irrita sunt et ea, quae iure facta sunt, postea propter capitis deminutionem irrita fiunt, possumus nihilo minus rupta dicere. sed quia sane commodius erat singulas causas singulis appellationibus distingui, ideo quaedam non iure facta dicuntur, quaedam iure facta rumpi vel irrita fieri. Non tamen per 6 omnia inutilia sunt ea testamenta, quae ab initio iure facta propter capitis deminutionem irrita facta sunt. nam si septem testium signis signata sunt, potest scriptus heres secundum tabulas testamenti bonorum possessionem agnoscere, si modo defunctus et civis Romanus et suae potestatis mortis tempore fuerit: nam si ideo irritum factum sit testamentum, quod civitatem vel etiam libertatem testator amisit, aut quia in adoptionem se dedit et mortis tempore in adoptivi patris potestate sit, non potest scriptus heres secundum tabulas bonorum possessionem petere. Ex eo autem solo non potest 7

§ 6. The only kind of capitis deminutio whose effect, in making the will irritum, could be overridden in this manner by bonorum possessio secundum tabulas was capitis deminutio minima. The bonorum possessio was sine re, i. e. could always be practically defeated by the civil heirs ab intestato of the deceased, if there were such (Gaius ii. 148, 9, Ulpian, reg. 23. 6), unless the testator, after recovering testamenti factio, expressly declared his desire that the will should stand, Dig. 37. II. II. 2. If the capitis deminutio resulted from capture in war, the will was not irritum, being upheld either iure postliminii or by the fictio legis Corneliae, see on Tit. 12. 5 supr.

Bonorum possessio secundum tabulas usually found its application where there was a will which iure civili was void, but which satisfied the praetorian requirements; cases of this, besides that in the text, and the praetorian will mentioned p. 236 supr. are (1) pretermission of a suus heres, though the bonorum possessio was sine re, unless the suus predeceased the testator or abstained from the inheritance, Dig. 28. 3. 2. pr., ib. 17. (2) If a later will became void, bonorum possessio would be granted secundum tabulas prioris testamenti, Dig. 27. 11. 11. 2. (3) If there were two or more wills, none of which could be proved to be the most recent, they would be read together as one (praetorian) testament, Dig. 37. 11. 1. 6: for a case obsolete under Justinian see Gaius ii. 118-122.

A will might become void, not only by being ruptum or irritum, but also (1) by being destitutum or desertum, i. e. by the failure of all instituted heirs to take, whether from refusal, from predeceasing the testator, or from want of testamenti factio between delatio and aditio (Tit. 19. 4 inf.); and (2) by being successfully impeached on the ground of inofficiositas, as described in the next Title.

§ 7. For 'oratio' see p. 95 supr., and for the enactment of Pertinax

infirmari testamentum, quod postea testator id noluit valere: usque adeo ut et, si quis post factum prius testamentum posterius facere coeperit et aut mortalitate praeventus, aut quia eum eius rei paenituit, id non perfecisset, divi Pertinacis oratione cautum est, ne alias tabulae priores iure factae irritae fiant, nisi sequentes iure ordinatae et perfectae fuerint. nam imperfectum testamentum sine dubio nullum est. Eadem oratione expressit non admissurum se hereditatem eius, qui litis causa principem heredem reliquerit, neque tabulas non legitime factas, in quibus ipse ob eam causam heres institutus erat, probaturum neque ex nuda voce heredis nomen admissurum neque ex ulla scriptura, cui iuris auctoritas desit, aliquid adepturum. secundum haec divi quoque Severus et Antoninus saepissime rescripserunt: 'licet enim' inquiunt 'legibus soluti sumus, attamen legibus vivimus.'

XVIII.

DE INOFFICIOSO TESTAMENTO.

Quia plerumque parentes sine causa liberos suos vel exheredant vel omittunt, inductum est, ut de inofficioso testamento

cf. Capitol. Pert. 7 'legem . . . tulit, ut testamenta priora non prius essent irrita, quam alia perfecta essent, neve ob hoc fiscus aliquando succederet.' To cancel a written will otherwise than by the execution of a later one it was necessary to destroy the instrument by tearing or cutting it, or by erasing the institution, though unintentional erasure after execution did not affect the validity of its dispositions if their tenor was known, Dig. 28. 4. 1. 2. Single dispositions could similarly be revoked by erasure, without affecting the validity of the will as a whole, Dig. ib. 2. 7, cf. Krüger's recension of Gaius ii. 151 in Mr. Poste's edition.

