Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 185

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Volume 4, Page 185

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[001] it is clear that the appurtenances are not connected with the right itself, but with
[002] the church, constructed of wood and stone; not as ingress and egress are appurtenant
[003] to a right of pasturing and the like, or repair to a right of way.¹ Nor is the
[004] rule that in the assise of darrein presentment the jurors ought to see the church to
[005] which the presentation is made, an objection, because this has nothing to do with
[006] the right, but [is done] to make clear the church to which he is presented, the thing
[007] constructed of wood and stone; the two are completely different, though in a way
[008] connected. ²<The view was once claimed of the advowson of a church because there
[009] were different churches in the same vill, but it was afterwards revoked by judgment,
[010] so that the writ of view remained, because the church in which the advowson
[011] was claimed could be designated in another way, by what amounted to the same
[012] thing, ‘as the advowson of the church of the blessed Peter.’ On this there is matter
[013] in [the roll] of Trinity term in the second year after the war in the county of Kent,
[014] [the case] of the abbot of Nutley.>³

If the right of advowson ought to be taken into the lord king's hand.

[016] Since the right of advowson of a church is incorporeal, if on the tenant's default
[017] the sheriff is ordered to seize it into the hand of the lord king, how may it be seized,
[018] since it is incorporeal, invisible, intangible and cannot be touched, an act which
[019] seems impossible?⁴ I answer: in truth there can be no right without a body and a
[020] subject in which it inheres. If it is said that it inheres in the estate or tenement in
[021] which the church is situated, it then seems at first sight that the estate ought to be
[022] seized and thus the right of that advowson. But the estate is not seized because the
[023] right of advowson does not inhere in the estate directly, but through a mesne, which
[024] is the church, as constructed of wood and stones, [because], as was said above, it is
[025] the right of advowson of such church, not of such estate.⁵ Therefore since the right
[026] of advowson inheres in the church, let the sheriff be told to seize the church into the
[027] hand of the lord king by a simple taking, and in consequence he takes that which
[028] inheres in the body, as may be seen of a right of pasturing and the like.

Where the view or the equivalent lies.

[030] Where does the view lie? I say that it lies generally with respect to all lands
[031] claimed by writ of right patent, or by other writs close in which the matter may be
[032] brought to the duel, especially because of the oath of the champions,

Notes

1. Supra iii, 164

2. Supra i, 416

3. Not in B.N.B.

4. Supra 151

5. Ibid.