Definition
Quare non permittit (Latin: "wherefore he does not permit") was an ancient common law writ used to enforce a claimant's right of advowson — specifically, the right to present a candidate to fill a vacant church living — when that right was obstructed by the proprietor or other party in possession. The writ lay in favor of one whose turn it was to present to a benefice, against a proprietary who wrongfully refused to permit the presentation to proceed. It was a remedy for the specific injury of being blocked from exercising a presentment right, as distinguished from writs that challenged the underlying title to the advowson itself.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is nearly exclusively a historical artifact. Researchers will encounter quare non permittit only in medieval and early modern English ecclesiastical and common law sources, in treatises on advowson and the law of presentation, and in older writ-era procedural materials. It is not operative in modern practice and does not appear in contemporary American or English statutory law.
The principal trap in historical research is distinguishing quare non permittit from the broader family of advowson writs, each of which addressed a slightly different injury or party configuration. The writ of quare impedit — far more commonly discussed — was the standard action for disturbance of the right to present and is the term that dominates both the case law and treatise literature. Quare non permittit addressed the narrower scenario where the claimant's right to present was not disputed in principle but was being practically blocked by a proprietor who would not permit the act. Researchers who encounter the term in older pleading records or writ registers should be careful not to collapse it into quare impedit without examining the specific party posture and complaint.
The sole substantive authority cited across all historical dictionary sources is Fleta, the late thirteenth-century Latin legal treatise on English law (Book 5, Chapter 6). Researchers needing primary-source depth should consult that work directly. Bracton and Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium also address the advowson writ family and may provide useful context for situating quare non permittit within the broader ecclesiastical writ system.
Because advowson law was largely absorbed or displaced by ecclesiastical reorganization and the decline of the old writ system, corpus researchers are unlikely to find quare non permittit in materials after the early modern period. Its presence in a document is itself a signal that the source is of medieval or early modern English provenance.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence offer virtually identical single-sentence definitions, each tracing to the same citation: Fleta, Book 5, Chapter 6. There is no meaningful divergence among the sources, and none of them elaborates beyond identifying the writ's purpose and its authority. This convergence reflects the term's narrow, settled status — it was never a contested or evolving concept, merely a specific procedural tool of the old ecclesiastical writ system. Notably, none of the historical dictionaries situate the writ within the broader advowson framework, explain its relationship to quare impedit, or discuss its practical use or obsolescence. Researchers should treat the dictionary entries as identifications rather than explanations and look to Fleta and the treatise literature on advowson for substantive analysis.
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Jurisdictional Note
Quare non permittit was a writ of English ecclesiastical common law and has no analog in American law. American jurisdictions never adopted the advowson system or the writ structure that produced it. The term is relevant only to English legal history research.
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