A right or privilege, especially in medieval England, to present or nominate a clergyman to a church benefice or position.
From Latin advocationem (from advocare, to call to one's side). In medieval English law, an advowson was a property right—you could own the privilege of selecting who got a church position, essentially a property right over a spiritual office.
Advowson reveals how the medieval church was entangled with feudal property rights—you could own the right to appoint priests like owning any other estate, a system that would be unthinkable today.
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