fere on behalf of the crown. Under these circumstances, the plaintiff is entitled to have the stock re-transferred to him, but he must pay the costs of the suit "(j). 2. Statute of 1 Edw. VI. c. 14, and construction thereof.] The statute 23 Henry VIII. c. 10 (k), made assurances of lands for churches or chapels, and to certain superstitious uses, void, but did not give any interest to the king; before that act, the finding of an obit and the service of a priest were good uses (1). The statute 1 Edward VI. c. 14, s. 5, vests in the crown all lands appointed wholly to superstitious uses, and the sixth section enacts, that where part of the revenue of any lands is to be employed in that way, the sums of money destined to such a purpose shall be enjoyed by the king, his heirs and successors (m). (j) De Themmines v. De Bonne- further considering and understandral, 5 Russ. 288. ing, that the alteration, change and amendment of the same, and con (k) Ante, p. 19. (1) Cro. Eliz. 449; 4 Rep. 113 a.; verting to good and godly uses, as 1 Rep. 23 b. (m) The statute of the 1st Edward VI. c. 14, recites-the king's most loving subjects, the lords spiritual and temporal, in this present Parliament assembled, considering that a great part of superstition and errors in Christian religion had been brought into the minds and estimations of men, by reason of the ignorance of their very true state and perfect salvation through the death of Jesus Christ, and by devising and fantasying vain opinions of purgatory and masses satisfactory, to be done for them which were departed; the which doctrine and vain opinion by nothing more is maintained and upholden than by the abuse of trentals, chantries and other provisions made for the continuance of the said blindness and ignorance; and in erecting of grammar schools to the education of youth in virtue and godliness, the further augmenting of the Universities, and better provision of the poor and needy, cannot in this present Parliament be provided and conveniently done, nor cannot, nor ought, to any other person committed than to the king's highness, whose majesty with and by the advice of his highness's most prudent council, can and will most wisely and beneficially, both for the honour of God, and the weal of this his majesty's realm, order, alter, convert and dispose the same. By the 2nd section, all colleges, free chapels and chantries existing within five years preceding that Parliament, and not in the actual possession of the late or present The statute of Edward VI. was taken to extend only to such uses as tended to superstition, which may be collected king (except such as should be altered by the king's commissioners), and all lands and hereditaments thereto belonging or given for the finding of a priest, were declared to be in the actual seisin and possession of the present king, without any office found. By the 3rd & 4th sections, all lands, &c. given to priests for years, were vested in the king for the remainder of such term of years, but on the expiration of such term, reversioners might enter without suing livery. By the 5th & 6th sections it is enacted, that the king, his heirs and successors, should have and enjoy for ever, all lands and other hereditaments, which by any assurance, will, devise or otherwise, at any time theretofore made or declared, were given or appointed, or to be employed wholly to the finding or maintenance of any anniversary or obit, or other like thing, intent or purpose, or of any light or lamp, in any church or chapel, to have continuance for ever, which had been kept or maintained within five years next before that Parliament. And also, that where but part of the issues or revenues of any manors, lands or other hereditaments, had by any of the ways or means above said been given, assigned or appointed to be bestowed, or employed to the finding or maintenance of any anniversary or obit, or other like thing, intent or purpose, or of any light or lamp in any church or chapel, to have continuance for ever; that then the king should for ever have and enjoy every such sums of money, that in any one year within the five years next before that Parliament had been expended and bestowed about the finding or maintenance of any such anniversary or obit, or other like thing, intent or purpose, of any light or lamp, to him, his heirs and successors for ever, as a rent charge to be paid yearly, with power of distress and entry for default of payment. By the 7th section, all brotherhoods or guilds, and their possessions, except companies of trade, were vested in the king. By the 8th section, commissioners were to be appointed under the great seal; with power to survey all lay corporations, and to inquire of the revenues applicable to priests, obits, &c., and of lands, &c., vested in the king by that act; and to assign lands applicable to grammar schools; and to appoint and endow vicars; and to assign lands for maintenance of additional priests in any parish; to make rules for priests and schoolmasters; and to assign yearly pensions for life, to deans, priests or poor persons dependent on dissolved colleges, &c.; and to inquire of perpetual allowances to poor people, and to make assignments for payment thereof; and also to appoint lands for piers, sea banks, &c. It was declared by the 15th section of the act, that it should not from the words of the act, and inferred from the time when it was made the policy of those days being to subvert the authority of the pope, and to dissolve the abbeys, chantries, and similar establishments (n). Parsonages and vicarages, although within the words of the statute 1 Edward VI. c. 14, were not within its intent, and were excepted by an equitable construction (o); and although the act in terms embraced all manner of colleges, yet it applied only to those that were superstitious, and not to the colleges of the universities (p), and it did not extend to any hospital whatsoever, either lay or religious (q). The statute also related only to such superstitious