Impropriation, a term from English ecclesiastical law, was the destination of income from tithes of a church benefice to a layman.
This was the parochianus, parson, or rector who was sustained by the benefice income while providing personally for the cure of souls, the everyday pastoral and religious duties.
[4] Impropriation was similar except that the holder was a layman or secular corporation, again obliged to select and support a cleric to serve the parish.
Local churchgoers had little alternative to the official parish church, and impropriations were a questionable but effective political tactic during the historic struggle between Established and Puritan sects in England.
The legal suppression of the Feoffees was an early move of the high church Laudian movement leading up to the English Civil War.