Superstitious Use

English Law: Superstitious Use in the Past

When lands, tenements, rents, goods or chattels are given, secured or appointed for and toward the maintenance of a priest or chaplain to say mass; for the maintenance of a priest or other man, to pray for the soul of any dead man, in such a church or elsewhere; to have and maintain perpetual obits, lamps, torches, etc., to be used at certain times to help to save the souls of men out of purgatory; in such cases the king by force of several statutes, is authorized to direct and appoint all such uses to such purposes as are truly charitable. Bac. Ab. Charitable Uses and Mortmain, D; Duke on Char. Uses, 105; 6 Ves. 567; 4 Co. 104.

Developments

In the United States of America, where all religious opinions are free and the right to exercise them is secured to the people, a bequest to support a catholic priest, aud perhaps certain other uses in England (see more about this legal system) , would not in the United States of America be considered as superstitious uses. 1 Pa. R. 49; 8 Penn. St. R. 327; 17 S. & R. 388; 1 Wash. 224. It is not easy to see how there can be a supersti-tious use in the United States of America, at least in the acceptation of the British courts. 1 Watts, 224; 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3985. [1][rtbs name=”history-of-english-law”]

Resources

Notes and References

1. Partialy, this information about superstitious use is based on the Bouvier´s Law Dictionary, 1848 edition. There is a list of terms of the Bouvier´s Law Dictionary, including superstitious use.

See Also