The same Augustus to Julianus, Praetorian Prefect. We decree that if anyone at his death shall have made a pious disposition, whether by way of institution (as heir), or by legacy, or by trust (fideicommissum), or by donation in contemplation of death, or by any other lawful manner; whether he shall have enjoined the bishop for the time being to take care that the things he willed be fulfilled, or whether he shall have kept silent on this, or even on the contrary shall have forbidden it; the heirs shall have the necessity of in every way both doing and fully accomplishing that which has been ordained. But if they shall not have done this of their own accord, immediately the God-beloved bishops of the place shall be diligent concerning these matters, and demand that they fulfil all things according to the will of the deceased. But if indeed the testator shall have enjoined the building of a church, let them within three years press that it be completed;
but if the building of a hostel (xenon), to compel that this be done within one year only, as a time sufficiently constituted for accomplishing the things that pleased the testators: since it is possible both to hire a house, and to lay the sick there upon beds, until the work of building the hostel or hospital be completed. But if certain things shall have been bequeathed to pious causes to be given at once and in a single payment, to compel them immediately to do it—that is, after the opening of the will, and after the inheritance or legacy has been received—by those who have been honoured (with the bequest). Section 1.
But if the aforesaid time shall have passed, and neither a church nor a hospital shall have been built, nor be there any administrator of the hospital who would order this, then at once let the God-beloved bishops themselves exact those things which were ordained for that purpose, and what was suitably sought for it, and make the building of the most holy churches, and the preparation of hospitals and old-age homes (gerontocomia), or of orphanages, or the construction of poorhouses, or of infirmaries, or the redemption of captives, or any other pious action whatsoever ordained by the testator; and let them also designate, or set in charge, those who shall administer these things—hostel-keepers (xenodochoi), or orphanage-keepers, or foundling-home keepers, keepers of old-age homes, or simply managers (dioiketai) and curators of the pious actions:
those who shall not have done those things no longer being able, after the lapse of the said time and the said lack of devotion, to intrude themselves into the administration of the aforesaid matters in the hope thereof, or to hinder the God-beloved bishops from the administration of those matters. Section 2. The most illustrious governors of the provinces imposing upon the heirs the necessity in every way to accomplish these things; for it was prescribed even by the old laws that necessity be imposed upon those who are permitted to have what the deceased left them, to fulfil the wills of those who have failed (died). Section 3. But let the God-beloved bishops, if indeed those who have died have expressly
set persons in charge of the property (as hostel-keepers, poorhouse-keepers, or infirmarians, or foundling-home keepers, or orphanage-keepers, or keepers of old-age homes, or paramonarii, or stewards, or—simply put—administrators of pious actions), let them indeed permit these to have the administration; but let the bishops themselves not administer, but inspect, or observe, the administration of those persons, and praise the one holding it rightly, but in certain matters correct the one who oversteps something;
but, a most wicked administration having been carried on, let them also expel these and appoint others, who shall ponder and conceive in their minds the fear of the great God, and the terrible day of the great and never-ending judgement, looking toward which it is fitting to do all things with a mind ordered toward God. But if those who die shall have expressly appointed no one to the administration, but shall have placed it safely in the power of the heirs, and these shall have neglected the matter, then forthwith let the God-beloved bishops themselves both administer and set in charge the above-written persons (such as poorhouse-keepers, or infirmarians, and the rest in turn, who likewise bear the honour of the great God in their mind), so that in every way and by every method and contrivance the things ordained may be brought to effect. Section 4.
But over and above all the time during which the written heirs shall have deferred to do the things disposed, we decree that they be compelled to (render) also the fruits, and the revenues, and every lawful accession, from the time of the death of him who made the disposition, the delay not being reckoned from the joinder of issue or from a (formal) summons, but the delay (as it is commonly said) being understood to have preceded by the law itself, and a place being given for the accession of fruits and other things. Section 5. This same rule holding good even if such a pious legacy be left not by an heir but by a trustee (fideicommissarius) or legatee, and he who has been honoured with the legacy shall have received it, and let there be at once licence to the God-beloved bishops to require such persons, honoured with certain things, to do the things disposed. Section 6.
