Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 175

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Volume 4, Page 175

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[001] whom the descent ought to be made in the right line descending or in the transverse
[002] line ascending, since the right cannot re-ascend the right line by which it descends,
[003] may be seen below [in the portion] on succession,¹ [provided that if, for failure of
[004] heirs descending in the right line the count of the descent ought to be made by
[005] reverting to the transverse line, to someone who died very long ago, let inquiry be
[006] made as to the king in whose reign he died; if he died in the reign of king Henry the
[007] grandfather or subsequently, the descent will be good, because from that time one
[008] may prove his right and the descent, but if he died before the reign of that king, no
[009] matter when, an action will be useless because of lack of proof.]²

If an abbot or prior or other collegiate men claim by writ of right.

[011] If an abbot or prior claims land or an advowson or whatever in the name of his
[012] church on the seisin of his predecessors by saying ‘and of which such a one, abbot,
[013] my predecessor, was seised in his demesne etc.,’ let him not make his count from
[014] abbot to abbot or prior to prior, nor make mention of intervening abbots or priors,³
[015] for in colleges and chapters the body always remains the same though all die successively
[016] and others take their places, as may be said of flocks of sheep, where the
[017] flock always remains the same though all the sheep or heads die successively,⁴ nor
[018] does one succeed the other by right of succession so that the right descends hereditarily
[019] from one to another, for the right always belongs to the church and remains
[020] with the church, as may be seen in the charters of feoffment of men of religion,
[021] where it may clearly be seen that the gift is made first and principally to God and
[022] such a church, and secondarily to the monks or canons there serving God.⁵ For that
[023] reason, if the abbot or prior, the monks or the canons, die successively, the house
[024] will remain in perpetuum. Hence when an abbot or prior or other collegiate men
[025] claim land or an advowson against anyone by writ of right in the name of a church,
[026] having put forward his claim and supported it, as was said above, let the enrolment
[027] be made in this way: ‘Such a one, abbot (or ‘prior’ or another) claims against such
[028] a one so much land with the appurtenances etc. (or ‘such an advowson,’ that is,
[029] ‘the advowson of such a church with the appurtenances’) as the right of his church,
[030] of which such a one, abbot (or ‘prior’ or another) his predecessor, was seised in his
[031] demesne as of fee and right in a time of peace etc. (as above) so that he presented

Notes

1. ‘successionibus’; supra ii, 188

2. Supra 170, 172

3. Supra ii, 229

4. Ibid.

5. Supra ii, 52, 228-9, iii, 127, 331