Nobili

Mr. Chief Justice Murray concurred.

The plaintiff, who is the pastor of the Catholic church in Santa Clara, sues for the possession of a piece of land known as the “ Orchard,” which belonged to the former Mission of Santa Clara; claiming that the mission lands were church property, and that by the rules of the Church, he is the administrator of the temporalities of that particular church and mission.

Much discussion has taken place upon the questions of the right of *342 the Church, .under the Spanish and Mexican systems, to take property, and the right of the plaintiff to succeed; but the opinion to which I have arrived, renders it unnecessary to consider them.

According, to all the Spanish and Mexican authorities, (which have been well collated in the respondent’s argument,) the missions were political establishments, and in no manner connected with the Church. The fact that monks or priests were at the Itead of these institutions, proves nothing in favor of the clajm. of the Church to universal ownership of the property. It is here unnecessary to determine in what manner, or by what form of conveyance, the Church, as a political or corporate body, could validly acquire…