Title — Decretals of Gregory IX
Title XI: On Exposed Infants and the Sick
Sole Chapter
Latin source headnote: An infant exposed by his father, or by another with the father consenting or ratifying it, is by that very fact freed from paternal power. The same applies to a slave and a freedman, who for the aforesaid cause are freed from their master's power. And the same rule of law applies to the aforesaid sick persons of whatever age who are thus exposed, or if sustenance is denied to them; nevertheless, those who furnish the aforesaid persons with sustenance acquire no right in them.
Gregory IX.
If an infant has been exposed by his father, or by another while the father knew of it or ratified it, the duty of affection having been cast aside, he is by that very fact freed from paternal power. For also in this case a freedman is rescued into freeborn status, and a slave into freedom; and the same is to be said concerning the aforesaid sick persons of whatever age, if they have been exposed, or if it should happen that sustenance is impiously denied to any one of them. Certainly, those who take them in cannot on this account claim any right in their persons.
DE INFANTIBUS ET LANGUIDIS EXPOSITIS.
Infans, expositus a patre vel alio, eo consentiente vel ratum habente, hoc ipso a patris potestate liberatur. Idem in servo et liberto, qui ob praedictam causam liberantur a dominica potestate. Et idem iuris est in praedictis languidis cuiuscunque aetatis sic expositis, vel si eis alimenta denegantur; hi tamen, quae praedictis alimenta praestiterint, nullum ius in eis acquirunt.
Gregorius IX. Si a patre, sive ab alio, sciente ipso aut ratum habente, relegato pietatis officio infans expositus exstitit: hoc ipso a potestate fuit patria liberatus. Nam et hoc casu in ingenuitatem libertus, et servus in libertatem eripitur, quod et de praedictis cuiuscunque aetatis languidis, si expositi fuerint, vel si alicui eorum alimenta impie denegari contigerit, est dicendum. Sane, qui hos suscipiunt, non possunt propter hoc in eorum personis ius aliquod vendicare.