1 JAMES 1, CAP. 25, Sec. 48.-An act for continuing and reviving 1 M. sess. 2, of divers statutes, and for repealing of some others.-Be it further c. 2. enacted by the authority of this present parliament, that an act made in the first year of the reign of queen Mary, intituled, an act for the repeal of certain statutes made in the time of king Edward the sixth, shall stand repealed and void. 12 CHARLES 2, CAP. 30.-An act for the attainder of several persons guilty of the horrid murder of his late sacred majesty king Charles the first.-See Title-" ANNIVERSARY OF KING CHARLES MARTYRDOM," vol. i. p. 117. SPACE LEFT, FOR REFERENCE, IF NECESSARY, TO ACTS OF PARLIAMENT PASSED SUBSEQUENT TO A. D. 1844. FEOFFMENTS MADE TO CHARITABLE USES. and assur ments, &c. to commonalties, &c. found prejuking and his dicial to the subjects. c. 36. 13 Ed. 1, st. 1, 7 Ed. 1, st. 2. 23 HENRY 8, CAP. 10.-An act for feoffments and assurances of lands, and tenements made to the use of any parish church, chapel, or such like.-Where by reason of feoffments, fines, recoveries, and other Feoffiments estates, and assurances, made of trusts, of manors, lands, tenements, ances of and hereditaments, to the use of parish churches, chapels, church- lands, tenewardens, guilds, fraternities, commonalties, companies, or brother- churches, heads erected and made of devotion, or by common assent of the people without any corporation, and also by reason of feoffments, fines, recoveries, wills, and other acts made to any uses aforesaid, or to the uses and intents to have obits perpetual, or a continual service of a priest for ever, or for three-score, or four-score years, founden of the issues and profits of the manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, whereof such feoffments, fines, recoveries, wills, c. 32. and other acts been made, or that the feoffees, conisees, recoverers, c. 3. or other persons, and their heirs thereof seized, shall take, levy, receive, and perceive, or cause or suffer to be taken, levied, and perceived the issues, revenues, and profits thereof, and the same to dispose, pay, convert, or otherwise employ or suffer, or cause to be disposed, paid, converted, or employed to any such uses, intents, or purposes, as been above specified, or to any other like uses and intents; there groweth and issueth to the king our sovereign lord, and to other lords and subjects of the realm, the same like losses and inconveniencies, and is as much prejudicial to them, as doth, and is, in case where lands be aliened into mortmain: 18 Ed. 1, st. 1, 18 Ed. 3, st. 3, c. 3. 15 R. 2, c. 5. of lands to shall be void. II. Be it therefore enacted by the king our sovereign lord, the Assurances lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in this present par churches, liament assembled, and by authority of the same, that all and every chapels, &c. such uses, intents, and purposes, of what name, nature, or quality Cro. El. 288, they shall be called, that shall be devised, covenanted, made, declared, 11 Co. 71. or in anywise ordained, after the first day of March, in the three and twentieth year of the reign of our sovereign lord king Henry the eighth, by any feoffee, recoverer, or conisee, or by any other person or persons to whose use any such feoffee, recoverer, or conisee shall be seized, of any manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or of the issues, revenues, and profits of them, or any of them, shall be utterly void, and of no strength, virtue, nor effect in the law. assurances of for twenty years. III. Provided alway, that it shall be lawful to every person, being Proviso for seized of any manors, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to his own proper use, or having feoffees, recoverers, or conisees to his use, to churches,&c. make, ordain, or devise, or cause to be made, ordained, or devised, any of the uses, intents, or purposes above specified, in such manner as they might have done before the making of this act, and as if this act had never been had nor made; so that no such uses, intents, or purposes to be so made, ordained, or devised after the said first day of March, be not in anywise made, ordained, devised, or appointed, to endure, continue, or abide by any craft, colour, terms, sentences, assurances in shall be void. clauses, words, or other means, above the term of twenty years next after the first making and beginning of any such uses, intents, or purposes. Collateral IV. And it is further enacted, that if any person or persons, in defrauding defraud of this statute, bind or ordain any their heirs or successors, of the statute or any other person or persons, that they shall suffer such uses, intents, and purposes to endure and continue, contrary to this act, upon pains or