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ALIENATION (from Lat. alienus, belonging to another)
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ALIENATION (from 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.