De Themmines v De Bonneval
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 17 November 1828 |
| Date | 17 November 1828 |
| Court | High Court of Chancery |
English Reports Citation: 38 E.R. 1035
HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY
S. C. 7 L. J. Ch. 35.
de themmines v. de bonneval. March 27, 31, Nov. 17, 1828. [S. C. 7 L. J. Ch. 35.] - A sum of 3 per cent, stock having been transferred by A. into the name of himself and of three trustees, a deed was executed in England by him and themr declaring they were to hold the stock upon trust to pay the dividends to A. during his life ; and, after his death, to apply them in printing and promoting the circulation of a treatise written in French and Latin, which inculcated the doctrine of the absolute and inalienable supremacy of the Pope in ecclesiastical matters ; and the deed contained a proviso, that if any court of law or equity should declare any of the trusts to he void, the trustees should stand possessed of the stock in trust for A.'s executors or administrators : Held, that the trusts after A. 's life interest were void, as being contrary to the policy of the law, and in the nature of a superstitious use : That the fund was not subject to a general trust for charity, so as to be applicable to any other charitable purpose, according to the pleasure of the crown suggested under the sign manual : and that A. was entitled to have the fund retransferred to him. The bill stated, that the Plaintiff was formerly Bishop of Blois in France ; that he, and thirty-six other Gallican bishops, in order to perpetuate their common tenets on certain points of the doctrines and discipline of the Roman Catholic religion and of the Gallican Church, did, by their solemn act of the 6th of April 1803, address to his holiness Pope Pius the Seventh a certain manuscript, which was afterwards printed and published, under the superintendence and at the ex-[289]-pense of the Plaintiff and the other bishops of the Gallican church, then residing in England, first in the Latin language, under the title of " Canonicae et reverentissimse expostula- 1036 DE THEMMINES V. DE BONNEVAL 5 EUSS. 290. tiones de variis actis ad Ecclesiam Gallicanam spectantibus, &c. &c.," and shortly afterwards in the French language, under the title of " Traductions des reclamations canoniques, et tres respectueuses addressees par lea Eveques sous-signes a notre tres-saint Pere Pius A7II. par la providence divine Souverain Pontife, contre differens actes relatifs al' Eglise Gallicane," &c.: that the Plaintiff, being desirous of preserving and perpetuating this hook in its original purity, did, while residing in England. transfer the sum of 3786, 10s. 4rf. three per cent, consolidated bank annuities, into the names of himself, and the three Defendants, the Marquis de Bonneval, M. de Broglie, and M. de Merinville : that, by an indenture subsequently made between the Plaintiff of the one part, and the Plaintiff and the three Defendants of the other part, and executed in London by all parties, it was declared, that they should stand possessed of the said 3780, 10s. d. three per cent, consolidated bank annuities, then standing in their names, upon trust to permit the Plaintiff to receive the dividends for his own use and benefit during his natural life; and, after his decease, to lay out, pay, or apply, in such manner as they should think proper, all or any part of the annual interest of the said 3786, 10s. 4cL three per cent, consolidated bank annuities, in printing or reprinting, and publishing and circulating in any part or parts of the world, either in the Latin or French language, or in both, as they might think proper, the book so printed and published ; and upon further trust, if they, the trustees, should, at any time after the Plaintiff's decease, discover or find any university, college or society, in any part of the world, which should profess and entertain the tenets and [290] principles of that book, and be desirous to support the same, and would agree to establish a chair in such university, college, or society, to support, maintain, and promulgate the said tenets and...
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