The same Emperor Justinian Augustus to John, Praetorian Prefect. If anyone, in order to evade the Falcidian law, when he desires to leave his whole substance for the redemption of captives, shall have written those very captives as heirs, lest he seem to have left his judgment open to challenge as though by instituting uncertain persons as heirs, we decree that such an institution, of this kind, is valid by reason of piety, and is not to be rejected. §1. But also if he shall have written the poor as heirs, and there be found no certain poorhouse, or the poor of a certain church, of whom the testator was thinking, but under the uncertain term the poor be instituted as heirs, in like manner we decree that an institution of this kind also is valid. §2.
And if indeed he shall have written as heirs the captives of the city in which the testator is known to keep his hearth and to dwell, let the bishop and the steward receive the inheritance, and let the inheritance in every way proceed to the redemption of captives, whether through annual revenues, or through the sale of movables or self-moving goods: with absolutely nothing of this being left as profit either to the steward, or to the bishop, or to the most holy church. For if for this reason recourse was had to a special heir, that the rule of the Falcidian law be not introduced, how is it to be borne that this, which has come to a sacred use, be diminished through the Falcidian law or any other occasion? §3.
But where the poor have been written indistinctly as heirs, there let the hostel for strangers of that city in every way obtain the inheritance, and let the distribution of the patrimony be made through the hostel-keeper upon the sick, according to what we have established in the case of captives, whether through the payment of annual revenues, or through the sale of movable goods, or of self-moving things, so that out of these immovable property may be acquired, and a yearly sustenance accrue to the sick. For who is poorer than men who are both held by want, and placed in a hostel, and laboring in their own bodies, and cannot procure for themselves the necessary sustenance? §4. Liberty is altogether to be given, both in the former and in the second case, both to set an action in motion and to exact debts, that they may be consumed upon the captives or upon the sick.
For since we have given to them both the right and the name of heirs, yet without the profit of the Falcidian law, it is necessary that they exact the debts and answer to creditors. §5. But if there be in the city more ample hostels or poorhouses, lest the giving of the moneys seem uncertain, then we decree that to that hostel or poorhouse which is recognized to be poorer, the same goods or moneys be assigned, this matter being decided, namely, by the most reverend prelate of the place and the clerics constituted under him. §6. But if no hostel be found in the city, then, according to the sanction concerning captives, let the steward of the most holy church for the time being, or the bishop, receive the inheritance;
and, without the rule of the Falcidian law, let the same moneys be distributed to the poor who are in the city, or to those altogether begging, or to those in need of other sustenance. §7. Yet all these things we decree shall hold good when no nomination of a certain hostel, or a certain poorhouse, or a certain church, has followed from the testator, but his intention is uncertain. But if he shall have looked to a certain person, or to a certain venerable house, we decree that to that one alone the inheritance or legacy belongs, with no Falcidian portion intervening even in this part. §8.
But in all cases of this kind, let the administrators of the sacrosanct things expect heavenly wrath, if they shall have acquired for themselves any profit whatsoever from administrations of this kind, or if they shall have consented that this be committed by another, and shall not strive with the gravest penalty and threat to correct what has been wrongly done.