penalties of losses of any other lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or of any other thing or things; or do attempt or devise by any colour, craft, or means, any thing or things, to make any such uses, intents, or purposes to be declared, contrary to the true meaning of this act, to continue or abide for any longer time or season than is above limited for the same; that then every such pain, penalty, craft, colour, and every other thing and things, of what kind, nature, or quality soever it be that shall be so made, ordained, or devised in defraud of this act, shall be utterly void in the law to all intents; and that this statute shall be always interpreted and expounded, as beneficially as may be, to the destruction and utter avoiding of such uses, intents, and purposes therein above remembered, and of all other like uses and intents, otherwise than only after such manner as is afore by this present act provided. Customs of cities and towns to de vise lands, saved. Proviso for the devises of the execu and Terry of Norwich. V. Provided alway, that in such cities, and towns corporate, where by their ancient customs they have good and lawful authorities to devise into mortmain the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, within the same cities or towns corporate, that this act shall not be in anywise prejudicial or hurtful to any such custom. VI. Provided alway, that this act, nor any thing therein contained, shall extend, or be in anywise prejudicial, to hinder or impair any tors of Jannis such ordinances, devises, or declarations of uses, as shall hereafter the city of be made and declared in writing, by the executors of the testaments and last wills of Robert Jannis and John Terry, late aldermen of the city of Norwich, now deceased, or by the executors or the survivor of the executors of either of them, of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, not amounting in the whole above the clear yearly value of forty pounds, to be employed and converted to and for the discharge of tolls and customs within the said city, and at the gates of the same, for the discharge of the poor people within the same city, of taxes and tallages hereafter to be assessed and levied, and for the 7 & 8 W. 3, cleansing of the streets of the same city, or for any of the said good 13& 14 Car.2, purposes, according to the true intents and meanings of the said last wills and testaments, and either of them; so that the same ordirestraining nances, devises, and declarations be had, made, and certified in gifts in mort writing into the king's court of chancery, within two years next main by will. ensuing the feast of Easter next coming. c. 37. c. 12. SPACE LEFT, FOR REFERENCE, IF NECESSARY, TO ACTS OF FARLIAMENT PASSED SUBSEQUENT TO A. D. 1844. FIRST FRUITS, ENGLAND. archbishops to pay at used to pay, can have pro vision. 6 HENRY 4, CAP. 1.-For the grievous complaints made to our The court of sovereign lord the king by his commons of this parliament, holden Rome obliges at Coventry, the sixth day of October, the sixth year of his reign, and bishops of the horrible mischiefs and damnable custom, which is introduced least double of new in the court of Rome, that no parson, abbot, nor other should of what they have provision of any archbishopric or bishopric, which shall be void, before they till that he hath compounded with the pope's chamber, to pay great and excessive sums of money, as well for the first fruits of the same archbishopric or bishopric, as for other less services in the same court, and that the same sums or the greater part thereof be paid beforehand which sums pass the treble or the double at the least, of that that was accustomed of old time to be paid to the said chamber and otherwise, by the occasions of such provisions, whereby a great part of the treasure of this realm hath been brought and carried to the said court, and also shall be in time to come, to the great impoverishing of the archbishops and bishops within the same realm and elsewhere within the king's dominions, if convenient remedy be not for the same provided: our said sovereign lord the king, to the honor of God, as well to eschew the damage of his realm as the perils of their souls, which own to be advanced to any archbishoprics and bishoprics within the realm of England, and elsewhere within the king's dominions out of the same realm, by the advice and assent of the great men of his realm, in the parliament hath ordained and established: that they and every of them that shall pay to the said Those, who chamber or otherwise for such fruits and services greater sums of pay more money, than hath been accustomed to be paid in old time passed, they shall forfeit and every of them shall incur the pain of the forfeiture of as much as they may forthey may forfeit towards the same our sovereign lord the king. 23 HENRY 8, CAP. 20.