Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen
- Name
- Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen
- Alternate Name
- CRCC
- Description
-
The Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen (CRCC) was chartered by the state of Maryland in 1792 as the sole representative of the former Jesuits in the purchase and sale of real estate and capital investments. It enabled the former Jesuits to take advantage of the disestablishment of the Anglican Church and the corporate laws established by the newly-formed state of Maryland. The CRCC took ownership of real estate and enslaved people previously owned by individual Jesuits and their trustees. The CRCC took over the principal function of the Select Body of Clergy to secure ownership of the plantations whose income had supported Jesuit missions during the colonial period.
When it was chartered in 1792, the Trustees of the CRCC had sole authority to acquire real estate and initiate lawsuits on behalf of the Mission of the American Federation. After the establishment of the Maryland Province in 1833, its independence from ecclesiastical authority had eroded. The Provincial appointed the Trustees ; the Procurator served as Agent of the Corporation. The CRCC has nonetheless retained its function as the Province’s financial investor and legal representative to the present day.
The CRCC’s ownership of enslaved people created conflicts within the Province. The CRCC acknowledged that plantation management required discretion in the sale, hiring out, discipline, and living conditions of enslaved individuals, but the CRCC routinely exercised its authority to sell people. Most notably, the CRCC sought and executed the mass sale of 1838 and exercised its authority over other sales, often reprimanding plantation supervisors for their decisions to sell and acquire people. - Bibliographic Citation
- Curran, Robert Emmett. “Ambrose Marèchal, the Jesuits, and the Demise of Ecclesial Republicanism in Maryland, 1818-1838.” U.S. Catholic Historian 26, no. 2 (2008): 97–110.
- Source Resource
- http://onthesegrounds.georgetown.domains/omeka/api/items/7141