Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 232

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Volume 3, Page 232

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[001] the church or chapel is not vacant, whereupon the ordinary must be consulted and
[002] in accordance with his answer the matter will be determined. He may also say that
[003] he claims no right in the advowson nor does he impede anyone in his presentation,
[004] since he himself is in possession of the thing and the church or chapel is not vacant.
[005] The patron could also make the same reply of non-vacancy if he were summoned to
[006] show why he has impeded a presentation to what seems a vacant church when it was
[007] not vacant.] When the impediant appears, he may show in many ways that he does
[008] not wrongfully impede, not only because he holds the tenement to which the advowson
[009] is appurtenant through some justa causa of acquisition, in perpetuity or for a time,
[010] without any reservation, with the advowson and all its appurtenances, which he may
[011] show in many ways, by documents and by other means, as may readily be drawn
[012] from what was said above. A patron or advocatus wrongfully impedes a presentor lawfully
[013] presenting in many ways, as where [he presents] contrary to his own deed, or
[014] that of his ancestors who have given or remitted their right to present to the presentor
[015] or his ancestors.¹ [Or] contrary to common right, where one has the tenement to
[016] which the advowson is appurtenant without any reservation, for a time or in perpetuity,
[017] or pendente lite, until the right has been determined, whether the plea concerns
[018] the tenement with the appurtenances or only the advowson alone. And so if
[019] [he presents] contrary to matters properly settled in the court of the lord king by
[020] judgment or by concord and fine levied. ²A clerk, after his patron's presentation has
[021] been recovered from him, may wrongfully molest and vex the clerk to be instituted
[022] or already instituted, thus attempting to render void matters properly settled in the
[023] king's court; in these cases recourse must be had to the aid of the king.³ A bishop,
[024] while a plea is pending, before the six months have run, may wrongfully encumber a
[025] church, and therefore an inhibitio ought to be sent him forbidding him to encumber
[026] it, or that he not admit a clerk on the presentation of anyone until the plea in the
[027] king's court has been determined, especially before the six months have run. If an
[028] assise of darrein presentment is arraigned between two or several, or a plea of
[029] quare impedit, or⁵ a plea on the right, all at the same time or one of them by itself,
[030] the ordinary may not admit anyone on the presentation of any of the parties until the
[031] plea is determined, and if, when the last presentation is ascertained, though there is a
[032] plea on the right, and he who is in possession of the presentation presents, the
[033] bishop is bound

Notes

1. Supra 226, 230

2. New paragraph

3. Infra 240, iv, 255