Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 226

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Volume 3, Page 226

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[001] all forms of writ for giving seisin may be included in one writ, as will be explained
[002] below by examples.¹

Of a tenant in dower who presents a clerk to a church.

[004] ²[Suppose] a woman having dower and the advowson presents a clerk, who is admitted
[005] on her presentation, and the heir and warrantor of her dower afterwards gives
[006] or sells that advowson to another, and, the church once more falling vacant in her
[007] lifetime, she confers it a second time; despite the gift made by the heir, by force of
[008] her presentation she transmits seisin of the right to present to her warrantor and his
[009] heirs, and thus the charter [made by the heir] will be void and the gift a nullity, since
[010] the donee cannot allege seisin of any kind. [Suppose] one answers³ against the assise
[011] in this way, that he who brings the assise cannot present because of his gift and subsequent
[012] charter, as was said above.⁴ If the charter cannot be denied the assise falls and
[013] the tenant will retain his seisin, since he is in quasi-possession after the gift made and
[014] the charter drawn.⁵ If [the charter] is completely denied, it must be proved by the
[015] witnesses named in it and by honest and lawful men of the neighbourhood, and once
[016] proved, his [the tenant's] presentation may not be further impeded. Incorporeal
[017] things, which do not admit of livery, are not like corporeal things, where the gift is
[018] void ⁶ though charters are made and homages taken,⁷ unless livery and physical occupation
[019] follow, as above.⁸ If the donor acknowledges the charter and says that he
[020] presented subsequently, he will have to show that by the assise; it will not be established
[021] by his unsupported word alone,⁹ nor even by a presumption, though he produces
[022] letters of the ordinary indicating that he has admitted a clerk on his presentation,
[023] nor will be necessary to proceed to the assise on the donor's seisin, because by
[024] granting the charter he put himself out of seisin,¹⁰ since he cannot show anything of
[025] seisin after the making of the charter. If one who holds for life, by the law of England
[026] or in some other way, with the advowson, once confers the church and then gives the
[027] advowson to another, to a bishop, for example, who creates a prebend, and his heir
[028] after his death arraigns an assise of darrein presentment, if he admits the presentation
[029] and gift of him who held for life his assise falls, not only because of the donor's seisin,
[030] of some kind and to some degree,¹¹ but also because the church is not vacant; no
[031] remedy is available to him except on the right by writ of right.¹² On this matter may
[032] be found [in the roll] of Michaelmas term in the sixth and the beginning of the seventh
[033] years of king Henry, near the beginning¹³ of the roll.¹⁴ To ascertain who

Notes

1. Infra 233

2. Supra 224

3. ‘respondeat’

4. Supra 210, 217, 220

5. Supra 220, infra 230, 232

6-7. ‘licet fiant cartae et capiantur homagia,’ all MSS

8. Supra ii, 120

9. ‘tantum’

10. Supra 220, infra 230, 232

11. Supra 222, infra 230

12. Supra ii, 279, iii, 222

13. ‘principium’

14. Not in B.N.B.; no roll extant