uses mentioned in it as were then existing, and was not prospective (r). Where a charitable use was intermixed with the superstitious, so that they could be distinguished, the king was entitled to so much only as was given for the latter purpose (s). The following distinctions were established in the construction of this statute (t): first, if land of the yearly value extend to the colleges in Cambridge, Oxford, St. George's Chapel, Windsor, nor to Winchester and Eton, nor to parochial chapels of ease, nor to any cathedrals, or their lands, except chantries there existing, within five years. It is said that the chantries and free chapels sold for a considerable sum, and that a great number of grammar schools were founded, chiefly out of the chantry lands. It is observed by Eden, that the rap city of the courtiers rendered it impracticable to carry the ostensible objects of this statute into effect. Hist. of the Poor, vol. i. 95, 96. See Andrews's Contin. of Henry's Hist. of Great Britain, vol. i. 365. Hardr. 208. (p) Hob. 122. (q) Co. Litt. 342 a. (r) Rex v. Portington, 3 Salk. 334; S. C. 12 Mod. 31; Porter's case, 1 Rep. 23 b.; Cary v. Abbott, 7 Ves. 495. (s) Duke, 105. (t) It may perhaps appear almost superfluous in the present day, to enter upon the construction of this statute; questions, however, may now arise upon it, when old grants to charitable uses become the subject of judicial consideration, as in the late case of Attorney General v. Vivian, 1 Russ. 226. The principle of these decisions, making the illegal purpose paramount where (n) Gibbons v. Maltyard, Poph. 8; the superstitious uses and the lawSee Porter's case, 1 Rep. 23 b. ful uses were so inseparably blended that one could not be distinguished (0) Plowd. 466; Palm. 125; of 201. was given for the finding of a priest, and a salary of 101. appointed to him, the king was entitled to the whole land, as the residue shall be intended to be for the finding of necessaries for the priest; if a condition was annexed to the gift to pay 101. per annum to the priest, then the king was entitled to that sum only (u). That if land of the yearly value of 201. was given to find a priest to pray for souls, who was to have an annual salary of 10l., and the rest was given to the poor, as the latter was distinct from the superstitious use, the king was entitled only to the 107. given to the priest, and not to the whole land; but it was otherwise where the land was given generally for finding a priest and for the maintenance of the poor, without saying how much the priest was to have (v). When a certain sum was given to a priest, and divers other good uses were limited, if they depended upon the superstitious use, the king took all where all the uses were superstitious, however certain, the land was given to the king (u). An hospital, founded and endowed under a license granted by King Richard II. with lands, for certain poor persons to serve God, and especially to pray for the soul of King Richard and the founder while they lived and after, and for the souls of the king's progenitors and heirs, and his own ancestors and heirs for ever, according to such ordinances as he should make, one of which was, that the poor should every day go to mass to a chapel of friars near adjoining, and should say fifty paternosters and as many avemarias, was held to be a superstitious hospital, and to be given to the crown by the statute 1 Edward VI. c. 14, although the word hospital was not in that act (v). Where lands were devised to the Company of Goldsmiths, to the intent that they with the issues and profits should repair the tenements, and pay all rents issuing thereout; and from the other, is followed in modern decisions, in gifts of personal estate connected with land. (u) Duke, 107. (v) Ibid. (u) Ibid; Adams and Lambert's case, 4 Rep. 104 b.; S. C. Moor, 648. (v) Pits v. Webster, Palm. 124; S. C. Hob. 121. should keep an obit, and should spend at it yearly 33s. 4d., and find perpetually a priest to sing mass for his soul; who should also keep a grammar school, chiefly for the poor, and receive 107. yearly for his salary; and the value of the tenements at the time of the gift exceeded the superstitious uses 501. per annum; it was decided, that all the tenements were given to the king by the said act, for although the direction to found a grammar school chiefly for the relief of the poor was a good and charitable use, yet being mixed with a superstitious use, and nothing in certain limited to the good use, in such case the uncertain mixture of the bad use with the good one infected the whole (w); and that the good use being derived out of the superstitious use, and to be performed by the priest, could not save the land, and it was the same as if the whole had been limited to the superstitious uses (x). So where a testator devised lands to the Dean of Newark for an obit, and the residue to pay a chantry priest 71. per annum during the lives of his wife, and another to chaunt for his soul, and afterwards to perform divine service for 99 years, and then directed the lands to be sold and the produce distributed to charitable uses for the aforesaid souls, and the feoffees conveyed for 99 years, reserving 71. to the priest; and then came the statute of 1 Edward VI. c. 14, it was held, that the fee simple of the land was forfeited, as the testator had turned all to superstitious uses (y). But where land was given to maintain a charitable use for the relief of the poor, and also that the schoolmaster or poor should pray for the donor's soul, the charitable use being considered as the principal intent of the donor, and the superstitious use of praying for the soul, but an accessary, the charitable use preserved the lands from forfeiture (z). It was the same where a certain sum was given (c) See Plowd. 51 a. 34, 46; S. C. 3 Salk. 335. See Hob. (z) Sir Bartholomew Read's case, 122, 123. Moor, 654; 4 Rep. 113 a. (z) Hynshaw v. Corporation of (y) Waldern v. Ward, 2 Sid. 13, Morpeth, Duke, 69 (242). H |