| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Benefice |
 | | The beneficiary system plays an important part in the discipline of the evangelical churches on the continent of Europe, and of the State church of England. |
 | | Nevertheless a bishop may for good reasons and with the consent of his chapter proceed to suppression, and at times such action is rendered necessary by a considerable depreciation in the value of the beneficiary property or by the departure of the population to whose spiritual needs the benefice was intended to minister. |
 | | In such cases the practice is not to consent to absolute suppression, at least of the religious service depending on the benefice, but simply to the exoneration of the patron and his renunciation of the jus patronatus. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/02473c.htm (3212 words) |