invention of the as a legal device. During the Crusades, and other wars on the Continent, landowners might be gone for long periods of time. Others might be absent because of business adventures or religious pilgrimages. There was no assurance they would ever return home. The allowed them to leave a trusted friend or relative with the sort of powers, discretions and they hoped, the duties. Today, this power would be called the "power of attorney". Religious orders such as Franciscans, Cistercians, Benedictines and other mendicant orders took vows of poverty, yet retained the use of donated property. allowed them the benefits of land without legal ownership. Besides the obvious limitations placed on by the Statute of Mortmain, the Statute of Uses and the Statute of Wills, its legality was shaped indirectly by provisions within Magna Carta and . Typical medieval patterns Derek Roebuck has given the following typical fact patterns which were often found in medieval cestui que use: Example 1: Albert is the owner of a landholding called Blackacre. He conveys this to Richard with the command that Richard hold the land with the duty not for Richard's benefit, but for a different purpose. This could be to do a job, such as collect rents and profits for the purpose of passing them to a third person, Lucy. This was nothing more than a clever legal device with Richard playing either an active or passive role. Example 2: If Jane (women could engage in cestui que use) granted Blackacre to Charles to the use of David, then David became the beneficial owner and Jane could not vary or detract from that ownership. Example 3: If Mary wanted to grant Blackacre away from her direct heir James to her younger son Jasper, then she might well do so by a grant of Richard to the use of Jasper in tail, remainder to James in fee simple. Only Richard had a legal estate, the interests of Jasper and James being equitable analogues of a legal fee tail and fee simple in remainder. Example 4: If Mary wanted to make a will of the equitable ownership of Blackacre, she would be able to do so by a grant to Richard to the use of herself, Mary. The ownership of Blackacre did not pass on Mary's death to her heir but went to wherever she might will it. By this method, Mary