CHAP. IV.
“The King to the Sheriff, Health. I command you that, without delay, you take into my hands the Presentation of the Church, in such a Vill, which N. claims against R. and concerning which, there is a Plea in my Court between them, and make known the day of the Caption to my Justices, &c.”
CHAP. V.
The Sheriff is bound to execute this Writ, in the following manner: he should go to the Church in question, and there in a public manner, and in the presence of respectable men, declare, that he had seised the Presentation[132] of such Church into the King’s hands, in which the Seisin shall continue for fifteen days. The Tenant, if he feel so disposed, may[133] replevy,[134] and thus recover it, in the same manner as stated in the [first Book].
CHAP. VI.
All the Essoins to which the Defendant can have recourse being terminated, at the day appointed for the parties in Court, either both, or neither, or one only, of the parties will appear. If one only, or both of them, be absent, the matter must be ordered in a manner similar to that we have formerly explained, in treating of Pleas concerning Land. But if both parties appear in Court, the Demandant should then propound his right as against his Adversary, in the following words: “I demand the Advowson of this Church, as my right, and appertaining to my Inheritance, and of which Advowson I was seised, or one of my Ancestors was seised, in the time of King Henry the 1st, the Grandfather of our Lord King Henry, or after the Coronation of our Lord the King; and being so seised, I presented a Parson to the same Church when vacant, at one of the before-mentioned periods; and I so presented him, that upon my presentation he was instituted Parson into that Church; and if any one would deny this, I have some credible Men who both saw and heard the fact, and are ready to prove it as the Court shall award, and particularly such, and such persons.” The claim of the Demandant being heard, the Tenant may defend himself by the Duel; and the proceedings will accordingly, from that period, be conducted in the manner we have formerly explained. Should, however, the Tenant chuse to put himself upon the Grand Assise, he is perfectly at liberty so to do; and the Assise must then proceed in the form we have previously detailed.