who, by fraud and colluſion, made no defence, and thereby judgment was given for the religious houſe, which then recovered the land by ſentence of law upon a ſuppoſed prior title. And thus they had the honour of inventing thoſe fictitious adjudications of right, which are ſince become the great aſſurance of the kingdom, under the name of common recoveries. But upon this the ſtatute of Weſtminſter the ſecond, 13 Edw. I. c. 32. enacted, that in ſuch caſes a jury ſhall try the true right of the demandants or plaintiffs to the land, and if the religious houſe or corporation be found to have it, they ſhall ſtill recover ſeiſin; otherwiſe it ſhall be forfeited to the immediate lord of the fee, or elſe to the next lord, and finally to the king, upon the immediate or other lord's default. And the like proviſion was made by the ſucceeding chapter[1], in caſe the tenants ſet up croſſes upon their lands (the badges of knights templars and hoſpitallers) in order to protect them from the feodal demands of their lords, by virtue of the privileges of thoſe religious and military orders. And ſo careful was this provident prince to prevent any future evaſions, that when the ſtatute of quia emptores, 18 Edw. I. aboliſhed all ſubinfeudations, and gave liberty for all men to alienate their lands, to be holden of the next immediate lord[2], a proviſo was inſerted[3] that this ſhould 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 ſtatute 27 Edw. I. ſt. 2. it was farther provided by ſtatute 34 Edw. I. ſt. 3. that no ſuch licence ſhould be effectual, without the conſent of the meſne or intermediate lords.
Yet ſtill it was found difficult to ſet bounds to eccleſiaſtical ingenuity: for when they were driven out of all their former holds, they deviſed a new method of conveyance, by which the lands were granted, not to themſelves directly, but to nominal feoffees to the uſe of the religious houſes; thus diſtinguiſhing between the poſſeſſion and the uſe, and receiving the actual profits,
