ALIENATION (from

See also:

• LAT

Lat. alienus, belonging to another)  , the act or fact of being estranged, set apart or separated . In law the word is used for the act of transfer of property by voluntary deed and not by inheritance . In regard to church property the word has come to mean, since the Reformation, a transfer from religious to secular ownership . " Alienation " is also used to denote a state of insanity (q.v.) . ALIEN-HOUSES, religious houses in England belonging to foreign ecclesiastics, or under their control . They generally were built where property had been left by the donors to foreign orders to pray for their souls . They were frequently regular " priories," but sometimes only " cells," and even " granges," with small chapels attached . Some, particularly in cities, seem to have been a sort of mission-houses . There were more than Too in England . Many alien-houses were suppressed by Henry V. and the rest by Henry VIII .