Institution

Description

An Institution is a type of document recording either the beginning of a particular service/action or the appointment of a new person to fill a specific office/oversee a service. Many of the Institutions in the Atlas of a Medieval Life project record the collation of Roger de Breynton to benefices, which record his appointment to fill a particular church office. In modern Catholic law, collation and institution to a benefice are synonymous. However, other institutions document the beginning of a service, such as funeral services. Some institutions record the presentation of an individual, as the patron of a particular benefice would often own advowson, or the right to appoint (present) an individual to that benefice. While this type of document is still used in the modern day—we still say that a new service has been instituted, for example—their use in the medieval period has not been studied.