noun
definition
A gift; a largess; a gratuity.
definition
(ecclesiastical law) A benefice conferred on a person by the founder or patron, without either presentation or institution by the ordinary, or induction by his orders.
adjective
definition
Being or relating to a donation.
Examples of donative in a Sentence
He hastened to propitiate the former by a donative of twice the usual amount, and excused his hasty acceptance of the throne to the senate by alleging the impatient zeal of the soldiers and the necessity of an imperator for the welfare of the state.
It is still more surprising that the soldiers should have quietly submitted to a reduction in the amount of the donative or gift which it was customary for them to receive from a new emperor, though the civil population of the capital were paid their largess (congiarium) in full.
Before 1898 there were also donative advowsons, but the Benefices Act 1898 made all donations with cure of souls presentative.
In a donative advowson, the sovereign, or any subject by special licence from the sovereign, conferred a benefice by a simple letter of gift, without any reference to the bishop, and without presentation and institution.
At his accession the financial straits of the treasury were such that the usual donative could not be given to the janissaries.
The living is a donative curacy in the diocese of Durham, value £ 93, in the patronage of Sir M. W. Ridley.