§ 155. General Overview

PART III. THE PROPERTY LAW OF THE CHURCH.

The property of the church comprises all those church things (ἐκκλησιαστικὰ πράγματα, res ecclesiasticae) which the church needs for her external life and so that she may, without hindrance, carry out her task in the world. This task of the external life of the church consists in this: that divine service be performed according to the prescribed rite, that Christian teaching be spread, and that good order be maintained in the church organism. According to this task of the church, all church things are divided, in the church-legal sources, into a) sacred things (πράγματα ἱερά), which pertain exclusively to divine service and to the proper performance of that divine service, and b) hallowed things (πράγματα ἅγια), namely church goods, which serve as a source for covering the expenses both of procuring what is needed for divine service and of maintaining the clergy, and of maintaining everything else that stands in direct connection with the general task of the church itself. And since, with regard to these latter things, the prescriptions that concern church goods in general—namely their acquisition, their privileges, their use, and so on—differ, in the church-legal sources, from the prescriptions that concern the maintenance of the clergy, it is therefore necessary, in setting forth the teaching on the property law of the church, to speak separately of church goods and separately of the maintenance of the clergy.[1]

1. Church goods.