Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 293

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Volume 4, Page 293

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[001] the communion of mankind is denied a leper, so it is to one who is excommunicated,
[002] and what is more, every lawful act. An exception lies for the tenant not only because
[003] of the demandant's person, but because of co-heirs and parceners, without whom he
[004] cannot sue, since they have as much right as he who claims, or because not the
[005] demandant but another has the right, or a greater right, so that the demandant
[006] cannot sue without others or cannot sue at all. An exception also lies for the tenant
[007] because of conjunction, as where a husband wishes to sue for his wife's property
[008] without his wife, in which case [he will not be heard without her] any more than she
[009] without him, but the writ does not fall if he [is sued] without his wife, because he may
[010] vouch his wife to warranty, but not conversely.¹ An exception also lies for the tenant
[011] against the demandant by reason of a superior whom the matter affects in some
[012] way, as [monks], [who are sometimes] perpetual, sometimes removable, without the
[013] abbot or prior, an abbot or prior² without the chapter,³ or canons without their bishop
[014] and patron.⁴ Also the brethren of a religious house without their warden and sometimes
[015] nuns or sisters like the sisters of Buckland, who cannot act without the prior
[016] of the Hospital, in which case the wardens without whom the brethren and sisters
[017] cannot sue must be called to sue. As to the exception of villenage put forward against
[018] a demandant, what ought to be done, in a possessory as well as a proprietary cause,
[019] may be drawn adequately from what was said above in the tractate on the assise of
[020] novel disseisin, where [villenage] is excepted against the assise.⁵

The exception against the demandant arising from his person.

[022] An exception lies for a tenant against a demandant arising from the demandant's
[023] own person, a peremptory exception, that he be barred⁶ from the action forever, on
[024] the ground that he has no right since he is a bastard. It is sometimes raised by way
[025] of an exception, as here said, when it is raised by the tenant, sometimes in place of an
[026] action, when it is put forward by the demandant against the tenant, that he be removed
[027] from possession.⁷ Hence we must first see how it ought to be raised, [against
[028] whom, by whom, and in what action, and how an answer may be made to it after it
[029] has been raised,]⁸ how

Notes

1. Supra 193, 234

2. ‘abbas vel prior’

3. ‘capituli’; supra 35

4. Supra 35, infra 330

5. Supra iii, 84

6. ‘excludatur’ for ‘excludat eum,’ as below ‘amoveatur’

7. Infra 299

8. ‘proposita’