BENEFICIARY, Beneficiarius, is more particularly used for a benefited person, or him who receives and enjoys one or more benefits. A beneficiary is not the proprietor of the revenues of his church; he has only the administration of them, though not accountable for his conduct therein to any but God and his superior.
BENEFICIARY is also used, by the writers of the middle ages, for a feudatory or vassal. The denomination was however applied to the clerks or officers who kept the accounts of the beneficia, and made the writings necessary thereto.