Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 128

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Volume 3, Page 128

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[001] conversely.] But for boundaries destroyed or completely altered the lord Martin took
[002] an assise as of a free tenement,¹ not as a trespass. For he used to say that one could not
[003] commit a more harmful disseisin than by destroying boundaries completely, or by
[004] moving or removing them, as may be proved etc.² We have spoken of a tenement
[005] which is common among neighbours. That which is common among parceners was
[006] explained above.³

Of the classification of tenements.

[008] Some tenements are divine, some human. The human, as was said above, are privately
[009] owned or common. [of the divine, one] is free and pure, as above, according as it is
[010] given to God and men,⁴ [another] sacred and divine, free of every burden, as a sacred
[011] thing, which is solely the property of God,⁵ not that of any private person or any individual
[012] man,⁶ that is, [those] which⁷ are properly dedicated and consecrated to God by
[013] priests,⁸ never afterwards to return to private use of any kind, as monasteries,
[014] [churches] cathedral, conventual and parochial, dedicated chapels, and dedicated
[015] cemeteries, whether dead are buried therein or not, because if such places are once
[016] dedicated and consecrated, they cannot again be converted to human use, [Even if
[017] they are not consecrated and dedicated, if the dead are interred in a place it will be a
[018] sacred place.]⁹ nor can things annexed to them, without which the sacred things cannot
[019] exist, as dormitories and refectories, kitchens, bakehouses and brewhouses, without
[020] which the keepers of religion cannot serve the church. Hence, though the edifices
[021] are destroyed, the place will still remain sacred.¹⁰ Of divine things some are sacred,
[022] some more sacred,¹¹ as holy things and the holy of holies. Of sacred things, some are
[023] not holy but sacred, as the walls and gates of cities, which are sacred because put
[024] under a sanction by kings and the citizens resident within them. For capital punishment
[025] is ordained for those who with rash audacity climb over the walls or gates of a
[026] city.¹² Some tenements are neither sacred nor holy but public,¹³ that is, the property
[027] of some universitas or commune, the property of all [the citizens] and not of any
[028] private or individual man, as theatres, stadia or public places, whether they are within
[029] the cities or outside them.¹⁴ ¹⁵There may be a free tenement not only in lands and
[030] immovables but in movables, as rents

Notes

1. ‘tenemento,’ all MSS

2. Supra 31; Barton in Tulane L. Rev., xlii, 572-3; B.N.B., no. 1021

3. Infra 129

4. Supra ii, 93, iii, 127, infra iv, 265

5. Supra 11, 40, 57, 58, 93

6. Inst. 1.8.1.pr.

7. ‘quae,’ all MSS

8. Inst. 2.1.8: supra ii, 40, 58, iii, 60

9. ‘Et etiam . . . locus sacer,’ from lines 25-26

10. ‘Et unde . . . locus sacer,’ from lines 24-25; ‘sacer,’ as Inst. 2.1.8; supra ii, 41, 58

11. Reading: ‘Item divinorum, aliud sacrum et aliud magis sacrum (from line 23) sicut sunt . . .’; om: ‘Et unde unum ... et sacrum’ (lines 22-23), redactor's introductory phrase; om: ‘aliud sanctum’ (line 26), as LA, OC, MG, CM

12. Inst. 2.1.10; D. 1.8.11; supra ii, 41, 57

13. Supra ii, 40, iii, 40, 61: quasi-sacred

14. Supra ii, 40, infra 130, 136-7

15. New paragraph