Secularization (church property)

Secularization is the confiscation of church land or property by the state. The term is often used to specifically refer to such confiscations during the French Revolution and the First French Empire, either in the sense of seizing churches and converting their property to state ownership or in the sense of incorporating ecclesiastical principalities and territories of the former Holy Roman Empire into larger secular territorial states.

Examples

Dissolution of the Monasteries

Austria

As part of his enlightened absolutism, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor seized several monasteries before the French Revolution, leaving only 388 of the 915 monasteries (of which 762 were male institutions and 153 female ones) existing in Austria in 1780.

Monastic estates in Romania, 1863

Bibliography

Marcel Albert: Die Gedenkveranstaltungen zum 200. Jahrestag der Säkularisation 1803–2003. Ein kritischer Rückblick, in: Römische Quartalschrift 100 (2005) S. 240–274.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.