authorities in different countries of Europe. Reservations, instead of
being the exception, became very general, and, as a result, the eyes
of all ambitious clerics were turned towards Rome from which they
hoped to receive promotion, whether their immediate superiors deemed
them worthy or unworthy. Such a state of affairs opened the way to the
most serious abuses, and not unfrequently to disedifying wrangles
between rival candidates, all of whom claimed to have received their
appointments from Roman officials.

Intimately connected with papal reservations were expectancies or
promises given to certain persons that they would be appointed to
certain benefices as soon as a vacancy would occur. Such promises of
appointment were unknown in the Church before the twelfth century, but
later on they became very general, and led to most serious abuses
during the residence of the Popes at Avignon and during the
disturbances caused by the Great Western Schism. Expectancies were
adopted as a means of raising money or of securing support. Various
attempts were made to put an end to such a disastrous practice, as for
example at the Councils of Constance and Basle, but it was reserved
for the Council of Trent to effect this much needed reform.

Again the custom of handing over benefices /in commendam/, that is of
giving some person the right of drawing the revenues of a vacant
benefice for a certain specified time, was highly prejudicial to the
best interests of religion. Such a practice, however justifiable in
case of benefices to which the care of souls was not attached, was
entirely indefensible when adopted in regard to bishopric, abbacies,
and minor benefices, where so much depended upon personal activity and
example. The person who held the benefice /in commendam/ did nothing
except to draw the revenue attached to his office, while the whole