Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/147

THE ORIGIN OF USES. 131 able niche in the fabric. And so for a while it lives a precarious life_ until it finds protection in the ' equitable ' jurisdiction of the chancellors. If in the thirteenth century our courts of common law had already come to a comprehensive doctrine of contract, if they had been ready to draw an exact line of demarcation between 'real ' and * personal ' rights, they might have reduced * the use * to submission and found a place for it in their scheme of actions ; in particular, they might have given the feoffor a personal, a con- tractual, action against the feoffee. But this was not quite what was wanted by those who took part in these transactions ; it was not the feoffor, it was the person whom he desired to benefit (the cestui que itse of later days ) who required a remedy, and moreover a remedy that would secure him not money compensation but the specific enjoyment of the thing granted. 'The use ' seems to be accomplishing its manifest destiny when at length after many adventures it appears as ' equitable ownership. ' I will now put in some of the evidence that I have collected : — I. The emp'oyment of the phrase ad opus vieum {tuum, suum ) as meaning on my ( your, his ) behalf, or for my ( your, his ) profit or advan- tage can be traced back into very early Frank'sh formulas. See Zeumer's quarto edition of the Formulae Merovingici et Karolini Aevi ( Monumenta Germaniae ), index s. v. opus. Thus, e.g. : — p. 115 'ut nobis aliquid de silva ad opus ecclesiae nostrae . . . dare iubeatis. ' (But here opus ecclesiae may mean the fabric of the church.) p. 234 ' per quern accepit venerabilis vir ille abba ad opus monasterio sua [ = monasterii sui ] . . . masas ad commanendum. ' p. 208 ' ad ipsam iam dictam ecclesiam ad opus sancti illius . . . dono.' p. 315 (An emperor is speaking) 'telonium vero, excepto ad opus nostrum inter Q et D vel ad C [ place names ] ubi ad opus nostrum decima exigitur, aliubi eis ne requiratur. ' II. So in Carolingian laws for the Lombards. Mon. Germ. Leges, iv. Liber Papiensis Pippini 28 ( p. 520 ) : ' De compositionibus quae ad palatium pertinent : si comiles ipsas causas convenerint ad requirendum, illi tertiam partem ad eorum percipiant opus, duos vero ad palatium.' ( The comes gets ' the third penny of the county ' for his own use. ) Lib. Pap. Ludovici Pii 40 ( p. 538 ) : 'Ut de debito quod ad opus nostrum fuerit wadiatum talis consideratio fiat. ' III. From Frankish models the phrase has passed into Anglo-Saxon land- books. Thus, e. g. : — Coenulf of Mercia, a. d. 809, Kemble, Cod. Dipl. . dd'. * Item in alio loco dedi eidem venerabili viro ad opus praefatae Christi ecclesiae et monachorum ibidem deo servientium terram ... *