Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 214

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Volume 3, Page 214

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[001] was admitted on the presentation or not, for it does not suffice to present a parson
[002] unless he is admitted on the presentation of the presentor,¹ for when two clerks are
[003] presented by different patrons, one must be admitted and the other refused. It may
[004] be that neither is admitted, though one of the presentors has the right to present, not
[005] only because of the lapse of time fixed by the Lateran constitution, if the parties are
[006] in disagreement for more than six months, but because of minority, as where the
[007] charters of his ancestors are produced against a presenting minor to which he cannot
[008] reply before his full age. The collation will then belong to the ordinary, unless the
[009] parties agree upon the presentation of a suitable parson, saving the right of each when
[010] the minor reaches full age and reserving until such time a certain small payment,²
[011] that the right to present may be saved him who obtains by the assise, that he may
[012] then confer [the church] upon whom he wishes. Two may present at one time, of whom
[013] one will have right and the other none, or both have some spark of right; if they agree
[014] upon a clerk without any determination of the right, nothing³ will be established for
[015] the jurors by such presentation, since it is uncertain, but [let recourse be had]⁴ to
[016] the seisin of that patron as to whose presentation certainty may be had and who last
[017] presented on a right belonging to him, open to dispute or undisputed. Suppose that
[018] one has once presented without contradiction and, the church again becoming vacant,
[019] another impedes, but then gives his assent to the presentation of the first presentor.
[020] By that, by such assent, the status of the presentor when the church again
[021] becomes vacant is neither altered nor prejudiced, for it is one thing to assent and another
[022] to consent.⁵ For one may assent though he has no right to present, nor does he
[023] retain anything for himself, tacitly or expressly, though he says, ‘saving my right for
[024] the future.’ But if one in possession of a presentation gives his assent to him who has
[025] the property, or gives his consent to the presentation simply and without any⁶
[026] protestation, he prejudices himself forever. [It ought rather to be called consent
[027] than assent when he who has the right of possession consents with him who has the
[028] property.] But if he does so with this protestation, as where he says, ‘I consent to
[029] your presentation saving my right for the future,’ he thereby retains all the right he
[030] had, of possession and of property. It will be safer if he states both rights and says,
[031] ‘saving to myself my right for the future both on the possession and on the property.’
[032] [On this matter

Notes

1. ‘praesentantis’

2. Infra 219, 237

3. ‘nihil’

4. ‘sed recurratur’; as 211

5. B.N.B., no. 376 (margin): ‘Nota quod si unus presentaverit aliquem qui ad presentationem suam sit admissus, et mortua persona tali postea alium presentaverit, et alius quicunque se opponat, et postea assensum prebeat presentationi illius qui prius presentavit et per hoc non recessit nec exiit ille qui alium presentavit et contulit a seisina sua, si tercio presentet admittetur eius presentatus contra illum qui prebit assensum.’

6. ‘aliqua’