OF MODERN CORPORATIONS. 4] 
rights of magistracy, and was invested with them 
generally by Justinian in cities which had no 
Duumviri. 
Originally then the Curia was not a court of 
justice, but it exercised some functions out of 
which jurisdiction naturally grew. That of the 
Roman magistrates was of two kinds contentiosa, 
the decision of suits; and voluntaria, the per- 
formance and attestation of those solemn legal 
acts, to the validity of which the publicity of a 
court was necessary. The more important of 
these, all that related to manumission, adoption 
and emancipation, appears not to have belonged 
to the provincial city magistrates, nor to the 
Defensor, who came at length into their place; 
but donations beyond a certain amount, which 
by the Lex Cincia had not been valid, unless ac- 
companied by an immediate transfer, were al- 
lowed under the Emperors to be validated by a 
protocol made in court and in the presence of 
a certain number of the Curiales, Principales or 
Decurions ; for these names appear in later times 
to have been almost promiscuously used. <A 
constitution of Honorius* fixes the number at 
three, besides the magistrate and the Ewceptor. 
To the old and tedious forms of the solemn 
*Savigny, p. 94. 
