Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large, 1763.djvu/208

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162
Stat. 1.
Anno tricesimo quinto Edwardi I.
A.D. 1307.

to remain only in the Custody of the Abbot, and not of the Covent, shall hereafter have a Common Seal, and that shall remain in the Custody of the Prior of the Monastery or House, and four of the most worthy and discreet Men of the Covent of the same House, to be laid up in safe Keeping under the private Seal of the Abbot of the same House; (2) so that the Abbot or Prior, which doth govern the House, shall be able of himself to establish nothing, though heretofore it hath been otherwise used. (3) And if it fortune hereafter, that Writings of Obligations, Donations, Purchases, Sales, Alienations, or of any other Contracts, be sealed with any other Seal than such a common Seal, kept as is aforesaid, they shall be adjudged void and of no Force in Law. Abbots Aliens may visit their Inferiors in England.(4)  But it is not the Meaning of our Lord the King to exclude the Abbots, Priors, and other Religious Aliens, by the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid, from executing their Office of Visitation in his Kingdom and Dominion; but they may visit at their Pleasures, by themselves or others, the Monasteries and other Places in his Kingdom and Dominion in Subjection unto them, according to the Duty of their Office, in those Things only that belong to regular Observation, and the Discipline of their Order.

II. Provided, That they which fhall execute this Office of Visitation, shall carry, or cause to be carried out of his Kingdom and Dominion, none of the Goods or Things of such Monesteries, Priories, and Houses, saving only their reasonable and competent Charges.

III. And though the Publication and open Notice of the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid was stayed in Suspence for certain Causes sithence the last Parliament, until this present Parliament holden at Carlisle in the Octaves of Saint Hilary, in the five and thirtieth Year of the Reign of the same King Edward, to the Intent they might proceed with greater Deliberation and Advice; (2) our Lord the King, after full Conference and Debate had with his Earls, Barons, Nobles, and other great Men of his Kingdom, touching the Premisses, by their whole Consent and Agreement hath ordained and enacted, That the Ordinances and Statutes aforesaid, under the Manner, Form, and Conditions aforesaid, from the first Day of May next ensuing, shall be inviolably observed for ever, and the Offenders of them shall be punished as is aforesaid.

Confirmed by 4 Ed. 3. c. 6. And farther by 5 Ed. 3. c. 3.

This chapter is not presented in modern English and the source document does not provide a translation.

Consimile statutum de verbo ad verbum mittitur in singulis comitatibus per Angliam.

REX vic' Salop' salutem. Quia ad communem populi regni nostri utilitatem & totius dominii nostri status meliorationem in instanti parliamento nostro apud Karliolum de consilio magnatum & procerum nostrorum quedam edidimus statuta que tibi signata mittimus observanda tibi precipimus firmiter injungentes quod ea in duobus comitatibus tuis publice legere & recitare facias & ea in singulis suis articulis inviolabiliter observari & hoc nullatenus omittas. T.R. apud Karliolum xx die Martii.

Consimilia brevia mittuntur singulis vicecomitibus per Angliam.

REX dilecto sibi in Christo abbatide Waverle salutem. Quia ad communem populi regni nostri utilitatem &c. (ut supra) vobis mandamus firmiter injungentes quod ea quolibet anno bis in pleno capitulo domus vestre publice legere & recitare faciatis & in singulis suis articulis sub pena in predictis statutis contenta inviolabiliter observari. Teste ut supra.

Supradictum statutum missum fuit cum litteris regis patentibus in forma predicta abbatibus locorum subscriptorum videlicet

De Egliston De Jerovall De Fontibus De Wellebek De Gerwedon
De Sancta Agatha De Bella Landa De Rupe De Rughford Priori de Spaldyng.

Quatuor paria litterarum ad instantiam dirigenda quibusdam abbatibus in Wallia.

Stat.