Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/287

 Ch. 18. who, by fraud and colluion, made no defence, and thereby judgment was given for the religious houe, which then recovered the land by entence of law upon a uppoed prior title. And thus they had the honour of inventing thoe fictitious adjudications of right, which are ince become the great aurance of the kingdom, under the name of common recoveries. But upon this the tatute of Wetminter the econd, 13 Edw. I. c. 32. enacted, that in uch caes a jury hall try the true right of the demandants or plaintiffs to the land, and if the religious houe or corporation be found to have it, they hall till recover eiin; otherwie it hall be forfeited to the immediate lord of the fee, or ele to the next lord, and finally to the king, upon the immediate or other lord's default. And the like proviion was made by the ucceeding chapter, in cae the tenants et up croes upon their lands (the badges of knights templars and hopitallers) in order to protect them from the feodal demands of their lords, by virtue of the privileges of thoe religious and military orders. And o careful was this provident prince to prevent any future evaions, that when the tatute of quia emptores, 18 Edw. I. abolihed all ubinfeudations, and gave liberty for all men to alienate their lands, to be holden of the next immediate lord, a provio was inerted that this hould not extend to authorize any kind of alienation in mortmain. And when afterwards the method of obtaining the king's licence by writ of ad quod damnum was marked out, by the tatute 27 Edw. I. t. 2. it was farther provided by tatute 34 Edw. I. t. 3. that no uch licence hould be effectual, without the conent of the mene or intermediate lords.

till it was found difficult to et bounds to eccleiatical ingenuity: for when they were driven out of all their former holds, they devied a new method of conveyance, by which the lands were granted, not to themelves directly, but to nominal feoffees to the ue of the religious houes; thus ditinguihing between the poeion and the ue, and receiving the actual profits, Rh