§ 8. Cf. Paulus, sent. rec. 5. 12. 8 (in Dig. 28. 5. 9) 'imperatorem litis causa heredem institui invidiosum est, nec calumniae facultatem ex principali maiestate capi oportet. For acceptance under informal wills by the Emperors cf. Suetonius, Calig. 38, Domit. 12, Pliny, Paneg. 43. 'Nuda vox' seems to mean the allegation of having heard so and so declare informally that he had made the Emperor his heir ('qui diceret audisse se ex defuncto, cum viveret, heredem sibi Caesarem esse' Suetonius, 1. c.).

Tit. XVIII. The practice of exheredation formally enabled a father to debar his children from all share in his succession; in this Title is described the remedy for too harsh an exercise of this privilege, which practically secured to relations within a certain degree of every testator

269 agere possint liberi, qui queruntur aut inique se exheredatos aut inique praeteritos, hoc colore, quasi non sanae mentis fuerunt, cum testamentum ordinarent. sed hoc dicitur, non quasi vere furiosus sit, sed recte quidem fecit testamentum, non autem ex officio pietatis: nam si vere furiosus est, nullum est testamentum. Non tantum autem liberis permissum est parentum testamentum inofficiosum accusare, verum etiam parentibus liberorum. soror autem et frater turpibus personis scriptis heredibus ex sacris constitutionibus praelati sunt: non ergo contra omnes heredes agere possunt. ultra fratres et sorores cognati nullo modo aut agere possunt aut agentes vincere. Tam autem naturales liberi, quam secundum 2 nostrae constitutionis divisionem adoptati ita demum de inofficioso testamento agere possunt, si nullo alio iure ad bona defuncti venire possunt. nam qui alio iure veniunt ad totam hereditatem vel partem eius, de inofficioso agere non possunt. postumi quoque, qui nullo alio iure venire possunt, de inofficioso

a fixed proportion of his property. The persons to whom this right of impeaching a will as inofficiosum belonged are specified in §§ 1 and 2, and the circumstances under which it could be exercised in § 3. The querella, or action for the rescission of the will, had to be brought within five years of the testator's decease: its ordinary effect was to avoid it in toto, and to substitute succession ab intestato, Dig. 5. 2. 8. 16, ib. 13, though it might be brought against one or some only of several joint heirs, in which case the will was upset only in part, the testator remaining pro parte testatus, Dig. 5. 2. 19. 24. For the plea upon which the will was avoided (quasi non sanae mentis) cf. Val. Max. 7. 8. 1, Seneca, clement. 1. 14, Dio Cassius 59. 1, Pliny, Paneg. 43.

§ 1. Descendants could bring the querella against the wills of ascendants ('exheredant... omittunt' in pr. indicating respectively exercising potestas and all other ascendants, female as well as male) and vice versa, if, supposing the testator had died intestate, they would have been the heirs. As to the rights of brothers and sisters against one another, Ulpian writes 'omnibus enim tam parentibus quam liberis de inofficioso licet disputare: cognati enim proprii qui sunt ultra fratrem melius facerent si se sumptibus inanibus non vexarent, cum obtinere spem non haberent' Dig. 5. 2. 1. Constantine enacted that only agnatic brothers and sisters should be entitled to bring the querella; Justinian extended it to germani, but excluded uterini, and repealed the requirement of agnatic connection, Cod. 3. 28. 27, though still allowing the action only where turpes personae were preferred ('si scripti heredes infamiae vel turpitudinis vel levis notae macula adsparguntur ').

§ 2. The plene adoptatus alone (unless emancipated before the testa

3 agere possunt. Sed haec ita accipienda sunt, si nihil eis penitus a testatoribus testamento relictum est. quod nostra constitutio ad verecundiam naturae introduxit. sin vero quantacumque pars hereditatis vel res eis fuerit relicta, de inofficiosi querella quiescente id quod eis deest usque ad quartam legitimae partis repletur, licet non fuerit adiectum boni viri arbitratu debere 4 eam repleri. Si tutor nomine pupilli, cuius tutelam gerebat, ex testamento patris sui legatum acceperit, cum nihil erat ipsi tutori relictum a patre suo, nihilo minus possit nomine suo de 5 inofficioso patris testamento agere. Sed et si e contrario pupilli nomine, cui nihil relictum fuerit, de inofficioso egerit et superatus est, ipse quod sibi in eodem testamento legatum 6 relictum est non amittit. Igitur quartam quis debet habere,

tor's death) could impeach his adoptive father's will, Cod. 8. 48. 10: the minus plene adoptatus retained the right against his natural father. As is remarked in the text, the action was barred if the claimant could obtain his due alio iure, e. g. by bonorum possessio contra tabulas, if he were an emancipated son and praeteritus, or by the quarta Antonina, if, having been adrogated as impubes, he was subsequently disinherited; see Bk. i. 11. 3 supr.

