COMMENDATION. — From the letters of Gregory the Great it appears that, for the needs of the Church, the pope would sometimes entrust to a bishop the governance of a second diocese deprived of its shepherd due to extraordinary events, or the temporary governance of a vacant diocese; but at times vacant abbacies were also entrusted by the pope to a bishop, and it also happened that, upon the death of an abbot, the abbey—with the consent of the monks—was taken under the episcopal governance of a former monk. Finally, it also occurred that a secular church was entrusted to an abbot. Outside Italy, bishops would sometimes entrust the governance of monasteries to canons of their cathedral, on the condition that they relinquished the revenues of their own benefice. This practice of entrusting churches to someone who was not their regular superior was called commendation, or giving in commendation, custody, care, or guardianship.
During the Carolingian period and in the Frankish kingdom, there were extensive usurpations of ecclesiastical goods by sovereigns, justified by the burdens these rulers had to bear in subduing infidel populations, and thus tolerated or eventually ratified by the Church; and it then happened that princes granted abbacies or monasteries to their favorites, imposing the usual feudal obligations; these were called spurious commendations.
The first reforming movement of the Church took a stand against commendation, and in general against the plurality of benefices, aiming to eliminate commendations, particularly those granted to laypersons; the privilege of the Abbey of Cluny, confirmed by Agapitus II in 948, excluded any commendatory. Nevertheless, Gregory VII and Paschal II also granted, albeit rarely, abbacies and even dioceses in commendation.
The abuse spread particularly during the Avignon period, although Clement V in 1307 revoked (can. 2, Extr. comm., de praeb. et dignitat., III, 2) all provisions made by way of commendation of patriarchal, archiepiscopal, and episcopal churches and of monasteries at the request of kings or magnates (recalling the harm such conferrals caused to the cura animarum and the preservation of goods); and although John XXII in 1317 issued severe provisions against the plurality of benefices (cap. un., Extr. Ioann. XXII, de praeb. et dignit., III).
The Council of Constance expressed wishes against the institution, but it was favored by sovereigns, and the Council of Basel took no measures.
The Council of Trent, in sess. XXI de ref., can. 8, decreed that bishops, even as delegates of the Holy See, should visit annually the monasteries held in commendation where regular observance was not observed, as well as benefices, whether curate or non-curated, secular or regular, however held in commendation, even exempt ones; and it provided the necessary measures for the preservation of buildings and goods and for the cura animarum. In sess. XXV, de regul. et monial., can. 21, it noted the evils that befell monasteries given in commendation due to the difficulties of the times, acknowledged that it was not possible to adopt an immediate and general remedy, but trusted that the pope would, as far as circumstances permitted, ensure that monasteries held in commendation were entrusted to regulars of the same Order capable of governing the community worthily; that monasteries which would fall vacant in the future should be entrusted only to regulars of proven virtue; and that commendatories of monasteries that were heads of an Order or Congregation should, within six months, make solemn profession in the Order, under penalty of deprivation.
The abuse of commendations, particularly for the benefit of cardinals, nevertheless persisted for a long time, and only in recent decades has it entirely disappeared. There are no longer secular prelates serving as commendatories of monasteries, and for abbacies or secular prelatures that it was deemed necessary to unite with a diocesan see, provision has been made in the form of perpetual union.
The CIC merely recalls in can. 1412 temporary commendation, i.e., the concession of the revenues of a church or monastery to someone on the condition that, upon their death, the revenues revert to the church or monastery; and in can. 1435 it provides that certain benefices to which the pope has “laid hands” in certain ways are reserved to the pontiff, including: “if he has granted a benefice in commendation.”
COMMENDATIONS OF MILITARY ORDERS. — Some Military Orders that have retained their original characteristics have associated foundations, which may have been established by the Order or by particular families, and which aim to ensure the means of subsistence for a knight of the Order. Those founded by a family are almost always under family patronage and in practice destined for a member of the family who is professed in the Order (once a means of providing for younger sons). If the foundation consists of movable goods, it is called a pension; if of immovable goods, a commendation, and the knight invested is called a commendator.
In Italy, commendations still exist in the Order of the Knights of Malta; whereas the commendations under the patronage of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus were suppressed by the Piedmontese law of 18 January 1851 abolishing fideicommissa, which provided for the disentailment of the relevant goods.