Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 35

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Volume 2, Page 35

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[001] wife, for marriage proves filiation,³⁴ and this presumption will stand until the
[002] contrary is proved, as where it is shown that the husband has had no connexion
[003] with his wife for some time before, because of illness or other cause, or was of such
[004] age that he could not procreate a child, or was away for ten years and on his return
[005] found a year-old child.³⁵ Such child, though born in the husband's house to the
[006] neighbours' knowledge, will not be his son.³⁶ On this subject more may be found
[007] below [in the portion] on supposititious offspring.³⁷

How paternal potestas and seignorial potestas are extinguished.

[009] ³⁸We have indicated above how seignorial and parental potestas is established. Now
[010] we must show how it is dissolved and extinguished. That may be done, in the case
[011] of free persons, in three ways, namely, by natural death, civil death, and by the
[012] attainment of office. [In the case of bondsmen, the lord's authority is extinguished
[013] by manumission.] By natural death, as where a father who has a son in his potestas
[014] dies, for his sons begin to be sui juris, though in some cases they remain under the
[015] tutela of their lords or the cura of their friends or kinfolk.³⁹ On the death of a
[016] paternal grandfather his grandchildren do not become sui juris but fall under the
[017] potestas of their father, if he is alive when the grandfather dies and they have not left
[018] the potestas of the father by emancipation or in some other way, as by attaining
[019] office. By civil death, as where the father or other ancestor is condemned to death
[020] for felony or banished to perpetual exile. If he is banished temporarily he retains
[021] his children in his potestas nonetheless, for on his return he will have what is his.
[022] [And finally], by the attainment of office, as by achieving the episcopal dignity.
[023] Paternal potestas is also ended by emancipation,⁴⁰ as where one forisfamiliates his
[024] son with a portion of his inheritance, as was anciently the custom.⁴¹ Seignorial
[025] potestas sometimes is ended by manumission, as where a lord, by one of the several
[026] methods of manumission, sets his bondsman free, as will be explained below [in the
[027] portion] on manumissions.⁴²

Some are under tutelage or curatorship or wardship.

[029] ⁴³The first classification of persons was this, that all men are either free or bond.
[030] The second, that persons are either sui juris or in the potestas of another. Now
[031] follows a [third] classification: that of persons not within the potestas of another
[032] some are in the wardship or tutelage of lords, some in the cura of relatives and
[033] friends (as

Notes

34. Glanvill, vii, 12: ‘quia filius heres legitimus est quam nuptiae demonstrant.’; infra 185, 201, 204, 255

35. Infra 186, 204, iv, 299

37. Infra 201, 204

38. Br. and Azo, 72-5, 77

38-40. Azo, Summa Inst. 1.12, with additions: infra v

39. Infra 188; Kantorowicz, 112-3

41. Glanvill, vii, 3: infra 188

42. Infra 85

43. Br. and Azo, 76-8

43-45. Azo, Summa Inst. 1. 13, no. 1, with additions: infra v