- ecclesia commendata
- Also called "commends,"-a church living commended by the crown to the care of a clerk, to hold until a proper pastor is provided for it. This might be temporary for from one to three years; or perpetual: being a kind of dispensation to avoid the vacancy of the living, and is called a commenda retinere. There was also a "commenda recipere," which was to take a benefice de novo, in the bish- op's own gift, or the gift of some other patron consenting to it. See 1 Bl Comm 393.
Ballentine's law dictionary. Anderson, W.S.. 1998.