1890-91.] CHRISTIANITY ON LEGISLATION. 169 



acquire any of the property. Ruinous buildings might be let on 

 perpetual lease at not less than ^ of the usual rent. Property received 

 from the Emperor might be exchanged with him for other of equal or 

 better value, or exchanged with other churches. 



Justinian (528) by a constitution reciting that the ancient laws had 

 declared, though obscurely, that donations made for pious uses were valid 

 without registry, ordered that donations of any kind of property to the value 

 of 500 solidi (about 500 guineas) or under, made to a church, to an hospital 

 for relief of strangers, or for the care of the sick, or for orphans, for poor 

 houses, for houses for poor old people, for foundlings, to the poor them- 

 selves, or to a town, should be valid without registry. He prohibited by 

 another law the sale of sacred vessels, unless they were useless, when 

 they might be sold for the payment of debts. And by another grants 

 to any of these pious uses by any of his courtiers should be valid in 

 their entirety, i. e.^ without deducting the Y^ that in such cases went to 

 the Emperor. Further to enlarge the privileges of these pious houses 

 he relieved them from the ordinary rules as to limitation and permitted 

 them to assert claims to lagacies cr trusts at any time within 100 years. 



A reason given by Constantius (357) for exemptions he was granting 

 to the clergy, was to enable them to employ their revenues in the support 

 of the poor. And Valentinian enacted that a legacy given to the poor 

 should be valid, and not objectionable on the ground that it was given to 

 uncertain persons, but at all events should be confirmed. The emperor 

 Leo made a similar provision as to legacies for the redemption of 

 captives. If the testator appointed a person to employ it, he should do 

 so, if none, then the bishop should. Justinian codified the dispositions 

 to the poor, and for redemption of captives — making the dispositions valid 

 though in general terms for these objects, and directed by whom they 

 should be administered. 



I have been thus minute in collecting some of the laws during a period 

 of two hundred years from Constantine, to show how much the Christian 

 element entered into legislation, and that these various provisions were 

 not made for the benefit of the clergy, but through them for carrying out 

 the principles of the church in its relation to secular affairs — for the relief 

 of the poor — the sick — the helpless. 



I now ask your attention for a short time to consider how much these 

 laws may be deemed to have had their origin in the teachings of the 

 church. 



From the earliest period the Christian teachers maintained the sacred 

 and inalienable character of the property and revenues of the church. 



