Question I: What a promise is, and how it differs from a donation

PROMISE and Donation are AFFINES. Promise is a firm, and spontaneous giving of faith concerning a licit thing; or it is a deliberate, and spontaneous obligation of faith, of giving, or doing something, given to another concerning a licit, and good thing, pleasing to him. So the Doctors commonly. See Sotum lib. 7. de iustitia, quaest. 2. art. 1. Fagundez lib. 3. cap. 1. de contract. and the holy Doctor indicates it in 4. dist. 29. quaest. 2. and dist. 38. dub. 5. littera.

DONATION indeed is an exhibition, not of faith, but of a thing; yet to give signifies actual tradition, from D. Bonavent. in primo, dist. 18. quaest. 4.

POLLICITATIO signifies a promise on the part of the offerer only, just as a promise is on the part of both; yet they are often taken for the same thing, as you have in D. Bonaventura in 4. dist. 27. dub. 5. littera, and also donation signifies respect to the donor, and to him to whom the donation is made, as D. Bonavent. notes in primo, dist. 18. quaest. 5. Donation indeed by that very fact transfers a determinate thing from the donor to the donee, so that the thing may be called his, mine, or yours, as the holy Doctor admonishes dist. 18. citata, quaest. ultima.

DONATION indeed signifies the liberal exhibition of a gratuitous thing, as the holy Doctor teaches in the cited places, and in 2. dist. 7. part. 2. quaest. 1. ad septimum.

THEREFORE, being about to treat of the contracts one by one, I treat of Promise, which is the principle of all, and of the liberal exhibition, which is first made from promise, and which obligates the spontaneous exhibitor, just as also a promise in the internal forum indeed, if the intention of binding oneself was present; but if it has the intention not of promising, and yet promises externally, it is compelled in the external forum to fulfil, as D. Bonavent. teaches in 4. dist. 38. dub. 5. litt. and in other cited places disp. 1. quaest. 3. and commonly Sanchez lib. 1. de sponsal. disp. 5. num. 21. Caietanus, and other Thomists 2. 2. quaest. 88. art. 3. where Aragon Rebell. de oblig. iustitiae, 2. part. lib. 18. quaest. 1. Corduba sum. quaest. 156. Fagundez lib. 3. de contract. cap. 1. So also the cited quaest. and quaest. 2. disp. 1. I have shown that a promise ought to be spontaneous, but not extorted by force, fear, or fraud, lest he who extorted it carry off gain from fraud, or force, as the holy Doctor argues in the places lately cited, and with him D. Thom. 2. 2. quaest. 89. art. 7. where Caietanus, and other disciples. Sotus lib. 8. de iust. quaest. 1. art. 7. ad 3. Mercatus cap. 16. Nauar. summa, cap. 18. Molina tract. 2. disp. 267. Sylvester V. restit. Lopez 2. part. Instruct. cap. 30. Rebell. 2. part. lib. 18. quaest. 1. num. 7. Fagundez lib. 3. cap. 1.

WHENCE Fagundez infers, num. 5. Azor Tomo 1. lib. 11. cap. 7. §. tertia regula, with D. Bonavent. in speculo animae, cap. 2. and all suppose, especially the holy Doctor, in the places cited above, that he who receives what was promised, extorted by force, or fear, is bound in conscience to restore it, because he receives it unjustly.