Legal Definitions - de asportatis religiosorum

de asportatis religiosorum refers to a historical legal statute enacted in England during the reign of King Edward I. This Latin phrase translates to "concerning the property of religious persons carried away." The law was specifically designed to prevent religious institutions, such as monasteries, abbeys, and churches, from selling, transferring, or moving their valuable assets and property, particularly to foreign entities or countries. The primary goal of this statute was to preserve the wealth, land, and resources of the clergy within the kingdom and prevent their alienation or removal from England.

Here are some examples illustrating how this historical statute would have applied:

• Imagine a wealthy English abbey in the 13th century that owned vast tracts of agricultural land. Facing a period of economic hardship, the abbot considers selling a significant portion of these lands to a powerful monastic order based in France, with the intention of transferring the sale proceeds abroad to settle debts. The statute of de asportatis religiosorum would have been invoked to prohibit this transaction, preventing the alienation of valuable English land and its associated wealth to a foreign entity.

• Consider a prominent cathedral in a medieval English city that possessed a collection of priceless religious artifacts, including ancient illuminated manuscripts, jeweled chalices, and sacred relics. The cathedral's dean, perhaps seeking to strengthen ties with a sister church or believing the items would be safer elsewhere, decides to send these treasures to a newly established monastery in the Holy Roman Empire. De asportatis religiosorum would have made this transfer illegal, ensuring that such valuable ecclesiastical assets remained within the English realm and under the control of the English crown.

• Picture a large monastic order with numerous priories and estates scattered across England. These English establishments generated substantial income from their lands, tithes, and charitable donations. If the order's central leadership, located in Italy, instructed the English priories to regularly remit a significant portion of their surplus funds to the Italian headquarters, this would have been a target for de asportatis religiosorum. The statute aimed to prevent the depletion of English clerical wealth by its removal abroad, whether in physical goods or substantial monetary transfers, thereby keeping resources within the kingdom.