk, admits and institutes him. In a collative advowson the bishop is himself the patron, either in his own right or in the right of the proper patron, which has lapsed to him through not being exercised within the statutory period of six months after the vacancy oc curred. Collation takes the place of presentation, admission and institution. Before 1898 there were also donative advowsons, but the Benefices Act, 1898, made all donations with cure of souls presentative. In a donative advowson, the patron conferred the benefice by a simple letter of gift, without any reference to the bishop.
The Benefices Act of 1898 did not make any substantial change in the legal character of advowsons, which remain practically the same as before the act. Briefly, it prevents the dealing with the right of presentation as a thing apart from the advowson itself ; increases the power of the bishops to refuse the presentation of unfit persons, and removes various abuses. An advowson may, still, be sold during a vacancy, but that will not carry the right to present on the vacancy. But under the Benefices Act, ad vowsons may not be sold by public auction except in conjunc tion with landed property adjacent to the benefice ; transfers of patronage must be registered in the registry of the diocese, and no such transfers can be made within 12 months after the last admission or institution to the benefice. Restrictions have also been imposed on the transfer of patronage of churches built under the Church Building acts and New Parishes acts, and on that of benefices in the gift of the lord chancellor, and sold by him in order to augment others; but agreements may be made as to the patronage of such churches in favour of persons who have contributed to their building or enlargement without being void for simony.
The Benefices Act, 1898 (Amendment) Measure, 1923, provides that after two further vacancies of the benefice subsequent to the passing of the measure, the right of patronage shall become incapable of sale, and that a patron may anticipate the two avoidances by a registered declaration, and declare the patronage shall from the date of declaration be without power of sale. The measure further provides that if a right of patronage becomes after the date of the measure vested in a clergyman or his wife, or in someone on his or her behalf, that clergyman shall not be presented to the living. There is a further provision in the measure, repealing the act called the Clergy Resignation Bonds Act, 1828, which sanctioned the giving by presentees of a bond to a patron that he would resign the benefice in favour of any one named person, or either of two named persons, if both were related to the patron within certain limited degrees.
The right of presentation may be exercised by the owners, whether they be infants, executors, trustees, coparceners (who, if they cannot agree, present in turn in order of age) or mortgagees (who must present the nominee' of the mortgagor), or a bankrupt (who, although the advowson belongs to. his creditors, yet has the right to present to a vacancy). Certain owners of advowsons are temporarily or permanently disabled from exercising the right, which devolves upon other persons; and the Crown as patron paramount of all benefices can fill all churches not regularly filled by other patrons. It thus presents to all vacancies caused by simoniacal presentations, or by the incumbent having been pre sented to a bishopric or in benefices belonging to a bishopric when the see is vacant by the bishop's death, translation or de privation. Where a presentation belongs to a lunatic, the lord chancellor presents for him. Where it belongs to a Roman Cath olic the right is exercised in his behalf by the University of Oxford 'A nomination is to be distinguished from a presentation. The latter is the legal act, which alone will be recognized by the bishop. But if the legal patron be not entitled in equity, the true patron nominates him.
if the benefice be situate south of the River Trent, and by that of Cambridge if it be north of that river. (For the conditions which make a fit clerk see the article BENEFICE.) If the bishop refuses to admit and institute, the patron has his remedy by an action called after the words in the ancient writ Quare impedit; that is, the bishop is called upon to show "why he hinders" the patron in the exercise of his right. If the bishop's refusal be due to the fact that there is another claimant to the patronage, that person is also made defendant. If the refusal be because the clerk is alleged to be unfit, the clerk can himself appeal to the court of the metropolitan by a process known as duplex querela. The Benefices act also gives to both patron and pres entee an alternative mode of appeal against a bishop's refusal to institute or admit, except on a ground of doctrine or ritual, to a court composed of the archbishop of the province and a judge of the high court nominated for that purpose by the lord chan cellor, a course which, however, bars resort being had to the ordinary suits of duplex querela or action of quare impedit.
In case of refusal of one presentee, the patron may present another so long as he does it before lapse.
Upon institution the church is full against everybody except the Crown, and after six months' peaceable possession the clerk is secured in possession of the benefice, even though he may have been presented by a person who is not the proper patron. The true patron can, however, exercise his right to present at the next vacancy, and can recover the advowson from an usurper at any time within three successive incumbencies so created adversely to his right, or within 6o years. Collation, which otherwise corre sponds to institution, does not make the church full, and the true patron can dispossess the clerk. Possession of the benefice is completed by induction, which makes the church full against any one, including the Crown. If the proper patron fails to exercise his right within six calendar months from the vacancy, the right devolves or lapses to the next superior patron; e.g., from an ordinary patron to the bishop, and if he makes similar default to the archbishop, and from him on similar default to the Crown. If a bishopric becomes vacant after a lapse has accrued to it, the right goes to the metropolitan ; but in case of a vacancy of a benefice during the vacancy of the see the Crown presents. Until the right of presentation so accruing to a bishop or archbishop is exercised, the patron can still effectually present but not if lapse has gone to the Crown. (See also BENEFICE; GLEBE; INCUM