another particular restriction with regard to college leases, and another with respect to the leases of beneficed clergymen: The first is imposed by 18 El. c. 6. which enacts, Termsan. "That no mafter, provoft, prefident, warden, dean, gowhich vernor, rector or chief ruler of any college, cathedral College fear church, hall or houfe of learning in either of the universities, are to be granted. nor any provost, warden or other head officer of the colleges of Winchester or Eaton, nor the corporation of any of the fame,fhall make any leafe for life, lives or years, of any farm or any their lands, tenements or other hereditaments to which any tithes, arable land, meadow or pafure doth or shall appertain, unless the one third part at the leaft of the old rent be referved and paid in corn, for the faid colleges, cathedral churches, halls or houses, that is to fay, in good wheat, after fix fhillings and eight-pence the quarter or under, and good malt at five fhillings the quarter or under, to be delivered yearly on days prefixed at the faid colleges, catheral churches, halls, or houses; and for default thereof, to pay to the faid colleges, cathedral churches, halls or houses, in ready money, at the election of the leffees, their executors, administrators and affigns, after the rate at which the beft wheat and malt in the market of Cambridge for the rents that are to be paid to the ufe of the house or houses there; and in the market of Oxford for the rents that are to be paid to the use of the houfe or houses there; and in the market of Winchester for the rents that are to be paid to the use of the house or houses there; and in the market of Windfor for the rents that are to be paid to the use of the house or houses at Eaton; is or fhall be fold the next market day before the said rent shall be due, without fraud or deceit; and that all leafes otherwise thereafter to be made, and all collateral bonds or affurance to the contrary, by any of the faid corporations, shall be void in law to all intents and purposes; the fame wheat, malt, or the money coming of the fame, to be expended to the use of the relief of the commons and diet of the faid colleges, cathedral churches, halls and houses, and the fellows and scholars in the fame, on pain of deprivation of the governor and chief rulers of the faid colleges, cathedral churches, halls and houses, and all others thereunto confenting."-With respect to the leases of beneficed clergymen, it is enacted by 13 El. c. 20, "That no leafe to be made of any benefice or ecclefiaftical promotion with cure, or any part thereof, and not being impropriated, shall endure any longer than while the leffor fhall be ordinarily refident and ferving the cure of fuch benefice without absence above fourscore days in any one year, but that every such leafe, immediately on fuch abfence, fhall ceafe and be void, and the incumbent fo offending fhall for the fame lose one year's profit of his faid benefice, to be diftributed by the ordinary among the poor of the parifh;" and by 18 El. c. II. f. 7, it is directed "that after complaint made to the ordinary, and sentence given on any offence committed by the incumbent, by which he ought to lofe one year's profit as before mentioned, the ordinary within two months after such sentence given and request to him made, by the churchwardens of the parish, or one of them, fhall grant the fequeftration of fuch profits, to fuch inhabitant or inhabitants within the parish, where fuch benefice fhall be, as to him shall seem meet and convenient; and that on default by the ordinary, every parishioner where the benefice is may retain his tythes, and the churchwardens may enter and take the profits of the glebe lands, and other rents and duties of every fuch benefice, to be employed to the use of the poor, till fuch time as fequeftration fhall be committed by the ordinary, and that then, as well the churchwardens as as the parishioners fhall yield account and make payment to him or them to whom fuch fequeftration fhall be committed." BUT it is provided by 13 El. c. 20, f. 2, ༦ That every parfon, by the laws of this realm allowed to have two benefices, may demife the one of them, on which he shall not then be moft ordinarily refident, to his curate only, that fhall there ferve the cure for him; but that such lease shall endure no longer than during fuch curate's refidence without abfence above forty days in any one year." As a further guard to these restrictions, it is by 14 El. c. 11, f. 15, enacted "That all bonds, contracts, promises and covenants, thereafter to be made for suffering or permitting any perfon to enjoy any benefice or ecclefiaftical promotion with cure, or to take the