But if the God-beloved bishops of the places shall have been negligent in doing this—perchance corrupted by favour from the written heirs, or legatees, or trustees—there shall be licence, either to the metropolitan of the province, or to the archbishop of that diocese, who takes cognizance of these things, to inquire and to compel that the pious work or the pious bounty be in every way fulfilled; and to every one of the citizens there shall likewise be licence to do the same, since indeed the reckoning of piety is common, and it is fitting that common and popular affections too be established for the execution of these matters: each one having licence, from this our law, to bring an action under the lex condictitia, and to demand that the things left be fully accomplished:
the God-beloved bishop who shall have neglected these things being aware that he himself, besides the penalties impending from heaven, would also experience the imperial displeasure over such contempt. Section 7. But that the heirs of the dying may still be terrified with greater fear—or those burdened with the charge of procuring and doing these things—lest they defer the effecting of these matters, we decree this also: that if, being impleaded by the God-beloved bishops who have been honoured with these matters, they shall afterward have ceased, or deferred, so that there is need of exaction by the governors, then forthwith they shall be required to pay not only the single amount (as it is called), but altogether the double.
For if among the ancients there were certain cases in which, by reason of denial, men were brought under a double condemnation, how is it that here too those who have not only not acted of their own accord, but have besides drawn out the time, and at last, being pressed by God's beloved bishops, and thereafter not even then at once obeyed, so that there was need of enforcement by the provincial authority, should it not be fitting that they be chastised with a twofold exaction? §8. But if dying men have wished their heirs, at the time when they themselves who are about to die are heirs, to fulfill some pious obligation, yet not during their own lifetime, and that this be observed and that the heirs not be compelled meanwhile to do any of those things which the testator willed to be done after their own death:
but when they themselves are dying, let them be wholly bound to fulfill those things; and if any delay be made by their heirs, then it is necessary that those things be done which we have ordained above. §9. But if any of those things which are called annual legacies have been left or given, perhaps to the clergy, or to a monastery, or to communities of ascetic women, or to deaconesses, or to poorhouses, or to hostels for strangers, or to hospitals for the sick, or to foundling homes, or to the poor of the most holy churches, or (in general) to certain pious assemblies, or to associations of the common people in no way forbidden; and if those who are then found in charge should be willing, upon receipt of gold, to make a settlement concerning such an obligation for a certain period of time:
let it not be permitted to do this, nor let what has been done be valid; nay rather, let him who has redeemed or compounded these things suffer the loss of his property as well. Since it must needs be that those who for some portion of time enjoyed an abundance of money should have, while those who are to come should suffer a total deprivation of what was left. But neither shall the very name of the annual legacies, nor the perpetual memory of the deceased, on account of which he left this yearly gift, be preserved, but it shall straightway be extinguished, perishing together with the very alienation of what was bequeathed.
We therefore decree that they remain perpetually liable to gifts of this kind, so that if any alienation be made, it shall itself be void, and those who at any time shall preside over the pious places shall have liberty to pursue and to exact these very things, no prescription of time being set against them, since through each several year such an action arises. Nay more, let the goods of him who left them be subject to mortgage for the sake of legacies of this kind: so that they may have liberty out of those very goods to make sufficient provision for the pious works, not only for the things left, but also for their fruits and revenues and every lawful temporal increment (as has been said), with no prescription whatsoever being able to be pleaded by way of objection, however long a time anyone may reckon.
Unless between him who is burdened with the annual legacy and him who has been appointed prelate according to the sacred canons and our laws, an agreement concerning such an exaction shall have been made, by which it shall have been agreed that, in place of the annual legacy, a revenue be given by the burdened person, ever in force and perpetual, and not liable to many public burdens; but having besides an increment, by no means indeed less than a fourth part of the net revenue, or more, namely as much as shall have been agreed between them. For if any such agreement be made in writing, and such a revenue be given and received in writing, by pacts and transactions, and this be made manifest and established through the records of the public registries, we decree that the exaction of the annual legacy against him who is burdened with it shall cease;
and that that revenue be constituted in place of the legacy, perpetually assigned thereto, and such as cannot be alienated by anyone by any mode of alienation whatsoever: but if none of these things have followed, we decree that those who have been twice burdened remain perpetually subject (as has been said by us before) to the giving of the annual legacies, so that both the name and the memory of the deceased, and the annual revenue, may be preserved perpetually in these very works. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of November, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, 530.