Page:An Essay on a Registry for Titles of Lands - Asgill (1698).djvu/13

 ing against the Law divine, prohibiting their purchasing of Lands, the Lawyers found this Stratagem, to purchase these Lands for a Burying-place only, in the Nature of a Church yard; which being a thing of Necessity, and made Sacred, would exempt, or at least excuse it from this Statute against Mortmain; and the Priests computing that this might turn to as much Profit as any thing else, (having double Duties for Lodging of Men, and Meat for Horses) they consented to lay out their Money in it, (any thing to get a Penny in an honest way.)

And this Field of Blood was the first spot of Glebe in the World, to which the Priests will be intituled, (in right of the Church) if ever they gain the possession of the Holy Land.

But having laid this Nest Egg, they went on to join Field to Field, and had they been let alone, had converted whole Kingdoms into Holy Ground before now.

And why Houses of Religion are said to be more haunted with Ghosts than Lay-Tenements, I can't tell, unless some of their subsequent Augmentations were the Price of Blood, as well as their Original Purchase.

But now to begin at our Laws: It is strange to observe, how the Parliaments of England did hunt the Priests and Lawyers with Statutes against Mortmain, from