CHAPTER XXXVI

THE CHURCH IS DECLARED HEIR OF THOSE WHO LEAVE NO KINDRED; AND THEIR BEQUESTS ARE INALIENABLE

“BUT should there be no surviving relation to succeed in due course to the property of those above-mentioned, I mean the martyrs, or confessors, or those whom a similar devotion has driven from their native soil; in such cases we ordain that the church locally nearest in each instance shall succeed to the inheritance. And surely it will be no wrong to the departed that that church should be their heir, for whose sake they have endured every extremity of suffering. We think it necessary to add this also, that in case any of the above-mentioned persons have chosen to bequeath any part of their property in the way of free gift, possession of such property shall be assured (as is reasonable) to those who have thus received it.