Secularization (church property)
Secularization is the confiscation of church property by a government, such as in the suppression of monasteries. The term is often used to specifically refer to such confiscations during the French Revolution and the First French Empire in the sense of seizing churches and converting their property to state ownership. Other examples include:
- Dissolution of the Monasteries in England
- Ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal in Spain
- Josephinism in Austria
- As part of his enlightened absolutism, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor seized several monasteries before the French Revolution, leaving only 388 of the 915 monasteries (of which 762 were male institutions and 153 female ones) existing in Austria in 1780.
- Incorporation of ecclesiastical principalities and territories of the former Holy Roman Empire into larger secular territorial states.
See also
- Antireligion – Opposition to religion
- Persecution of Christians – Persecution of Christians
- Secular state – State or country without a state religion
- Secularism – Position that religion should not influence civic and state affairs
- Secularization – Transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values
Bibliography
- Marcel Albert: Die Gedenkveranstaltungen zum 200. Jahrestag der Säkularisation 1803–2003. Ein kritischer Rückblick, in: Römische Quartalschrift 100 (2005) S. 240–274.
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