subtlety, at length rose into a total suppression of their societies, and abrogating their delusions, laid the cornerstone of the modern receptacles for the relief of indigence and disease *. 1 Ed. 6. c. 14. * Some of the commissioners who visited the abbies petitioned the king (Henry VIII.) to spare them; and declared that the poor received from them great relief, and the rich good education; and the bill for the sup- Lord Herbert's pression of colleges and chantries promised that the estates of these founda- Hist. of Hen. 8. tions should be converted to good and godly purposes, in erecting grammarschools, in the further augmentation of the universities, and in better provisions for the poor and needy. The rapacity, however, of the courtiers rendered this project impracticable. 1 Eden, State of the Poor, 5. СНАР. CHAPTER II. OF THE RESTRAINTS OF ALIENATION IN MORTMAIN, Speed. 418. b. A. D. 1066. 2 Bl. Com. 268. Ibid. 1. 479. Hen. 3, c. 36. A. D. 1238. Fitz. Mortm. WILLIAM the Conqueror, demanding the cause why he himself conquered the realin by one battle, which the Danes could not effect by many? Frederick, the Abbot of St. Alban's, answered, that the reason was, because now the land, which was the maintenance of martial men, was converted and given to pious employments, and for the maintenance of holy votaries. To which the Conqueror replied, that if the clergy be so strong, that the realm is enfeebled of men for the war, and subject thereby to foreign invasion, he would aid it: and therefore took away many of the revenues of this Abbot, and of others also. I take this to be the origin of all our restraints of mortmain. Alienation in mortmain, in mortua manû, is an alienation of lands or tenements to any corporation, sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or civil. But these purchases having been chiefly made by religious houses, in consequence whereof the lands became perpetually inherent in one dead hand, this hath occasioned the general appellation of mortmain to be applied to such alienations, and the religious houses themselves to be principally considered in forming the statutes of mortmain. By the 36th article of Magna Charta, it is ordered thus: "It shall not be lawful from henceforth, to any, Bro.Mortm. 30. "to give his lands to any religious house, and to take the "same land again to hold of the same house. Nor shall 1.3. 9 inst. 74. 182. "it be lawful to any house of religion, to take the lands Wood Inst.301, "of any and to release the same of him, to him to "whom he received it. If any from henceforth give his "lands, and thereupon be convict, the gift shall be ut"terly void, and the land shall accrue to the lord of "the fee." The cause of this article was, to correct an evasion, ingeniously invented by the clergy, to surmount the dif- . ficulty of their being obliged to procure from the crown 18 Ed. 3. st. 3. C. 3. a licence to purchase in mortmain; which seems to have Seld. Jan. Angl. been the practice among the Saxons above sixty years l. 2, s. 45. before the Norman conquest, and continues appended F. N. B. 121. to the prerogative at this day; and also a like license to Licenses. alienate, whenever there was a mesne or intermediate lord between the King and the alienor: thus, as the forFeiture accrued to the immediate lord, the possessor in- 2 Bl. Com. 269. stantly aliened to the religious house, and then took the lands back again as tenant thereto, which kind of in-stantaneous seisin, was probably held not to occasion any forfeiture and then by committing some other act of forfeiture, surrender, or escheat, the monastery entered as inmediate lord. About this period, we find the greatest part of Europe A. D. 1248. amused by those holy expeditions, called crusades: pomp and magnificence, a vast retinue, large bounties, and great expence, always accompanied the journey of imaginary salvation. The princes of Christendom vied with each other in a splendid and dazzling homage to the holy cross; the banners of each potentate blazed before the world, and deluded multitudes fell prostrate, with mistaken zeal, at the approach of these fanatic baubles, in preference to the pure simplicity of the true faith. The spiritual Babylon now reigned the idol of bigoted frenzy ; and while the people vainly thought they sacrificed to Christ, they were literally bending the knee to Baal. Edward A. D. 1272. Edward the First ascended the throne with the strongest testimonies of a desire to reform the abuses which had found their way into his kingdom. The prodigious increase of the riches of the clergy, from the causes already mentioned, and of the monasteries also, had long been a subject of public complaint; and no one had been able to discover an effectual method to put an end to an evil so prejudicial to commerce, and to the state. Although the barons, who exacted from King John the great charter, still so deservedly revered, had taken care to insert the clause already mentioned, forbidding alienations of lands to the church; yet this had not been regarded. Complaints were renewed on this and many other subjects, and kept pace with the hopes in which every one exulted, that all their grievances would now be redressed. It was demonstrated to the aspiring king, that the church never dying, always acquiring and never alienating, her riches must consequently increase, and in process of time all the lands would be in possession of the clergy. It might have been supposed, that the principles alone of the great charter of the realm would have held the people in awe, and have induced them to despise and reject all strict. interpretation of the letter: but even this was not powerful enough to resist the ingenuity of these votaries to monastic subtlety; they were placed in a situation wherein they knew themselves to be protected from danger, so long as they held the consciences of men, and from whence they could command obedience to their decrees, as lords over the vassals of their feudal seignories! As the foregoing clause in 'he great charter had put an end to their concerted forfeitures, they had contrived leases for long periods (which first introduced those extensive terms for five hundred and a thousand years, or more, to attend the 2 Bl.Com. 276. inheritance so frequent in conveyances): the king ma turely turely considered the grievance complained of, proposed a new law to his parliament, which they received with joy, and thus the legislature were induced to interpose by 7 Edw. 1. st. 2. the statute De Religiosis, anno 1279. The statute recites, "That it had been of late provided, 457 Bro. Mortm. 15-43. 50 E. 3, C. 22 13 Co. Lit. 2 b. 2 Bulst. 187. "that religious men should not enter into the fees of any, without licence and will of the chief lord, of whom such ❝fees be holden immediately; and notwithstanding such 1 Roll. 154, 7. "religious men have entered as well into their own fees, 2 Roll. 170. "as into the fees of other men, approprying and buying them, and sometime receiving them of the gift of others, whereby the services that are due of such fees, 15 E. 4. c. 13. Fitz. Formedon, "and which at the beginning were provided for the de- 57. "fence of the realm, are wrongfully withdrawn, and the 3 Bulst. 45. "chief lords to leese their escheats of the same. It is "enacted in substance as follows: That no person, reli"gious or other, shall buy or sell, by color of gift, or lease, "or otherwise, or receive by reason of any other title, any "lands or tenements, or by any other craft will appropre Enforced and "to himself under pain of forfeiture of same, whereby said Ed.1. st.1.c.82. "lands may come into mortmain. The lord of the fee shall c "enter such lands within a year after such alienation, and 34 Ed. 1. st. 3, "hold the same in fee as an inheritance. If he neglect to "enter, then the next chief lord immediate may enter in "six months then next, and so in succession. In default "of their entry for one year, the lands shall fall to the "crown, saving due services to the chief lord of the "fee." amended by 13 18 Ed. I. st. 1. C. 3. 8vo edit. As the pope and the clergy mutually supported each 4 Rapin, 9. other, in endeavouring to establish a permanent supremacy in the papal throne; this act was one of the most effectual means to oppose them both, by withstanding the one, and checking the growth of the other; it was a fatal blow to the clergy, whose ambition urged them to grasp the universal dominion over public property; and |