impropriation

Noun

impropriation (countable and uncountable, plural impropriations)

1. The act of impropriating; putting an ecclesiastical benefice or tithes in the hands of a layman, or lay corporation.
   • […] this practice of impropriation, which was first set on foot by unjust and sacrilegious bulls from Rome, is justly offensive both to God and good men; as misderiving the well-meant devotions of charitable and pious souls into a wrong channel.1649, Joseph Hall, Resolutions and Decisions of Divers Practicall cases of Conscience
   • His first work […] attacked the impropriation of tithes by laymen and emphasised the divine punishments customarily inflicted upon the sacrilegious.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 95
2. A benefice, tithe etc. that has been put in lay hands.
   • Bishop Richard Watson's bag of some £2,200 a year was made up from […] five other impropriations to the Bishopric of Llandaff, and two to the Archdeacon of Ely.1990, Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century, Penguin, published 1991, page 62