Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p> In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council settled a controversy between theologians and jurists with regard to the duty to make restitution. This moral duty was not always recognized at law because of the limitation of claims, which the jurists derived from Roman Law (C. 7.39.3) and which they termed as longissimi temporis praescriptio. Hence, correcting a statute that cannot be observed without peril to one’ soul, the council required that the person who prescribes, must not know at any time that the object belongs to someone else. The effect in legal practice may have been minor, for the canonists presumed the possessor’s ignorance after thirty years of uncontested possession. It was to the other party, the claimant, to disprove this presumption. Even if, by exception, there was a presumption to the contrary, the defendant invoking prescription could avoid proving his good faith by oath, for the presumtion then derived from the combination of the lapse of time and a proper cause (titulus) of his possession</jats:p>