Detached from its canon-law origins, in which the Neo-Latin saecularisatio (from the Latin saecularis, “of this age”, “worldly,” “pagan”) meant the transition from a cleric in a religious order to a priest working in the world at large [5. 15], the legal concept of secularization denotes the confiscation of ecclesiastical rights by a secular power. It implies at least the deconsecration and expropriation of church property, from the Carolingians’ appropriation…