Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of graphs and tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE STATUTE OF 1279 AND ITS ANTECEDENTS
- 2 THE WORKING OF THE STATUTE
- 3 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTE
- 4 MANIPULATION OF THE STATUTE
- 5 PATTERNS OF ECCLESIASTICAL ACCESSION
- 6 THE IMPACT OF MORTMAIN LEGISLATION ON THE CHURCH
- CONCLUSION
- Appendix: The Statute of Mortmain 1279
- Bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of graphs and tables
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE STATUTE OF 1279 AND ITS ANTECEDENTS
- 2 THE WORKING OF THE STATUTE
- 3 ENFORCEMENT OF THE STATUTE
- 4 MANIPULATION OF THE STATUTE
- 5 PATTERNS OF ECCLESIASTICAL ACCESSION
- 6 THE IMPACT OF MORTMAIN LEGISLATION ON THE CHURCH
- CONCLUSION
- Appendix: The Statute of Mortmain 1279
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
On 14 November 1279 the Statute of Mortmain, sometimes known as De viris religiosis, was published and recorded in the form of a writ addressed to the justices of Common Pleas, ordering that in future:
no one at all, whether religious or anyone else, may presume to buy or sell any lands or tenements, or to receive them from anyone under the colour of gift or lease or any other title whatsoever, or to appropriate them to himself in any other way or by any device or subterfuge, so that they pass into mortmain in any way, under pain of their forfeiture.
In these dramatic terms, the long tradition whereby church property grew through gift and purchase was called to an abrupt halt. So at least it appeared, but appearances were more than usually deceptive. That the law was not observed literally is common knowledge; the first of many licences permitting acquisitions, notwithstanding the statute, was granted in 1280. The swift emergence of such licences does not necessarily imply that the statute was impotent, but it raises questions as to the precise nature of its intentions and effects. These need answering before the full complexity of mortmain regulation can be satisfactorily understood. Prominent among the queries are the extent to which contemporaries were determined in their wish to curb the temporal possessions of the church; whether, in the words of Plucknett, ‘the flow of property to the church continued much as before, but from every gift the king took such toll as he could get’; whether indeed the strict implementation of restrictive legislation was feasible given the administrative resources of the day.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1982