Divine Service
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
Divine service was the name of a feudal tenure, by which the tenants were obliged to do some special divine services in certain; as to sing so many masses, to distribute such a sum in alms, and the like. (2 Bl. Comm. 102; 1 Steph. Comm. 227.) It differed from tenure in frankalmoign, in this: that, in case of the tenure by divine service, the lord of whom the lands were holden might distrain for its non-performance, whereas, in case of frankalmoign, the lord has no remedy by distress, but only by complaint to the visitor to correct it. Mozley & Whitley.