Statute of Provisors
The English statute usually called Statute of Provisors is the 25th of Edward III, St. 4 (1350–51), otherwise termed "The Statute of Provisors of Benefices", or anciently De provisoribus. This measure was central to a long disagreement between the English kings and the Roman Curia, concerning filling of ecclesiastical benefices. It was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1948. Background The Pope claimed the right to temporarily suspend the right of the patron, and nominated on his own authority, a successor to the vacant benefice. The papal nominee was then called a provisor. The resulting possession by Italians of church property in England provoked serious resistance. Pope Gregory IX (1227–41) pronounced against the propriety of such provisions as it interfered with the rights of lay patrons. And Pope Innocent IV expressed, in 1253, general disapprobation of these nominations. From the recitals of "The Statute of Provisors" it appears that the bestowal by the pope of English benefices and ecclesiastical possessions "as if he had been patron or avowee ... as he was not of right by the law of England", and his "accroching to him the seignories" was complained of as not only an illegal injury to the property