Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

STATUTKS OF MORTMAIN.
253
ut the great protest of the synod was against the
famous statutes of Mortmain. An alteration in the
conveyance of land was effected by these laws, to the
profit, as Edward supposed, of the crown. The first
statute was passed in 1279. All alienations in Mortmain
being forbidden, i the measure affected the
Church in this way : estates could not be bequeathed
to corporate bodies, consequently not to religious
foundations, because estates so bequeathed would
have been held in perpetual succession instead of reverting
ultimately to the feudal lord. The statute
of 1279 forbade the Church to acquire lands by will
or purchase without the consent of the feudal lord.
An expedient was discovered to evade its working.
The interested parties came to a secret understanding
: the body wishing to obtain the land set up a
fictitious title, and the real proprietor, by collusion,
suffered judgment to be given against him.1 This
evasion was foiled to a certain extent by a new
statute in 12