Charakter prawny testamentu na rzecz kościołów lub dzieł pobożnych

The purpose of this article is to show the nature and legal requirements of the will for the benefit of churches or pious works. The conclusion reached in these considerations is that post-classical roman law, although it did not recognize the legal personality of the Catholic Church, guaranteed the particular ecclesial communities and pious works run by the Church wide access to material goods, by way of testamentary universal succession, as well as testamentary succession under particular title. This was made possible through the recognition of ecclesial communities and charities as legal entities having testamenti factio passiva by Roman law. Wills benefiting churches or pious works necessitated, for their validity, abiding by all of the formal requirements for making a declaration of intent, in particular the presence of seven witnesses, regardless of whether the declaration was oral or written. As such, wills benefitting churches or pious works were not considered under Roman law to be privileged in form. It was Pope Alexander III who first challenged the requirement of the presence of seven witnesses. Since then, canon law treated wills for the benefit of churches or pious works as a privileged kind of will, whose validity required the presence of only two witnesses. Thus, this type of will was an institution present in both legal orders, but only received its privileged nature in medieval canon law.