advowson

In the Christian church, the right of selecting a person to a church living or benefice; a form of patronage.

The right of advowson is historically the survival of an originally much more extensive control exercised by the feudal lord over churches on his estates.

In most Roman Catholic countries it has died out, though it survives in a few places. In the Church of England, where it still exists, its exercise is governed by English civil law, which since the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164) has succeeded in maintaining control of this valuable right. In the Church of England the right of advowson may be held by anyone who is not a Roman Catholic or an alien.

An advowson is treated by English law as a right of property which can be transferred by gift or (until 1924) by sale. The scandals to which this fact has sometimes given rise have led to attempts to limit the right of presentation itself and the power to alienate it.