We consider the laws heretofore promulgated with reference to incestuous marriages to be imperfect, as they permit persons who contract such marriages to go unpunished, and deprive any offspring resulting from them of the property of their father; so that those who have committed the sin do not suffer any penalty, and those who are innocent are punished as if they were guilty.

  Hence, for the future, We decree that if anyone should contract an unlawful marriage, and one contrary to nature (which the law characterizes as incestuous, abominable, and prohibited), and has no children by a former legal marriage, he shall at once forfeit all his property, and shall have no control over anything given to him by way of dowry; but his entire possessions shall be confiscated to the Treasury, on the ground that when he could have contracted a legal marriage he preferred to violate the law, confuse his descendants, and wrong his family; and yielding to such passions as for the most part influence animals who are deprived of reason, committed an impious and wicked act. He shall not only be liable to the confiscation of his property, but shall also be deprived of his office, and sent into exile; and if he is of inferior rank, he shall be scourged, in order that he may learn to live chastely, restrain himself within natural bounds, and not delight in transgressing the laws of nature which have been prescribed for Our conduct. If any woman, who is aware of this law, should disobey it, and contract an incestuous marriage, she shall be liable to the penalty established by the same.

  Where any man who contracts an incestuous marriage has any children or grandchildren who are the issue of a former matrimonial union, or any more remote descendants, they will be entitled to the estate of their father as soon as he has been punished, and will be released from his control; but they shall be required to furnish him with food and with the other necessaries of life, for even if he has violated the laws and acted in an impious manner, he is still their father.

  This Constitution shall take effect from this very day, and no one living in chastity shall be affected by it, and where persons are innocent they shall not incur its penalties. Those who have already contracted incestuous marriages shall, by no means, go unpunished, although We do not subject them to the full measure of Our indignation. Hence where incestuous marriages have taken place, but have subsequently been dissolved, no matter in what way, the parties concerned shall not be liable to prosecution; but if, on the contrary, this Our law should find anyone who has already contracted such a marriage, he shall be permitted to leave his wife within the term of two years, and when the separation is not feigned but genuine, she shall not be permitted to return to him. If, however, he should resume his relations with her, a fourth part of his property shall be confiscated to the Treasury, and the remainder shall go to his children, whom We consider as innocent of the offence of their father; for if they are alone, and there are no other legitimate children the issue of a former legal marriage, they shall not be deprived of the estate of their father; unless the latter, justly prejudiced against them for a good reason, on account of some offence which they have committed, excludes them from the succession to his estate.
  (1) But where there are any children, the issue of a former lawful marriage, three-fourths of the estate shall go to those who are legitimate and innocent, unless they have been guilty of some injury which, according to the law, renders them unworthy of succeeding to their father; and the latter shall be permitted to leave the remaining fourth of his property to the children born of the incestuous marriage, who, sustaining an injury, shall be considered as free from blame; and We, under these circumstances, order that they, rather than the Treasury, shall be entitled to the said fourth. We grant these different shares to the respective children not only where they are bequeathed by will, but also in case of intestacy, in accordance with the rule of inheritance which We have established. These provisions shall not only be observed where the father abandons the woman he illegally married, but also where he afterwards contracts a legal marriage with another, having issue by both. We grant this delay in the exercise of Our clemency, allowing the woman who contracted the former marriage to retain her dowry. But if he who is living in a criminal union does not dissolve it within the two years hereinbefore prescribed, he shall lose his property, his wife shall be deprived of her dowry, and the penalty aforesaid shall be imposed; nor shall the children born of the marriage be entitled to any share of their father's estate or of their mother's dowry. If, in this instance, any children should have been born of a preceding lawful marriage, they will be entitled to the entire estate (after the fourth due to the Treasury has been deducted), and they will be released from his control without, however, being freed from the obligation of supporting him, and providing him with the necessaries of life, as We have previously stated; and the dowry of the incestuous wife shall be confiscated to the Treasury. Where, however, there is no issue by a former legitimate marriage, then the Treasury will be entitled to the entire estate; for We order that, where anyone who has married illegally in this way, he shall be placed on the same footing as one who did not leave his wife in the time prescribed by Us, Who, in Our law, have declared marriages of this kind to be both incestuous and abominable.

  As doubt has arisen in certain localities with reference to the legitimation of children as set forth in one of Our laws, We, as the author of the same, have thought it proper to make some additions to it, and thereby remove the doubt referred to. We promulgated the law for the following reason, namely: where a father has any legitimate children by a first wife, who died, or from whom he was separated, and then forms a connection with another woman, with whom he could contract a legal marriage, and, in consequence, children are born to him, either before or after any dotal agreement has been drawn up; or where children are born before the dowry has been provided for, but none are born afterwards; or if, after having been born, they should die; certain authorities have held that such children are not legitimate, as other legitimate children, the issue of the first marriage, are living, which opinion is consonant with neither justice nor reason. For if We have shown that children of this kind are rendered legitimate by the execution of a dotal contract, there is no doubt that those born before the safd contract was drawn up are also legitimate in every instance. It is still more reasonable to hold that, if the father should predecease his legitimate children, and his natural children born before the dotal contract was made, although none may have been born afterwards, or, if this is the case, they should be dead, Our law will permit him to follow his own inclinations when making his will in favor of his descendants; provided he does not, in any respect, violate the rules which reserve for all children a certain part of his estate. The result of this is that both these classes of children succeed to their father equally, whether ab intestato, or under the terms of his will (that is to say, by testamentary disposition or by operation of law). Why should We decree anything additional, when what is allowed by the laws, even against the provisions of the will, is sufficient to confer upon them the lawful name and rights of proper heirs, and render them competent to take all to which they are entitled under this appellation?

  Your Eminence, to whom this law has been communicated, will hasten to put it into execution and bring it to the attention of the Governors of provinces, in order that all persons may learn of the care which We take to protect pure and innocent children, and how odious to Our laws illicit unions are.