A son or, by the laws of
Justinian, even a daughter, could no longer be disinherited by their
silence; they were compelled to name the criminal and to specify the
offence; and the justice of the Emperor enumerated the sole causes that
could justify such a violation of the first principles of nature and
society. Unless a legitimate portion, a fourth part, had been reserved
for the children, they were entitled to institute an action or complaint
of _inofficious_ testament; to suppose that their father's understanding
was impaired by sickness or age, and respectfully to appeal from his
rigorous sentence to the deliberate wisdom of the magistrate.
In the Roman jurisprudence an essential distinction was admitted between
the inheritance and the legacies. The heirs who succeeded to the entire
unity, or to any of the twelve fractions of the substance of the
testator, represented his civil and religious character, asserted his
rights, fulfilled his obligations, and discharged the gifts of
friendship or liberality, which his last will had bequeathed under the
name of legacies.
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