similar fashion; but in a little time we have these four and only these four petty assizes. Only in these four instances does the writ which is the first step in the procedure, 'the original writ,' direct the empanelling of an inquest."

"Some two years later, perhaps at the council held at Clarendon in the first months of 1166, Henry took a far more important step. He issued an ordinance and instituted a procedure. Ordinance and procedure alike were known as the assize of novel disseisin (assia novae disseisinae). At that council was published the edict known as the Assize of Clarendon, which deals with criminal matters and which served as instructions for the justices who were being sent out on a great eyre throughout the land. We fix this date as that of the assize of novel disseisin because the next pipe roll, a roll which records the abundant profits reaped by the itinerant justices in the field of criminal law, gives us also our first tidings of men being amerced for disseisin against the King's assize; from that moment onwards we get such tidings year by year.

"Of this ordinance, which was in the long run to prove itself one of the most important laws ever issued in England-we have not the words-Bracton tells us that wakeful nights were spent over it, and we may well believe him, for the principle that was to be enforced was a revolutionary one. It was this: If one person be disseised, that is, dispossessed, of his free tenement unjustly and without a judgment, he is to have a remedy by royal writ; a jury to be empanelled; in the presence of the King's justices, it is to answer this simple question about seisin and disseisin; if it gives the plaintiff a verdict he is to be restored to his possession. We may state the matter

in two other ways: by the one we may show what is being done for our private, by the other what is being done for our public law. (1) Possession or seisin, as something quite distinct from ownership or best right, is to be protected by an unusually rapid remedy. (2) The seisin of a free tenement, no matter of what lord it be holden, is protected by the kind. Hereafter, in connection with property law we may speak of the private side of this new remedy and of its relation to the actio spolii of the canon law; here we have but to notice the great principle of public law that the King has laid down. The ownership of land may be a matter for the feudal courts; the King himself will protect by royal writ and inquest of neighbors every seisin of a free tenement. It is a principle that in course of time can be made good even against kings. The most famous words of Magna Charta will enshrine the formula of the novel disseisin.”

"Then to all seeming, the council held at Northampton in 1176, instituted a second possessory assize, the assize of mort d'ancestor (assia de morte antecessoris). Apparently we have the words whereby this was accomplished, though the practice of the courts soon left those words behind it. The principle of the novel disseisin is that one man, even though he claims and actually has the ownership of the land, is not to turn another man out of possession without first obtaining a judgment. The principle of the mort d'ancestor is that if a man has died in seisin, that is, in possession of a tenement and was not holding it as a mere life-tenant, his heir is entitled to obtain possession of it as against every other person, no matter that such person claims and actually has a better right to the land than the dead man had. Such a right, if it

exists, must be asserted in an action; it is not to be asserted by 'self-help' by a seizure of the vacant tenement. Another blow is thus struck at feudal justice, and a heavy one, for the defendant in an assize of mort d'ancestor is very likely to be the dead tenant's lord, who will have seized the lands upon some pretext of making good his seignorial claims. Another use is found for the inquest of neighbours, for the questions whether the dead man died seised and whether the claimant is his heir will be decided by verdict."

"Scarcely less important than litigation about land is litigation about the advowsons of churches. Henry has here asserted as against the church that such litigation belongs to a temporal forum, and as against the feudatories that it belongs to the king's own court. A proprietary action for an advowson must be begun in the King's court by royal writ, writ of right of advowson, the claimant must offer battle; his adversary may choose between battle and the grand assize. Then at some time or another during his reign, Henry gives a possessory action, the assize of darrein presentment (assia de ultima presentatione) which stands to the writ or right of advowson in somewhat the same relation in which the novel disseisin stands to the writ of right for land. If the church be vacant, and two persons be quarreling about the advowson, it is very necessary that some provisional, some possessory judgment should be given. Especially necessary is this after the Lateran Council of 1179, for should the church remain vacant for three months the diocesan bishop will fill up the vacancy. The principle of the new assize is, simply stated, this, 'He who presented last time, let him present this time also, but this with

out prejudice to any question of right.' An inquest of neighbours is summoned to declare who it was that presented the last parson."

SECTION 13. THE WRIT OF ENTRY.

The lesser assizes were very limited in their scope, only furnishing a remedy against the disseisor and his tenant or alienee during the disseisor's lifetime, and to supplement these assizes the writ of entry, in its various forms, became necessary.

"Generally speaking, it lay in favor of a person who, having possession of lands as tenant in fee, fee tail, or for life, is ousted therefrom; or having the right of possession is deforced therefrom, to restore him to the possession. As a remedy distinct and different from the writ of assize, it first appears as a writ of course in 1205 and 1224. Although anciently denied, it came to be a concurrent remedy with the writ of assize of novel disseisin, when it was brought against the original disseisor by the disseisee himself, in which case it was called a writ in the nature of an assize or writ of entry in de quibus. Its original use and distinctive features made it a remedy against one coming into possession without fraud or tort, as by the deed of a disseisor or of one who had but a particular or defeasible estate. But it came to be used when a disseisin was suffered by a demandant or his ancestor." 2

There were a large number of various forms of this writ, the most important being the following:

"Writ of entry sur disseisin; where a disseisin had been suffered by the demandant or his ancestor.

"Writ of entry sur alienation; as where the tenant Martin on Civil Procedure, Sec. 144.

of a particular estate wrongfully aliens it, which operates as a deforcement of the reversioner.

"Writ of entry sur intrusion. Where on the expiration of a preceding estate of freehold, a stranger wrongfully intrudes, by which he affects a deforcement of the reversioner.

"Writ of entry sur abatement where on the death of the ancestor a stranger abates and deforces the heir. It seems to have been in this case a concurrent remedy with the writ or mort d'ancestor or writ of ayel.

"Writ of entry ad terminum qui praeteriit. Where the owner of a freehold leases lands or tenements for life or years, and after the expiration of the term by efflux of time or surrender, the lessee or a stranger, either entering upon or continuing in, detains the possession from the lessor or his heirs, thereby effecting a disseisin by deforcement."

SECTION 14. OTHER ANCIENT REAL WRITS.

The writ of quare impedit was a possessory writ concerning the presentation to a benefice.

The writ of waste was an action by the reversioner or remainderman against the tenant in possession who had misused the property.

The writ of de ejectione firmae, lay in favor of the tenant for a term of years against anyone who had unlawfully interfered with his possession. The modern writ of ejectment grew out of this writ.

SECTION 15. MODERN REAL ACTIONS.

The modern real actions are much simpler and fewer in number than the ancient real writs. The important real actions at the present time are those of ejectment and forcible entry and detainer.