Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large, 1763.djvu/86

beforetimes used, the Plaintiffs shall have a Writ to recover their Seisin, without making mention of the Degrees, into whose Hands soever the same Thing shall happen to come by such Alienations, and that by an original Writ to be provided therefore by the Council of our Lord the King.

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STATUTUM WEST' PRIMUM.

The Statute of WESTMINSTER, the First,
Made at Westminfter 25 die Aprilis, Anno 3 Edwardi I. and Anno Dom. 1275.

"THESE be the Acts of King Edward, Son to King Henry, made at Westminster at his first Parliament general after his Coronation, on the Monday of Easter Utas, the third Year of his Reign, by his Council, and by the Assent of Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earls, Barons, and all the Commonalty of the Realm being thither summoned, because our Lord the King had great Zeal and Desire to redress the State of the Realm in such Things as required Amendment, for the common Profit of holy Church, and of the Realm: And because the State of the holy Church had been evil kept, and the Prelates and religious Persons of the Land grieved many ways, and the People otherwise intreated than they ought to be, and the Peace less kept, and the Laws less used, and the Offenders less punished than they ought to be, by reason whereof the People of the Land feared the less to offend; the King hath ordained and established these Acts underwritten, which he intendeth to be necessary and profitable unto the whole Realm."

CAP. I.
The Peace of the Church and the Realm shall be maintained. Religious Houses shall not be Overcharged.

^[1] Fist the King willeth and commandeth, That the Peace of holy Church and of the Land, be well kept and maintained in all Points, and that common Right be done to all, as well Poor as Rich, without respect of Persons. (2) And because that Abbeys and Houses of Religion of the Land have been overcharged, and sore grieved, by the Resort of great Men and other, so that their Goods have not been sufficent for themselves whereby they have been greatly, hindered and impoverished, that they cannot maintain themselves, nor such Charity as they have been accustomed to do; it is provided, That none shall come to eat or lodge in any House of Religion of any other's Foundation than of his own, at the Costs of the House, unless he be required by the Governor of the House before his coming thither. (3) And that none, at his own Costs, shall enter and come to lie there against the Will of them that be of the House. (4) And by this Statute the King intendeth not, that the Grace of Hospitality should be withdrawn

1. 2 Inst. 156.