Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 58

Harvard Law School Library

Bracton Online -- English

Volume 2, Page 58

Next

Go to Volume: Page:

[001] [Nor may things annexed to spiritualities be given to any individual person, as
[002] corodies to be taken from abbeys and religious houses and the like, in which no one
[003] may claim a free tenement.]¹ Those things are sacred and holy which are properly
[004] consecrated and dedicated to God by His ministers,² as churches, not only cathedral
[005] but conventual and parochial.³ Also things annexed to them, as cemeteries⁴ and
[006] other places where the dead are buried, though not formally dedicated,⁵ as in the time
[007] of the interdict. Also the sites where abbeys, priories and other religious houses are
[008] built, for they are the property of God and will remain sacred though the building
[009] is destroyed.⁶ Another quasi-sacred thing is a free man, who cannot be sold, since
[010] liberty has no price.⁷ A thing belonging to the fisc is also quasi-sacred and cannot
[011] be given or sold or transferred to another by the prince or reigning king; such
[012] things constitute the crown itself⁸ and concern the common welfare, as peace and
[013] justice, which have many forms, as will be explained more fully elsewhere.⁹ There
[014] are also other things that belong to the crown because of the king's privilege but
[015] do not so touch the common welfare that they may not be given and transferred
[016] to another,¹⁰ for if they are¹¹ that will be to the damage of no one except the king
[017] or prince himself. If things of that kind, as wreck of the sea, treasure trove, and
[018] great fish, as whale, sturgeon and other royal fish, have been granted to another
[019] and a question arises thereon, [he] who claims such liberty must show that it
[020] belongs to him, for if he has no special warrant he cannot maintain himself therein,
[021] even though he puts forward the prescription of long use,¹² for here great length of
[022] time does not diminish the wrong but increases it; nor does time run against the
[023] king, in the first case or in this, nor need he prove that [such things] belong to him,
[024] since it must be clear to everyone that they belong to the crown by the jus
[025] gentium.¹³ There are also other things which belong to the crown and are not so
[026] sacred that they cannot be transferred, as estates, lands, tenements and the like,
[027] by which the crown of the king is strengthened; with respect to such time runs
[028] against the king as against any private person.¹⁴ There are also other quasi-sacred
[029] things, which touch the person

Notes

1. Infra iii, 60

2. Inst. 2.1.8: ‘Sacra sunt quae rite et per pontifices deo consecrata sunt’; supra 40, infra iv, 266

3. Supra 41; infra 93

4. Supra 41

5. Infra iii, 128

6. Inst. 2.1.8: ‘locus autem, in quo sacrae aedes aedificatae sunt, etiam diruto aedificio adhuc sacer manet’; supra 41, infra iii, 128

7. D. 50.17.106: ‘Libertas inaestimabilis res est’; supra 41

8. Supra 57, infra 167; E. Kantorowicz, 173

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. ‘transferantur’

12. Infra 167, 293-4, 439

13. Supra 41, infra 166, 293, 339

14. Infra 167