à nostra constitutione hodie rectè hæres instituitur, quasi et jure civili non incognitus. Aliquandò tamen, neque emendandi neque impugnandi veteris juris, sed majis confirmandi gratiâ, prætor pollicetur bonorum possessionem: nam illis quoque, qui, rectè testamento facto, hæredes instituti sunt, dat secundum tabulas bonorum possessionem. Item ab intestato suos hæredes, et agnátos, ad bonorum possessionem vocat: sed et remotâ quoque bonorum possessione ad eos pertinet hæreditas jure civili. Quos autem solus pretor vocat ad hæreditatem, hæredes quidem ipso jure non fiunt: nam prætor hæredem facere non potest: per legem enim tantùm, vel similem juris constitutionem, hæredes fiunt, vel per senatus-consulta et constitutiones principales: sed, cum eis prætor dat bonorum possessionem, loco hæredum constituuntur, et vocantur bonorem possessores. Adhuc autem et alios complures gradus prætor fecit in bonorum possessionibus dandis, dum id agebat, ne quis sinè successore moreretur. Nam, angustissimis finibus constitutum per legem duodecim tabularum, jus percipiendarum hæreditatum prætor ex bono et æquo dilatavit. when he had received the assistance of the prætor. Such stranger may at this time, by our constitution, be legally instituted heir as a person not unknown to the civil law. But the prætor sometimes bestows the possession of goods, intending neither to amend nor impugn the old law, but to confirm it: for he gives possession secundam tabulas to those, who are appointed heirs by regular testament. He also calls proper heirs and agnates to the possession of the goods of intestates; and yet the inheritance would be their own by the civil law, although the prætor did not interpose his authority. But those, whom the prætor calls to an inheritance merely by virtue of his office, do not. become legal heirs; inasmuch as the prætor cannot make an heir; for heirs are made only by law, or by what has the effect of a law, as a decreee of the senate, or an imperial constitution. But, when the prætor gives any persons the possession of goods, they stand in the place of heirs, and are called the possessors of the goods. He hath also devised many other orders of persons, to whom the possession of goods can be granted, so that no man may die without a successor: and, by the rules of justice and equity, he hath enlarged the right of taking inheritances, which was bounded within very narrow limits by the laws of the twelve tables. De speciebus ordinariis. Jus vetus. § I. Sunt autèm bonorum possessiones ex testamento quidem hæ; prima, quæ præteritis liberis datur vocaturque contra tabulas: secunda, quam omnibus jure scriptis hæredibus prætor pollicetur; ideòque vocatur secundum tabulas. Et, cum de testatis prius locutus est, ad intestatos transitum fecit: et primo loco suis hæredibus, et iis, qui ex edicto prætoris inter suos heredes connumerantur, dat bonorum possessionem, quæ vocatur unde liberi. Secundo, legitimis hæredibus. Tertio, decem personis, quas extraneo manumissori præferebat. Sunt autem decem personæ hæ; pater, mater, avus, avia, tam paterni quam materni; itèm filius, filia; nepos, neptis, tam ex filio, quam ex filia; frater sororve, consanguinei vel uterini. Quarto, cognatis proximis. Quinto tanquam ex familia. Sexto, patrono patronæque, liberisque eorum et parentibus. Septimo, viro et uxori. Octavo, cognatis manumissoris. 1. The possessions of goods or prætorian testamentary successions, are these. First, that which is given to children, not mentioned in the testament; this is called possession cons trary to the testament. The second, that which the prætor promises to all written heirs, and is therefore called possession according to the tes tament. These being fixed he goes to intestacies; and first he gives the possession called unde liberi, to the proper heirs, or to those, who by the prætorian edict are numbered among the proper heirs: secondly, to the legitimate (legal) heirs thirdly, to ten persons, in preference to a stranger, who was the manumittor, viz. to a father, a mother, or a grand-futher or grand-mother, paternal or maternal; to a son, á daughter, or to a grand-son or grand-daughter, as well by a daughter as by a son; to a brother or sister, either consanguine or uterine: fourthly, to the nearest cognates: fifthly, to those who are, as it were, of the family: sixthly, to the patron or patroness, and to their children, and their parents: seventhly, to art husband and wife: eighthly, to the cognates of a manumittor or pas tron. Jus novum. II. Sed eas quidem prætoria introduxit jurisdictio: à nobis tamèn nihil incuriosum pretermiss um est; sed, nostris constitutionibus omnia corrigentes, contra tabu § 2. The prætor's authority hath introduced these successions; as to ourselves, having passed over nothing negligently, we have admitted by our constitutions the possession of goods Hu 1 ང“. las quidem et seeundum tabulas bonorum possessiones admissimus, utpote necessarias constitutas: nec non ab intestato, unde liberi, et unde legitimi, bonorum possessiones. Que autem in prætoris edicto quinto loco posita fuerat, id est, unde decem persona, eam pio proposito et compendioso sermone superva cuam ostendimus. Cum enim præfata bonorum possessio decem personas præponebat extraneo manumissori nostra constitutio, quam de emancipatione liberorum fecimus, omnibus parentibus eisdemque manumissoribus, contracta fiducia, manumissionem facere dedit; ut ipsa manumissio eorum hoc in se habeat privilegium, et supervacua fiat supradicta bonorum possessio. Sublata igitur prædictâ quintâ bonorum possessione in gradum ejus sextam antea bonorum possessionem induximus, et quintam fecimus, quam prætor proximis cognatis pollicetur. Cumque antea fuerat septimo loco bonorum possessio, tanquam ex familia, et octavo, unde patroni patronæque, liberi et parentes eorum, utramque per constitutionem nostram, quam de jure patronatûs fecimus, penitùs evacuavimus. Cum enim, ad similitudinem successionis ingenuorum, libertinorum