T he Statutes of Mortmain were two enactments, in 1279 and 1290 by King Edward I of England aimed at preserving the kingdom's revenues by preventing land from passing into the possession of the Church. In Medieval England, feudal estates generated taxes (in the form of incidents) upon the inheritance or granting of the estate. If an estate was owned by a religious corporation that never died, attained majority, or became attainted for treason, these taxes were never paid. The Statutes of Mortmain were meant to re-establish the prohibition against donating land to the Church for purposes of avoiding feudal services which had been hinted at in the Magna Carta,
The term "mortmain" - literally the "dead hand" indicated that a person who had died years earlier still dictated land use to the next generations by leaving it to the Church, which never died, and hence never had to relinquish land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Mortmain
This would show that, in the past, government did "turn on religion" due to usurping inheritances of the people and taxation required by government for taking care of their constituents.
However, would this church v. government scenerio be repeated in our time? Personally, I think not. For the very reason that this would seem to tie in well with Agenda 21 and global governance. In this case, church and government become one. So it would be to the advantage of this new entity and new shape of gov. and eco religion to merge, owning both the lands and dictating their usage.
The church never dies, therefore whatever lands left to it will always be in perpetuity. One of the focuses of the NWO is doing away with inheritances, on the assumption that all will be "equal". But surely you know that some will always be more equal than others.