Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/285

 Ch. 18. rations to have a licence of mortmain from the crown, to enable them to purchae lands: for as the king is the ultimate lord of every fee, he ought not, unles by his own conent, to loe his privilege of echeats and other feodal profits, by the veting of lands in tenants that can never be attainted or die. And uch licences of mortmain eem to have been neceary among the Saxons, above ixty years before the Norman conquet. But, beides this general licence from the king, as lord paramount of the kingdom, it was alo requiite, whenever there was a mene or intermediate lord between the king and the alienor, to obtain his licence alo (upon the ame feodal principles) for the alienation of the pecific land. And if no uch licence was obtained, the king or other lord might repectively enter on the lands o aliened in mortmain, as a forfeiture. The neceity of this licence from the crown was acknowleged by the contitutions of Clarendon, in repect of advowons, which the monks always greatly coveted, as being the groundwork of ubequent appropriations. Yet uch were the influence and ingenuity of the clergy, that (notwithtanding this fundamental principle) we find that the larget and mot coniderable dotations of religious houes happened within les than two centuries after the conquet. And (when a licence could not be obtained) their contrivance eems to have been this: that, as the forfeiture for uch alienations accrued in the firt place to the immediate lord of the fee, the tenant who meant to alienate firt conveyed his lands to the religious houe, and intantly took them back again, to hold as tenant to the monatery; which kind of intantaneous eiin was probably held not to occaion any forfeiture: and then, by pretext of ome other forfeiture, urrender, or echeat, the ociety entered into thoe lands in right of uch their newly acquired igniory, as immediate lords of the fee. But, when thee dotations began to grow numerous, it was oberved that the feodal ervices, ordained for the defence of the kingdom, were every day viibly withdrawn; that the circulation of landed property from man to man began to Rh