The material on which the two foregoing chapters have been based we owe largely to efforts on behalf of the crown to prevent the dissipation of property belonging to certain religious houses. But however desirous the rulers of the state might be that the church should not lose or waste the possessions which it already held, they were much more anxious to control its acquisitions of fresh property. This they sought to do by means of Edward I's famous Statute of Mortmain.

Whatever medieval men may have thought of this statute, the modern student of ecclesiastical history cannot fail to be grateful for it, since it resulted in the keeping of a large number of records, enrolled on the Patent Rolls, which furnish valuable evidence on several aspects of the life of the church. These records must now be considered.

But first, something should be said with regard to the Statute of Mortmain itself, and the extent to which it was enforced. As is well known, the Statute of Mortmain expressly forbade the alienation of land or rent to the church, declaring that breaches of this law should be punished by forfeiture of the alienated property to the lord of whom it was held; and if he failed to take possession, the right of entering passed to the lord next above him and so, successively, to each lord until it reached the king. These provisions seem never to have been strictly enforced; large amounts of land and rent continued to be acquired by the church, and, therefore, the statute has generally been regarded as ineffective.