Investiture

Investiture, the delivery of, corporeal possession.- It is now more particularly applicable to the temporal part of a benefice, as the term "institution" is to the spiritual. And when a clerk is presented, instituted, and inducted into a living, he is then, and not before, invested with full and complete possession. In mediaeval times it was a constant subject of dispute between temporal and spiritual authorities. In Feudal Law it was the delivery of possession of land granted by a lord to his tenant. and corresponded to the more modern term livery of seisin. Investiture is also one of the formalities by which the election of a bishop is confirmed by the archbishop of the province. The term also applies to a grant of honour or dignity, e.g. the investiture of anyone with the Order of the Garter.