Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/99

 TRUMWIN

71

TRUSTEE

Trumwin (Triumwixi, Trumuini), Saint, d. at \\'hitby, Yorkshire, England, after 686! He was consecrated by St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canter- bury, as a missionary bisliop among the Picts, and \v:is consequently regarded later as the first Bishop of W'liithorn, in Galloway. When the Picts reasserted their independence he retired with a few of his followers to the monastery of Streaneshalch, now Whitby. In 684 he was present at the synod re- I'orded by Bede (IV, 28), known as the Sj-nod on the Alne, possibly the same as the Synod of Twyford; and lie accompanied King Ecgfrith to Lindisfarne to per- suade St. Cuthbert to accept the bishopric. The one charter attributed to him is "a clear forgery" (Had- ilan and Stubbs, III, 166). St. Bede adds that he s]ient many years of useful labour at Whitby before he died and was buried in St. Peter's Church there.

Aria SS., Feb.. II; Bede. Hist. Etc. Gent. Ang.. IV, cc. 12, 26, .mil 28; R.mne in Diet. Christ. Biog., s. v.; Bihch, Cartularium S'lxonicum, I (London. 1885); Kemble. Codex Diplomaticus (London, 1839-48); Haddan and Stubbs, Counfils and Docu' ritrnis (Oxford, 1869-78); Searle, Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings, and Nobles (Cambridge, 1S99).

Edwin Burton.

Trustee System. — I. In the exercise of her inher- ent right of administering proi)erty, the Church often a])points deputies who are responsible to herself. Technically, such administrators, whether cleric or l;iy, are called the "fabric" of the Church. In very early times ecclesiastical goods were divided into tliree or four portions, and that part set aside for the upkeep of the Church began to take on the character of a juridical person. The Eleventh Council of Carthage (can. ii) in 407 requested the civil power to appoint five executors for ecclesiastical property, and in the course of time la^Tiien were called on to take their share in this administration, with the under- st;iniling, however, that everj'thing was to be done in the name and with the approbation of the Church. .\ luunber of early and medieval synods have dealt with the administration of curators of ecclesiastical property, e. g. can. vii. Cone. Bracar, (.563); can. xxxviii. Cone. Mogunt. (813); can. x, Cone. Mogunt. (S47); can. xx-xv, Cone. Nation. Wirceburg. (1287). Tlie employment of laymen in concert with clerics as trustees became common all over Christendom. In England such officials were called churchwardens. They were generally two in number, one being chosen by the p.arish priest, the other by the parishioners,
 * iiid with them were as.sociated others called sidesmen.

The churchwardens administered the temporalities of the parish under the super\-ision of the bishop, to whom they were responsible. An annual report on the administration of church property was made ,,l,)j<T.,t^ry in all countries by the Council of Trent Si XXII. can. ix, "De Ref."): "The adminis- ■i • -. whether ecclesiastical or lay, of the fabric of any church whatsoever, even though it be a cathedral, as also of any hospital, confraternity, charitable insti- tution called 7no!il de piete, and of any pious places whatsoever, shall be bound to give in once a year an account of their administration to the Ordinary."

II. — .-\t the present time, the Church nowhere abso- lutely fnrbicLs the employment of laymen in the administration of ecclesiastical property, but en- deavours, gener.ally by means of concordats, to have her own laws and principles carried out on this sub- ject when laymen are among the trustees, .\ccord- ing to the present discipline, the fabric of the church is distinct from the foundation of the benefice, and sometimes the fabric, in addition to the goods destined for the upkeep of divine worship, possesses also schools and eleemo.synary institutions (S. C. C, 27 Apr., 189.5, in cans. Bergom.). All lay tnistees must be approved by the bishop, and he retains the right of removing them and of overseeing the details of their administration. In countries in which the church organization was entirely swept away in the troubles

of the Reformation period, as in the British Isles, lay- men are not generally employed as trustees at the present day. For the trustee system, as far as it can be called such, in use in the Catholic Church in Eng- l.and and Ireland .see Taunton, "The Law of the Church", pp. 15, 316. In Holland, laymen were admitted to a share in the administration of church temporalities by a decree of the Propaganda (21 July, 18.56). The bishop is to nominate the members of the board, over which the parish priest is to preside. Trustees hold office for four years and may be reap- pointed at the expiration of that term. When a vacancy occurs the board presents two names to the bishop, from which he selects one. In necessary cases the bishop may dismiss any member and even dis- solve the entire board of trustees. In this instance, as in all others where laymen are in question, the Holy See is careful to guard the prescriptions of the sacred canons as to the management and ownership of church goods [see Administr.^tor (of Ecclesiasti- cal Property)].

III. — In the United States the employment of lay trustees was customary in some parts of the country from a very early period. Dissensions sometimes arose with the ecclesiastical authorities, and the Holy See has intervened to restore peace (see Conwell, Henry; Philadelphia, Archdiocese of; New York, .\rchdiocese of). Pius VII vindicated (24 Aug., 1822) the rights of the Church as against the pretensions of the trustees, and Gregory XVI de- clared (12 Aug., 1841): "We wish all to know that the office of trustees is entirely dependent upon the au- thority of the bishop, and that consequently the trustees can undertake nothing except with the ap- proval of the ordinary." The Third Plenary Coun- cil of Baltimore (Tit. IX, no. 287) laid down certain regulations concerning trustees: It belongs to the bishop to judge of the necessity of constituting them, their number .and manner of appointment; their names are to be proposed to the bishop by the parish rector; the appointment is to be made in WTiting and is revocable at the will of the bishop; the trustees selected should be men who have made their Easter duty, who contribute to the support of the Church, who send their children to CathoUc schools, and who are not members of prohibited societies; nothing can be done at .a board meeting except by the consent of the rector who presides; in case of disagreement be- tween the trustees and the rector, the judgment of the bishop must be accepted. A decree of the Congre- gation of the Council (29 July, 1911) declares that the vesting of the title to church property in a board of trustees is a preferable legal form, and that in con- stituting such boiirds in the United States, the best method is that in use in New Y'ork, by which the Ordin.ary, his vicar-general, the parish priest, and two laymen approved by the bishop form the corporation (see Property, Ecclesiastical, is the U. S.).

IV. — The legal standing of church trustees accord- ing to British law is treated by Taunton, "The Law of the Church", pp. 15, 315. " In the United States the legal rights of trustees vary slightly in different States, but the following prescriptions (selected from ScanLan, "The Ljiw of Church and Grave") hold almost everywhere: When the statute provides that two lay members of the corporation shall be ap- pointed annually by the committee of the congrega- tion, the members of the congregation have no right to elect s.aid two members, and those appointed in the proper manner are lawful officers. When the election of new tru.stees is invalid, the okl trustees hold over until there shall have been a valid election of their successors. The president and secretary of a church corporatif)n have no authority to make a promissory note unless authorized by the board of trustees. When the laws of the organization give? control of matters to the board of trustees, the majority of the