ON WILLS, AND ON

THOSE WHO CANNOT

MAKE WILLS:

40 THESES.

Large ornamental initial C at the beginning of the first thesis.Since every institution undertaken based on reason regarding any subject ought to proceed from a definition, so that what is being discussed may be understood, it also seems appropriate to begin this discussion about Wills with a definition.

A Will testamentum last will and testament, therefore, according to Modestinus a Roman jurist, is the just expression of our will regarding that which one wishes to be done after his death.

From which it will be easy to understand that a Will is most correctly said to be named as such because it is a testimony of the mind a false etymology popular in the period: "testatio mentis"; and therefore it is incorrectly and undeservedly that Servius Sulpitius was criticized by Gellius, and our Justinian by Laurentius Valla, for this term.

Although there were formerly many types of Wills, today there are only two types in maximum use: one is Military or Camp-based; the other is Ordinary paganicum civilian/non-military.

A Military will is that which is made by the mere will of a soldier existing on an expedition, without the formalities of Civil Law. We affirm, with Fabrus and Viglius, that this free faculty of making a will continues for the soldiers of our own century as well.

That is called Ordinary which is made according to the rules of Civil Law by non-soldiers, or indeed by soldiers, but not while living on an expedition.