CHAP. XXV.

It should also be added, that, according to the Customs of the Realm, no one is bound to answer in his Lord’s Court, concerning his Freehold Tenement, without the King’s precept, or that of his Chief Justice; I mean, if the Fee in question be a lay one.

But, if the Plea should be between two Clerks, concerning a Tenement held in Frankalmoigne of an Ecclesiastical Fee, or if the Tenant, a Clerk, hold an Ecclesiastical Fee in Frankalmoigne, whoever may happen to be the Demandant, the Plea concerning the Right ought to be in the Ecclesiastical Court, unless a Recognition should be demanded, whether the Fee in question be Ecclesiastical or lay, of which we shall presently speak. For then such Recognition, as, indeed, certain others, must be held in the King’s Court.