profits or fruits thereof shall be to all intents and purposes adjudged of fuch force and validity, and not otherwise, as leases, by the fame perfons made, of fuch benefices and ecclefiaftical promotions with cure." AND by f. 16, it is declared, "That all leafes, bonds, promises and covenants of and concerning benefices and ecclefiaftical livings with cure, to be made by any curate, fhall be of no other nor better force, validity or continuance, than if the fame had been made by the beneficed perfon himself that demised the fame to any fuch curate." THE purpose of the reftraining ftatutes was folely to protect the intereft of the fucceffor, and therefore, though the words of them be, that all grants, leases, and other conveyances or estates made in any other manner, than by these statutes is pointed out, fhall be utterly void, and of no effect to all intents and purposes. It has been repeatedly decided, that all grants or leafes, though not warranted by these ftatutes, are good, against the grantor or leffor in the the cafe of a fole corporation, and that in the cafe of an aggregate corporation, they are valid during the continuance of the head, in whofe time they were made (a). Thus if a bishop grant the next avoidance of a church, which is not warranted by 1 El. c. 19, because it is a thing which lies merely in grant, out of which no rent can be referved; or make a lease of the advowson of a church, or grant an annuity out of the poffeffions of his bishopric, or make a lease of tithes for three lives, or a leafe of any other of his poffeffions, without pursuing all or any of the rules before mentioned; yet, in none of these cafes, is such lease or grant void or voidable by the bishop himself who made it, but remains good against him during such time as he continues bishop (b). So, a leafe made by a dean and chapter against the statute 13 El. c. 10, fhall not be avoided, nor any covenants therein contained, during the life and continuance of the dean that made the leafe; fo that, if they have made a lease for years of any of their poffeffions, and before the expiration of it, make a concurrent lease also for the fame lands, and then make a third leafe for lives, with an express covenant, that the grantee for lives fhall enjoy the land against the fecond or concurrent lease, and the grantee for lives being in poffeffion be evicted, and bring covenant against the dean and chapter; in fuch a cafe, though the leafe for lives be void by the 13th El. c. 10, yet if the dean who made it be living and continue dean at the time of the eviction, the action will be maintainable for breach of the covenant therein contained (c). So, where a mafter and fellows of a college, by deed inrolled, made a leafe for years, not warranted by the (a) Vid. 3 Co. 59, 60, Lincoln College cafe. (b) 3 Bac. Abr. Leases, H. 1. (c) Vid, eund. ibid. statute, ftatute, and afterwards fuffered a fine and five years to pass without claim; though this was void against the fucceeding mafter, yet by conftruction the leafe and fine were held good against the college, though a corporation aggregate, during the life of the mafter, who was party to the lease, and made no claim, because he was the head and principal part of the corporation, and chiefly concerned in interest (a). So, if a dean, archdeacon, prebendary, parfon, or other fole corporation, make leases of their fole poffeffions, not warranted by the ftatutes, yet they shall bind themselves during their whole time, because the ftatutes were made chiefly for the benefit of the fucceffors, and not to relieve the parties themselves against their own acts or grants (b). - BUT, where there is a chapter without a dean, as the chapter of the collegiate church of Southwell, grants or leases made by them contrary to 13 El. c. 10, are void from the beginning against themselves; and fo it is of leases or grants by any other corporation aggregate, who have no head or principal; for they must be either void from the beginning, or good for ever, because they continuę always the fame, and one has no fuperiority or power more than another. And if the dean and chapter, or mafter and fellows, were all equally seised, and the dean or master solely fhould make a leafe, though it were in all refpects warranted by the ftatutes, yet it feems it would be void from the beginning, at common law, because the dean or master had no fole feifin by which he was authorised to make any lease at all; but the chapter in the one cafe, and the fellows in the other, having an equal estate and interest, ought to have joined in fuch leafe or grant, and for want of their (a) 11 Co. 67. 78. 1 Rol. Rep. 169. Co. Lit. 45 a, (b) Hetley, 24 a. joining |