hrvatski

"Pro anima sua pauperibus in piis causis". Intestatno nasljeđivanje „za spas duše“ u statutima istočnojadranskih gradova i njegovi bizantski temelji

The purpose of the conducted research was to analyze the norms of Medieval statutes of eastern Adriatic cities on intestate succession pro anima in a historical and comparative context. After interpreting the mentioned norms and separating them from the cases of testamentary succession pro anima, the author concludes that the initial goal of the mentioned norms was to motivate citizens to „in the course of their lives, while they’re still healthy, make a testament” (quod in uita et in sanitate ipsorum debeant facere testamenta), including in it legacies pro anima. However, if the deceased died without a testament (sine testamento) and with no children of their own (sine filiis), the legal system would, within the confines of intestate succession, still dutifully take care of his otherworldly destiny, distributing a notable portion of his inheritance pro anima, usually a quarter (quarta pars). According to the author’s opinion, all of this speaks volumes of the level of Christianization that legal life had reached at the time, by which means certain aspects of Christian-based social care were evidently achieved, especially in the form of piae causae as some kind of „primordial” charitable foundation. The next section of the article explores possible common historical foundations for the mentioned aspects of law of succession in eastern Adriatic cities. The author concludes that the we should look for the aforementioned foundations in the regulation of intestate succession in Byzantine law, with a special regard to the Novel XII of emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, promulgated between years 945 and 954., which prescribed that in the case of intestate succession of a deceased person without descendants, a third of his inheritance should be given to the Church for his soul (...τὸ τρίτον τῷ πάντων θεῷ...ὑπὲρ τῆς αὐτοῦ τοῦ τελευτῶντος ψυχῆς). Afterward, eastern Adriatic regulations are compared to regulations on intestate succession pro anima in certain other regions of what used to be the Western Roman Empire, which in the centuries after its fall were under the supremitas of Byzantine Empire (Sicily, Venice). The conducted comparison leads us to the conclusion that the aforementioned regulations, in areas that used to belong to Byzantine Dalmatia, more faithfully and for a longer period followed original Byzantine solutions, than regulations in other aforementioned areas that made up the „Byzantine Commonwealth”. If we keep in mind the fact that individual statutes of eastern Adriatic cities remained the law in force up until the beginning of the 19th century, it’s reasonable to conclude that the institution of intestate succession pro anima, including its charitable aspects, represents a particularly longstanding example of the influence and reception of Byzantine law outside Byzantium and after Byzantium.

bizantsko pravo, srednjovjekovni statuti, istočnojadranski gradovi, intestatno nasljeđivanje, pro anima

nije evidentirano