bi acquisierit, ipsi reserventur. Et quamvis bona defuncti non sufficiant creditoribus, iterum tamen ex eâ causâ res ejus, quas sibi acquisierit, non væneunt. after the death of his patron; for such acquisitions are not to be sold although the goods of the deceased should ever be so insufficient for the payment of his creditors. De suis hæredibus. II. Sui autem et necessarii hæredes sunt, veluti filius, filia, nepos neptisve ex filio, et deinceps cæteri liberi, qui in potestate morientis modò fuerint. Sed ut nepos neptisve sui hæredes sint, non sufficit eum eamve in potestate avi mortis tempore fuisse sed opus est, ut pater ejus, vivo patre suo, desierit suus hæres esse, aut morte interceptus, aut qualibit aliâ ratione liberatus à patriâ potestate; tunc enim nepos neptisve in locum patris sui succedit. Sed sui quidem hæredes ideò appellantur, quia domestici hæredes sunt, et vivo quoque patre quodammodo domini existimantur. Undè etiam, si quis intestatus moriatur, prima causa est in successione liberorum. Necessarii vero Necessarii vero ideò dicuntur, quia omninò, sive velint, sive nolint, tam ab intestato quam ex testamento, ex lege duodecim tabularum hæredes fiunt. Sed his prætor permittit volentibus abstinere hæreditate, ut potius parentis quam ipsorum bona simililèr à creditoribus possideantur. $ 2. Proper and necessary heirs, are sons, daughters, grand-sons or grand-daughters by a son or other direct descendants, in the power of the deceased at the time of his death. To constitute grand-children proper heirs, it does not suffice, that they were in the power of their grandfather at the time of his decease; but it is requisite, that their father should have ceased to be a proper heir in the life-time of his father, by having been freed, either by death or otherwise from paternal authority; for then it is, that the grandson or grand-daughter succeeds in place of their father. Heirs are called sui or proper, because they are domestic ; and in the very life-time of their father are reputed masters in a certain degree. Hence the children of an intestate are first in succession; and are called necessary heirs, because, willing or unwilling they become the heirs of their parent according to the law of the 12 tables, whether under a testament or an intestacy. But when children request it, the prætor permits them to obstain from the inheritance, that the effects of their parents, rather than their own, may be seized by the creditors. De extraneis. § III. Cæteri, qui testatoris juri subjecti non sunt, extranei hæredes appellantur; itaque liberi nostri, qui in potestate nostrâ non sunt, hæredes à nobis instituti, extranei hæredis nobis videntur. Quâ de causâ et qui hæredes à matre instituuntur eodem numero sunt: quia fœminæ, in potestate, liberos non hahabent. Servus quoque hæres à domino institutus, et post factum testamentum ab eo manumissus, eodem numero habetur. $ 3. All other heirs, not subject to the power of the testator, are called strangers: thus, children not under the power of their father, but who are constituted his heirs, are strangers in a legal sense and so are children instituted heirs by their mother, for a woman is not allowed to have her children under her own power. A slave also, whom his master hath instituted by testament and afterwards manumitted is so accounted. De testamenti IV. In extraneis hæredibus illud observatur, ut sit cum eis testamenti factio, sivé hæredes ipsi instituantur, sive ii, qui in potestate eorum sunt. Et id duobus temporibus inspicitur; testamenti quidem facti tempore, ut constiterit institutio; mortis verò testatoris, ut effectum habeat. Hoc amplius, et cum adit hæreditatem, esse debet cum eo testamenti factio, sivè purè sivè sub conditione hæres institutus sit. Nam jus hæredis eo maxime tempore in spiciendum est, quo acquirit hæreditatem. Medio autem tempore, inter factum testamentum et mortem testatoris vel conditionem institutionis existentem, mutatio juris non nocet hæredi: quia ut diximus, tria tempora inspici debent. Testamenti autem factionem non solùm is habere videtur, qui testamentum facere potest; sed etiam, qui ex alieno testamento vel ipse capere potest, vel alii acquirere, licèt non factione. $ 4. As to strangers, it is requisite, that they should be capable of the faction of a testament, whether instituted heirs themselves, or whether those, under their power, are instituted. And this qualification is required at two several times; at the making of the testament, that the institution may be valid; and at the testator's death, that it may take effect; and farther, whether an heir be appoinetd simply or conditionally, yet he ought to be capable of the faction of a testament at the time of entering upon the inheritance; for his right is principally regarded at the time of acquiring the possession. But intermediately between the making of the testament and the death of the testator, or the completion of the condition of the institution, the heir will not be prejudiced by incapacity of change of state; because the three points of time which we have noted, are the times to be re possit