INSTALLATION. — Installation (a term used alongside *inthronisatio* for bishops and the Supreme Pontiff) is the entry into possession of a benefice, whether consistorial or non-consistorial, referred to as *institutio corporalis* (can. 1443 § 2). The *Codex Iuris Canonici* prefers the expression “to take possession” (*possessionem capere*) for consistorial benefices (cann. 293 § 2, 313, 322 § 1, 334 § 2, 353), and the term “to be sent into possession” (*missio in possessionem*) for non-consistorial benefices (can. 1443 § 2).
In current canon law, installation is not merely a complementary rite, but the concluding act of the provision of a benefice, conferring the exercise of rights in one’s own benefice (cann. 334 § 2, 461, 1446, 1472, etc.).
Originally, in the law of the Decretals, installation was one of the competences of the archdeacon and later of the vicars general and forane, but now it is, in itself, reserved to the Ordinary, who, however, may not only delegate others but, for a just cause, may dispense from the form prescribed by canon law or custom for taking possession. This may even be done through a procurator furnished with a special mandate (cann. 1443–45). By taking possession, the incumbent not only acquires all spiritual and temporal rights of the benefice (can. 1472), but, *ipso iure*, any office or benefice incompatible with the new one becomes vacant (can. 2396; V. INCOMPATIBILITY). If, however, the taking of possession, even if invalid, persists for three years, it confers the right of prescription over the benefice, provided, of course, that there has been no bad faith or simony (can. 1446).