successiones posuerimus, quas usque ad quintum gradum tantummodò coarctavimus, ut sit aliqua inter ingenuos et libertinos differentia, sufficit eis tam contra tabulas bonorum possessio, quam unde legitimi, et unde cognati, ex quibus possunt contra tabulas and secundum tabulas, as necessary; and also the possessions ab intestato, called unde liberi and unde legitimi; but we have briefly shewn, that the possession, called unde decem persona, which was ranked by the prætor's edict in the fifth order, was unnecessary: for, whereas that possession preferred ten kinds of persons to a stranger, being the manumittor, our constitution on that subject, hath permitted all parents to manumit their children, under the presumption of a fiduciary contract; so that the possession unde decem personæ is now useless. The afore-mentioned fifth possession being thus abrogated, we have now made that the fifth, which was formerly the sixth, by which the prætor gives the succession to the nearest cognates. And, whereas formerly the possession tanquam ex familiâ, was in the seventh place, and the possession unde patroni patronæque, liberi et parentes eorum, was in the eighth, we have now annulled them both by our ordinance concerning the right of patronage. And having brought the successions of the libertini to a similitude with those of the ingenui, (except, that we have limited the former to the fifth degree, so that there may still remain some difference between them) we think, that the possessions contra tabulas, unde legitimi, and unde cognati may suffice,, by which all persons may vindicate their rights; the niceties and inextricable errors of those two kinds of sua jura vindicare, omni scrupulositate et inextricabili errore istarum duarum bonorum possessionum resoluto. Aliam vero bonorum possessionem, quæ unde vir et uxor appellatur, et nono loco inter veteres bonorum possessiones posita fuerat, et in suo vigore servavimus, et altiore loco, id est, sexto, eam posuimus: decima quoque veteri bonorum possessione, quæ erat unde cognati manumissoris, propter causas enumeratas meritò sublata, ut sex tantummodò bonorum possessiones ordinaria permaneant, suo vigore pollentes. Species extraordinaria. § III. Septima eas secuta, quam optimâ ratione prætores introduxerunt: novissimè enim promittitur edicto iis etiam bonorum possessio, quibus, ut detur, lege vel senatusconsulto vel constitutione comprehensum est: quam neque bonorum possessionibus, quæ ab intestato veniunt, neque iis, que ex testamento sunt, prætor stabili jure connumeraverit; sed quasi ultimum › et extraordinarium auxilium (prout res exigit) accommodavit, scilicèt iis, qui ex legibus, senatus-consultis, constitutionibusve principum, ex novo jure, vel ex testamento, vel ab intestato veniunt. 3. To these a seventh possession hath been added, which the prætors have very properly introduced: for, by a late edict, this possession is promised to all those, to whom it is appointed by any law, senatus-consultum, or constitution; and the prætor hath not positively numbered this possession of goods either with the possessions of the goods of intestate or testate persons, but hath given it, according to the exigence of the case, as the lust and extraor dinary resource of those, who are called to the successions of testates or intestates, by any particular law, decree of the senate, or new constitu tion. De successorio edicto. IV. Cum igitur plures species § 4. The prætor, having introdusuccessionum prætor introduxisset, ced in their order many kinds of suc easque per ordinem disposuisset, et in unaquáque specie successionis sæpè plures extent dispari gradu personæ, ne actiones creditorum differentur, sed haberent, quos convenirent, et ne facilè in possessionem bonorum defuncti mitterentur, et eo modo sibi consulerent, ideò petendæ bonorum possessioni certum tempus præfinivit. Liberis itaque et parentibus, tam naturalibus quam adoptivis, in petenda bonorum posssessione anni spatium, cæteris autem (agnatie vel cognatis) centum dierum, dedit. cessions, and as persons of different degrees are often found in one species of succession, he thought fit to limit a certain time for demanding the possession of goods, that the actions of creditors may not be delayed for want of a proper person against whom to bring them, and that the creditors may not possess themselves of the effects of the deceased too easily, and consult solely their own advantage: therefore to parents and children, whether natural or adopted, he hath allowed one year, within which, they may either accept or refuse the possession. To all other persons, agnates or cognates, he allows only an hundred days. De iure accrescend. et iterum de successorio edicto. 6 V. Et si intra hoc tempus aliquis bonorum possessionem non petierit, ejusdem gradus personis accrescit; vel, si nullus sit, deinceps cæteris bonorum possessionem perindè ex successorio edicto pollicetur, ac si is, qui præcedebat, ex eo numero non esset. Si quis itaque delatam sibi bonorum possessionem repudiaverit, non, quousque tempus bonorum possessioni præfinitum excesserit, expectatur; sed statim cæteri ex eodem edicto admittuntur. 5. And, if a person intitled, do not claim possession within the time limited, his right of possession accrues first to those in the same degree with himself; and, in default of those, the prætor by successory edict gives the possession to the next degree, as if he, who preceded, haď no right. If a man refuse the possession of goods, when it is open to him, there is no necessity to wait, until the time limited is expired, but the next in succession, may be instantly admitted under that edict. Explicatio dicti temporis. S VI. In petendà autem bonorum possessione dies utiles singuli considerantur. § 6. In applications for the possession of goods, we count all the days, which are utiles; i. e. those days, on which the party, having knowledge that the inheritance is open to him, might apply to the judge. |