facere testamentum. Et ideo furiosus, et mutus, et posthumus, et infans, et filius-familias, et servus alienus, testamenti factionem habere dicuntur. Licèt enim testamentum facere non possint, attamen ex testamento vel sibi vel alii acquirere possunt. garded. Not only a man capable of willing, is said to have testamenti fàctionem; but also any person capable of taking for the benefit of himself, or of acquiring by testament for the benefit of another: hence, persons mad, mute, or posthumous, infants, the sons of a family, or slaves not your own, may all be said to have the faction of a testament (in its passive signification.) For, although incapable of making, they are capable of acquiring by testament, either for themselves or others. De jure deliberandi, et de beneficio inventarii. V. Extraneis autem hæredibus deliberandi potestas est de adeundâ hæreditate vel non adeundâ. Sed sivè is, cui abstinendi potestas est, immiscuerit se bonis hæreditatis, sivè extraneus, cui de adeundâ hæreditate diliberare licet, adierit, postea relinquendæ hæreditatis facultatem non habet, nisi minor sit 25 annis: nam hujusmodi ætatis ́hominibus, sicut in cæteris omnibus causis, deceptis, ita et si temerè damnosam hæreditatem susceperint prætor succurrit. Sciendum est tamen, Divum Hadrianum etiam majori 25 annis veniam dedisse, cum post aditam hæreditatem grande æs alienum, quod aditæ hæreditatis tempore latebat, emersisset. Sed hoc quidem Divus Hadrianus cuidam speciali beneficio præstitit. Divus autem Gordianus postea militibus tantummodò hoc concessit. Sed nostra benevolentia commune omnibus subjectis imperio nostro hoc 5. Strangers, appointed heirs, may deliberate 'ere they enter upon an inheritance. But, if one, who has the liberty of abstaining, or a stranger who is permitted to deliberate, should once intermeddle, it will not afterwards be in his power to renounce the inheritance, unless he shall be under the age of twentyfive years: for the prætor, in this as in all other cases, relieves minors who have been deceived, and who rashly take upon themselves an injurious inheritance. Here it must be noted, that the emperor Adrian once gave permission to a person of full age, to relinquish an inheritance when it appeared to be incumbered with a great debt, which had been concealed, until the heir had taken upon himself the administration. But this was granted as a special favour. The emperor Gordian afterwards published a constitution for the indemnification of heirs yet con beneficium præstitit: et constitutionem tam æquissimam quam nobilissimam scripsit, cujus tenorem si observaverint homines, licèt eis adire hæreditatem, et in tantùm teneri, quantùm valere bona hæreditatis contingit, ut ex hac causa neque deliberationis auxilium sit eis necessarium, nisi, omissâ observatione nostræ constitutionis, et deliberandum existimaverint, et esse veteri gravanini aditionis supponere maluerint. fined the force of it to those only, who were of the soldiery. But our extended benevolence hath rendered this benefit common to all our subjects, having dictated a constitution just and noble, which, if heirs will observe, they may enter upon their inheritance, and not be chargeable beyond the value of the estate; so that they need not pray time for deliberation, unless they omit to observe the tenor of our ordinance, choosing rather to deliberate, and submit themselves to the risk attending the acceptance under the ancient law. De acquirenda vel omittenda hæreditate. VI. Item extraneus hæres testamento institutus, aut ab intestato ad legitimam hæreditatem vocatus, potest aut pro hærede gerendo, aut etiam nudâ voluntate suscipienda hæreditatis, hæres fieri. Pro hærede autem gerere quis videtur, si rebus hæreditariis tanquàm hæres utatur, vel vendendo res hæreditarias, vel prædia colendo, locandove, et quoquo modo voluntatem suam declaret, vel re, vel verbo, de adeundâ hæreditate; dummodò sciat, eum, in cujus bonis pro hærede gerit, testatum intestatumve obiissee, et se ei hæredem esse. Pro hærede enim gerere, èst pro domino gerere: veteres enim, hæredes pro dominis appellabant. Sicut autèm nudâ voluntate extraneus hæres fit, ita contrariâ destinatione statim ab hæreditate repellitur. Eum, qui surdus vel mutus natus, vel postea factus est, nihil prohibet 6. A stranger, instituted by testament, or called by law to a succession in a case of intestacy, may make himself accountable as heir, either by doing some act as such; or by barely signifying his acceptance of the heirship. And a man is deemed to act as the heir of an inheritance, if he treat it as his own, by selling any part of it, by cultivating the ground, or by leasing it: or declare his consent to accept it, either by act or speech; knowing that the person, with whose estate he intermeddles, is dead testate or intestate, and that he himself is the heir: for to act as heir, is to act as proprietor; and the ancients frequently used the term heir, when they would denote the proprietor. But as a stranger may become heir by a bare consent, so on the contrary, by a mere dissent, he may bar himself from an inheritance. And |