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[001] of such a one of such a vill or the free alms belonging to such a church of such a vill.’]
[002] And meanwhile let them view that land, and cause their names to be entered on the
[003] writ. And summon by good summoners the aforesaid, who holds that land, that he
[004] then be there to hear that recognition. And have there the summoners and this writ.
[005] Witness etc.’ If the person summoned does not come on the day given him, and does
[006] not essoin himself, let him then be resummoned, that he be present on another day,
[007] as more fully above in the assise of mortdancestor.1 If he appears, he may answer
[008] against the assise in many ways. In the first place, [that] there is an error in impetration,
[009] as above, [or] that the church never was in seisin of any kind, [if it is a clerk who
[010] claims. A clerk may answer in the same way against a layman claiming on his own
[011] seisin or that of some ancestor.] since without seisin he cannot claim. [Or] not in
[012] demesne, only of service. 2With respect to the words ‘free alms,’ we must see what
[013] and of what kind it is, and in order that the assise may proceed, whether the land was
[014] given3 to parish churches or to the others named above. If to parish churches, whether
[015] it is free or more free, according as it was given in dower, at the time of dedication,4 or
[016] at another time, the assise will lie. [A warrantor may be vouched, by the clerk as by
[017] the layman, and let everything be done as above [in the portion] on vouching a
[018] warrantor, [in the portion] on the assise of mortdancestor above.]5 But if to cathedral
[019] or conventual churches the assise will not lie, though it is in free, pure, and perpetual
[020] alms,6 [as [in the roll] of Easter term in the fifteenth year of the reign of king Henry,
[021] correcting an error of Robert de Lexington in his eyre in the county of Sussex, [the
[022] case] of the prior of Lewes and Gilbert de Aquila.]7 8[because] such lands are given not
[023] only to churches but to persons to be held in barony, as may be seen by the modus of
[024] the gift, when it is said, ‘Such a one gave and granted to God and such a church and to
[025] such persons, the prior and monks there serving God (or ‘to such a bishop9 and his
[026] successors’) such land in free, pure and perpetual alms etc.’ Such persons have all the
[027] remedies which would lie for a layman: if they are in possession and are ejected from
[028] their own seisin, the assise of novel disseisin. On the seisin of their predecessors, the
[029] writ of entry and the writ of right. And since they have all the remedies generally
[030] which a layman would have, they will not have recourse to the singular benefit introduced
[031] in favour of some individual parson claiming land in the name of his church,
[032] who can claim nothing except in the name of his church, because in parochial churches
[033] the gift is not made to the parson but to the church, as may be drawn from the modus
[034] of the gift. We must also see



Notes

1. Supra 206, 252, 253, 258

2. New paragraph

3. ‘data,’ all MSS

4. Infra iv, 265

5. Supra 259

6. B.N.B., no. 1117

7. B.N.B., no. 539; not on Easter roll, but B.N.B. nos. 530-35, 537-44 are not on the Easter roll; certification: C.R.R., xiv, no. 1823 (Trin. 15), no. 1922; B.N.B., no. 1117

8. Om: ‘Et quamvis . . . elemosinam,’ a connective

9. ‘episcopo’


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