Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 106

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Volume 2, Page 106

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[001] given, with the same appurtenances, for he confirms nothing by such general
[002] [confirmation] except what was comprised in the gift. Hence if in the first gift
[003] the advowson of the church was excepted, that general confirmation does not
[004] include the advowson. As the thing given is transferred, so is it confirmed, for a
[005] confirmation adds nothing to a gift nor does it detract from or diminish it.]¹

A donor may impose a law and a condition on a gift.

[007] Thus a donor may change the causa possidendi of the thing in the donee without any
[008] resumption or change of possession, but cannot transfer it from one person to another
[009] without a change of possession.² A gift may be simple, absolute and complete,
[010] without condition or modus, [or] ³a donor may impose on his gift, with the consent of
[011] the donee, a law, a condition or a modus, provided it is not to the prejudice of others,
[012] though it may be to his own prejudice and that of his heirs and contrary to what the
[013] law of the land and the custom of the realm [would ordinarily provide], ⁴ for an agreement
[014] sometimes prevails over law.⁵ [It may be] of the whole, no part of the thing or
[015] its appurtenances excepted,⁶ for one may give a thing and retain part of it, or of its
[016] appurtenances, [so that] what was part [of the thing] or of the appurtenances ceases
[017] immediately after the gift to be such with respect to the donee.⁷ ⁸One may give all the
[018] right he has in a thing, that is, the rights of possession and of property, to the donee
[019] and his heirs, quit of himself and his heirs forever, a gift which is simple and absolute,
[020] [or] to such gift, when it is first made, the donor may add the law and condition
[021] that after a time the thing given revert to him, with the right of possession only, to
[022] be held for his life, the proprietas remaining with the donee, or so that both rights, of
[023] possession and property, remain with the donee and the usufruct revert after a
[024] time to the donor, for a term of life or years. ⁹<One who has the proprietas only,
[025] another having the possession, that is, the free tenement, may give what he has to
[026] another, that is, the proprietas, saving to the tenant his free tenement and his right
[027] of possession for life, so that after his death the possession revert to the proprietas.¹⁰
[028] He who possesses ought here to be attorned, with respect to his service and the rest,
[029] to him who has the property, just as he formerly was attorned to the donor.
[030] Similarly, if one having both rights has granted the usufruct to another,

Notes

1. Infra 108, 111, 173; infra n. 7

2. Belongs supra 105, at n. 8

3-5. ‘Ita poterit donator ... legem vincat,’ from lines 10-15

4. Supra 67-8, infra 149

6. Supra 66

7. Infra 164; the portion supra 105, n. 9 to 106, n. 1 belongs here

8. New paragraph

9. Supra i, 120-22 (full collation), 377-8

10. Supra 56, 103, infra 128-9, 184