Secularization (church property)

Secularization is the confiscation of church land or property by the state, 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.

• German mediatization

Incorporation of ecclesiastical principalities and territories of the former Holy Roman Empire into larger secular territorial states.

• Secularization of monastic estates in Romania

Further information: Suppression of monasteries

Bibliography

• Marcel Albert: Die Gedenkveranstaltungen zum 200. Jahrestag der Säkularisation 1803–2003. Ein kritischer Rückblick, in: Römische Quartalschrift 100 (2005) S. 240–274.