Quare Impedit

Quare impedit, in English law, a form of action by which the right of presentation to a benefice is tried.It is so called from the words of the writ formerly in use, which directed the sheriff to command the person disturbing the possession to permit the plaintiff to present a fit person, or to show cause "why he hinders" the plaintiff in his right. The action was one of the few real actions preserved by the Real Property Limitation Act 1833, and survived up to 1860.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

Eng. eccl. law. The name of a writ directed by the king to the sheriff, by which he is required to command certain persons by name to permit him, the king, to present a fit person to a certain church, which is void, and which belongs to his gift, and of which the said defendants hinder the king, as it is said, and unless, etc. then to summon, etc. the defendants so that they be and appear, etc.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.