Chapter VIII — On legacies, and their diversity

I. QUESTION I. What is a legacy, and of how many kinds is it? ANSWER. It is a certain donation which a testator leaves to be furnished by an heir, out of that which would be the heir's. One legacy is pure, when it is left with no condition and no appointed time; another to a day, in which a time is prescribed for rendering it; another conditional, which is burdened with some charge. A legacy lasts according to the testator's will. Wherefore Alexander VII condemned the opposite opinion, no. 45: An annual legacy left for the soul does not last more than ten years. If the heir has repudiated the inheritance, the legacies are by common law void. Legacies for pious causes the heir ab intestato must pay. Many particular laws nevertheless decree that any legacies whatsoever are to be paid, even the inheritance being repudiated. Pure legacies are to be paid continuously.

II. Some estate, whether immovable or movable, being bequeathed, all those things are reckoned bequeathed which follow the estate. Hence, a pleasure-garden being bequeathed, the plants are understood to be bequeathed; a garment being bequeathed, the ornaments also, whether golden or silver, are bequeathed. As for legacies for pious causes, if a testator choose such a poor person or such a pious place, these being removed, the legacy must be fulfilled, unless it were established that the legacy was left as the good of that poor person himself. A shameful or impossible condition is held as not added to a legacy. A condition added that the legatee marry this or that girl is valid, and makes the legacy null unless the legatee marry the designated girl. If she refuse, the legacy is valid. Invalid is the condition of never marrying, widows excepted, in respect of whom the added condition of not marrying is valid.

III. A legacy left for a determinate maiden about to marry can be delivered to her even if she wish to enter religion. If the legacy be indefinite for orphans, widows, and maidens about to marry, the legacy is to be given to them: for indeed legacies for maidens about to enter religion are left by another formula. If maidens willing to marry should be lacking, which rarely happens, then, unless it were expressly established of the testator's opposite mind, it could be delivered to maidens entering religion. A legacy left to girls willing to marry cannot be delivered to married women, even poor ones.

IV. QUESTION II. Can a legacy destined for the girls of this city be delivered to strangers? ANSWER. That it cannot is certain, because it would be openly against the testator's mind. If nevertheless strangers should fix their domicile there, then, a decade having passed, it could be delivered to them as to the other inhabitants. A legacy left for maidens about to marry cannot be delivered to the corrupt, if it be juridically established that they are such. If the corruption were secret, the legacy could be delivered.

V. QUESTION III. Can anyone derogate from a testament? ANSWER. A testator is the supreme lawgiver by the law of nations and by civil law. His express will, a just cause being removed, cannot be changed. If it be doubtful, there is room for the interpretation of his mind, not for its commutation. Commutation then has place when the testator's mind is clear but cannot be fulfilled. In this case, if the legacy be profane, it becomes void and passes to the heirs. If it were for pious causes, it can be commuted into a like pious use at the bishop's discretion.

VI. QUESTION IV. When can the Falcidian portion be deducted from legacies? ANSWER. Caius Falcidius in the time of Caesar Augustus proposed a law for heirs, granting them the faculty of deducting the fourth part of the testator's goods, that by this way he might allure them to accept the inheritance, or lest they should be heirs in name only. This fourth part is called Falcidian from its author Falcidius. From the testator's goods, such as they are at the time of his death, this fourth part is to be deducted. But the common law concerning the Falcidian portion scarcely anywhere obtains today; but peculiar laws prevail, which prescribe what is to be done in the cases that occur.