-An act concerning restraint of payment of annates to the see of Rome.-Forasmuch as it is well perceived, by long approved experience, that great and inestimable sums of money have been daily conveyed out of this realm, to the impoverishment. of the same; and especially such sums of money as the pope's holiness, his predecessors, and the court of Rome, by long time have heretofore taken of all and singular those spiritual persons which have been named, elected, presented, or postulated to be archbishops or bishops within this realm of England, under the title of annates, otherwise called first fruits, which annates, or first fruits, have been taken of every archbishopric, or bishopric, within this realm, by restraint of the pope's bulls, for confirmations, elections, admissions, postulations, provisions, collations, dispositions, institutions, installations, investitures, orders, holy benedictions, palls, or other things requisite and necessary to the attaining of those their promotions; and have been compelled to pay, before they could attain the same, great sums of money, before they might receive any part of the fruits of the said archbishopric, or bishopric, whereunto they were than usual, as much as feit. named, elected, presented, or postulated; by occasion whereof, not only the treasure of this realm hath been greatly conveyed out of the same, but also it hath happened many times, by occasion of death, unto such archbishops, and bishops, so newly promoted, within two or three years after his or their consecration, that his or their friends, by whom he or they have been helped to advance and make payment of the said annates, or first fruits, have been thereby utterly undone and impoverished. And for because the said annates have risen, grown and increased, by an uncharitable custom, grounded upon no just or good title, and the payments thereof obtained by restraint of bulls, until the same annates or first fruits, have been paid, or surety made for the same; which declareth the said payments to be exacted and taken by constraint, against all equity and justice. The noblemen therefore of the realm, and the wise, sage, politic commons of the same, assembled in this present parliament, considering that the court of Rome ceaseth not to tax, take, and exact the said great sums of money, under the title of annates, or first fruits, as is aforesaid, to the great damage of the said prelates, and this realm; which annates, or first fruits, were first suffered to be taken within the same realm, for the only defence of christian people against the infidels, and now they be claimed and demanded as mere duty, only for lucre, against all right and conscience. Insomuch that it is evidently known, that there hath passed out of this realm unto the court of Rome, sithen the second year of the reign of the most noble prince, of famous memory, king Henry the seventh, unto this present time, under the name of annates, or first fruits, paid for the expedition of bulls of archbishoprics and bishoprics, the sum of eight hundred thousand ducats, amounting in sterling money, at the least, to eight-score thousand pounds, besides other great and intolerable sums which have yearly been conveyed to the said court of Rome, by many other ways and means, to the great impoverishment of this realm. And albeit, that our said sovereign the king, and all his natural subjects, as well spiritual as temporal, been as obedient, devout, catholic and humble children of God, and holy church, as any people be within any realm christened; yet the said exactions of annates, or first fruits, be so intolerable and importable to this realm, that it is considered and declared, by the whole body of this realm now represented by all the estates of the same assembled in this present parliament, that the king's highness, before Almighty God, is bound, as by the duty of a good christian prince, for the conservation and preservation of the good estate and commonwealth of this his realm, to do all that in him is to obviate, repress, and redress the said abusions and exactions of annates, or first fruits. And because that divers prelates of this realm, being now in extreme age, and in other debilities of their bodies, so that of likelihood, bodily death in short time shall or may succeed unto them; by reason whereof great sums of money shall shortly after their deaths, be conveyed unto the court of Rome, for the unreasonable and uncharitable causes abovesaid, to the universal damage, prejudice, and impoverishment of this realm, if speedy remedy be not in due time provided." For remainder of this statute see vol. ii. p. 367. |