libera eleemosyna), or free alms, a tenure of a spiritual nature, by which a religious corporation, aggregate or sole, holds lands of the donor granted to them and their successors for ever. The service which they were bound to render for these lands was not definitively stated; but only in general they were to pray for the souls of the donor and his heirs, dead or alive. Hence they did no fealty, which is incident to all other services, because this religious service was of a higher and more exalted nature. This is the tenure by which almost all the ancient monasteries and religious houses held their lands, and by which also the parochial clergy, and many ecclesiastical and eleemosynary foundations hold them at this day; but the nature of the service was altered at the Reformation, and made conformable to the reformed doctrines of the Church of England. It was an old Saxon tenure; and continued under the Norman domination, from the veneration paid to religious institutions. This was also the reason why tenants in frank-almoigne were exempted from all other services except the trinoda necessitas of repairing the highways, building castles, and repelling invasions, just as the Druids, amongst the ancient Britons, had omnium rerum immunitatem. And even at present this is a tenure of a very different nature from all others, being not in the least feudal, but merely spiritual; for, if the service be neglected, the law gives no remedy by distress, or otherwise, to the lord of whom the lands are holden, but merely enters a complaint to the ordinary or visitor to correct it. The statute 12th Car. II., which abolished military tenures, expressly excepts tenure in frank-almoigne.

Frank-Pledge, in Law, signifies a pledge or surety for the behaviour of freemen.