THIRD PENSIONABLE. — This is an application of the institution of pensions, of special importance for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The Roman Pontiff had granted the Bourbon kings the right to allocate, from the revenues of the bishoprics, abbeys, and benefices under royal patronage in the Kingdom, a third part to be granted as pensions to persons, mostly ecclesiastical, at the prince’s discretion.
This right was abolished for Naples by the Concordat of 16 February 1818; however, the sovereign, provisionally, continued within the limit of the third pensionable to grant life pensions, charged to the mensa revenues, so as not to deprive those who were already invested with them at the publication of the Concordat. It was fully maintained, instead, in Sicily, where it continued to be exercised and administered through the General Economate of vacant benefices. The third pensionable was considered as patrimony detached from the goods of the mensa and therefore had to be paid even by the Economates of vacant benefices from the income of the mensae that came under their administration during the vacancy of the incumbent. It is to be noted that the third pensionable burdened only those bishoprics whose income exceeded three thousand ducats, and the episcopal mensa could never be subjected to the third pensionable; thus, if a decrease in revenues fell below that sum, the mensa was exempt. Distinct from the third pensionable, though originating from it, was for Sicily the fund of perpetual pensions due to certain moral entities, which was apportioned *pro rata* among the bishoprics, prelatures, and abbeys under royal patronage, according to the liquidation approved by rescript of 27 June 1827.
With a rescript of 10 August 1824, it had in fact been established that the beneficiaries should benefit from pensions that became extinct. Now, among the pensioners there were some moral entities that, by their nature, were perpetual. This gave rise to disparities and complaints; therefore, the Government decided to distribute the burden of such perpetual pensions in equitable proportion among all the benefices; and by rescript of 10 January 1825, it was arranged that the entire amount of perpetual pensions should cease to form part of the pensions and become a full charge on the revenue of the entire mass of ecclesiastical goods, to be apportioned *pro rata*; thus new and fixed burdens arose to be paid by the entities encumbered, in addition to the third pensionable. The history of this institution is intertwined with that of ecclesiastical pensions. By a general principle, the fruits of a benefice must be enjoyed by the beneficiary; but this principle is limited by another, according to which the fruits must also serve the needs of the Church and the poor.
Therefore, ecclesiastical authority may deduct a certain amount from the fruits of the benefice to assign it to a third party, lacking a benefice and in needy conditions. Thus arose ecclesiastical pensions. But civil authorities often and willingly claimed exclusive competence over the external endowments of the temporalities of benefices and opposed a system that placed considerable sums at the disposal of the Pope, which came from various countries. Thus it happened that in certain States the Pope’s authority to dispose of pensions was restricted, or the sovereign’s consent was required for them; and in other countries the prince himself, though not yet daring to consider Church goods as national goods, entirely excluded the Pope’s interference and reserved to himself alone the faculty to grant pensions on ecclesiastical benefices. It was then that the popes strove to limit the princes’ actions, and customs and agreements arose, by virtue of which the sovereign could grant and innovate pensions on ecclesiastical benefices, provided they did not exceed a third of their revenues. Only following the Concordat of 11 February 1929, art. 25, did the Italian State renounce the prerogative of royal patronage over major and minor benefices and abolish the regal right over them and the third pensionable in the provinces of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.