§ 3. Before Justinian the querella lay whenever the claimant had received less from the testator than he was entitled to by law: 'si parum, quam ei debebatur, fuerit consecutus, movere de inofficioso testamento querellam concedatur' Nov. Theod. 1. 22. He, however, enacted (Cod. 3. 28. 30. pr. and 1) that in future the sole ground for the action should be that the claimant had received nothing at all: if he had received something, though ever so little, his sole remedy was to bring the new action ad supplendam legitimam against the heir or heirs, which left the will untouched: for precedents for this rule cf. Paul. sent. rec. 4. 5. 10, Cod. 3. 28. 4. The share which one could demand was one-fourth of what one would have had if the testator had died intestate, Dig. 5. 2. 8. 8. Justinian subsequently enacted, by Nov. 118. 1, that if a man had less than five children he must leave them together, in equal shares, at least a third of the inheritance; if five or more, at least one-half.

§ 4. Acceptance of anything, with full knowledge, under the will was taken to imply acquiescence in its dispositions, and so barred the querella, Dig. 5. 2. 8; a rule sometimes so strictly construed that to assist a claimant under the will as counsel was held to exclude one from impeaching it on one's own account, Dig. ib. 32. pr.

§ 5. 'Qui testamentum inofficiosum dixit, et non obtinuit, id quod in testamento accepit, perdere, et id fisco vindicari, quasi indigno ablatum' Dig. 5. 2. 8. 14. For other exceptions see Paul. sent. rec. 4. 5. 9. 10, Dig. 34. 9. 5, B. 5. 2. 22. 1 and 3, ib. 30. 1.

§ 8. Gifts from the testator inter vivos (i. e. not mortis causa) could

ut de inofficioso testamento agere non possit: sive iure hereditario sive iure legati vel fideicommissi, vel si mortis causa ei quarta donata fuerit, vel inter vivos in his tantummodo casibus, quorum nostra constitutio mentionem facit, vel aliis modis qui constitutionibus continentur. Quod autem de 7 quarta diximus, ita intellegendum est, ut, sive unus fuerit sive plures, quibus agere de inofficioso testamento permittitur, una quarta eis dari possit, ut pro rata distribuatur eis, id est pro virili portione quarta.

XIX.

DE HEREDUM QUALITATE ET DIFFERENTIA.

Heredes autem aut necessarii dicuntur aut sui et necessarii aut extranei. Necessarius heres est servus heres institutus : I ideo sic appellatus, quia, sive velit sive nolit, omnimodo post mortem testatoris protinus liber et necessarius heres fit. unde qui facultates suas suspectas habent, solent servum suum primo

not as a rule be counted as part of the quarta, unless made propter nuptias or by way of dos, Cod. 3. 28. 19, or unless it had been so expressly agreed between the parties, Cod. ib. 35. 2; for other exceptions see Cod. ib. 30. 2, Cod. 6. 20. 20. pr., Dig. 5. 2. 25. pr.

§ 7. The true ground of the querella inofficiosi being the testator's impietas or want of natural affection, success depended on the plaintiff's ability to show 'immerentem se et ideo et indigne praeteritum vel etiam exheredatione summotum' Dig. 5. 2. 3: the onus of proving the existence of reasonable grounds for the plaintiff's exclusion lay on the defendant (instituted heir), who might meet the plaintiff by the exceptio ingratitudinis, Cod. 3. 28. 19. 23.

By Nov. 115. 3-5 Justinian made a considerable change in this branch of law; he required that ascendants should not only leave descendants the quarta (and vice versa) but should institute them heirs, exheredation being allowed only for definite reasons (of which more than a dozen are specified in the enactment), and the reason in the particular case being required to be stated in the will. Violation of this new rule entailed avoidance of the actual institution, the intestate heirs taking the place of the institutus; in other respects the dispositions of the will were not affected. It was not necessary that the amount in which an ascendant or descendant was instituted should be equivalent to his quarta. This enactment made no change in respect of the reciprocal rights of brother and sister, but it altogether excluded ascendants and descendants from the old querella, and limited them to actio ad supplendam legitimam.

Tit. XIX. § 1. Only servi of the testator's own (proprii) could be