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Select Documents of English Constitutional History
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40.
Statute of Mortmain or De Religiosis
(November, 1279. Latin text, 1 S. R. 51, Stubbs, S. C. 458. Translation, 1 S. R. 51, G. and H. 81. 2 Stubbs, 117.)
THE king to his justices of the bench, Greeting.
Where of late it was provided, that religious men should not enter into the fees of any without licence and will of the chief lords, of whom such fees be holden immediately; and notwithstanding such religious men have since entered as well into their own fees, as into the fees of other men, appropriating and buying them, and sometimes receiving them of the gift of others, whereby the services that are due of such fees, and which at the beginning were provided for defence of the realm, are wrongfully withdrawn, and the chief lords do lose their escheats of the same: we therefore, to the profit of our realm, intending to provide convenient remedy, by the advice of our prelates, earls, barons, and other our subjects, being of our council, have provided, established, and ordained, that no person, religious or other, whatsoever he be. presume to buy or sell, or under the color of gift or lease, or by reason of any other title, whatsoever it be, to receive of any man, or by any other craft or device to appropriate to himself any lands or tenements under pain of forfeiture of the same whereby such lands or tenements may any wise come into mortmain. We have provided also, that if any person, religious or other, do presume in any manner either by craft or device to offend against this statute, it shall be lawful to us and other chief lords of the fee immediate to enter into the land so alienated, within a year from the time of the alienation, and to hold it in fee and inheritance. And if the chief lord immediate be negligent, and will not enter into such fee within the year, then it shall be lawful to the next chief lord immediate of the same fee to enter into the same fee within half a year next following, and to hold it as before is said; and so every lord immediate may enter into such fee if the next lord be negligent in entering into the same fee, as is aforesaid. And if all the chief lords of such fees, being of full age, within the four seas, and out of prison, be negligent or slack in this behalf; for the space of one year, we, immediately after the year accomplished, from the time that such purchases, gifts, or appropriations hap to be made, shall take such lands or tenements into our hand, and shall infeoff other therein by certain services to be done for the same to us for the defence of our realm; saving to the chief lords of the same fees their wards and escheats, and other things to them belonging, and the services for the same, due and accustomed. And therefore we command you, that you cause the aforesaid statute to be read before you, and from henceforth to be kept firmly and observed.
Witness myself at Westminster the fifteenth day of November, the seventh year of our reign.
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Chicago: "Statute of Mortmain or De Religiosis," Select Documents of English Constitutional History in Select Documents of English Constitutional History, ed. George Burton Adams (1851-1925) and Henry Morse Stephens (1857-1918) (New York: Macmillan Company, 1916), 72. Original Sources, accessed September 17, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CRCLCE3ZE89EJ5T.
MLA: . "Statute of Mortmain or De Religiosis." Select Documents of English Constitutional History, in Select Documents of English Constitutional History, edited by George Burton Adams (1851-1925) and Henry Morse Stephens (1857-1918), New York, Macmillan Company, 1916, page 72. Original Sources. 17 Sep. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CRCLCE3ZE89EJ5T.
Harvard: , 'Statute of Mortmain or De Religiosis' in Select Documents of English Constitutional History. cited in 1916, Select Documents of English Constitutional History, ed. , Macmillan Company, New York, pp.72. Original Sources, retrieved 17 September 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CRCLCE3ZE89EJ5T.
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