De testibus et testimoniis theses L

VIII.
And those who are related by lineage generally agree in their desires to such an extent that it is like a miracle if one of them brings forth true testimony against another.

IX.
Rightly, therefore, diverse laws exclude different degrees of consanguinity and affinity from giving testimonies, lest natural and innate affection impede the faith owed to judicial religion.

X.
We place the third impediment in the condition of the witnesses: just as Emperor Justinian established a triple diminishment of status original: "capitis diminutionem", so too shall we make a tripartite division: Maximum, Medium, and Minimum.

XI.
In the maximum condition, we shall place those who, on account of the reverence of their persons and the multitude of their years, are not compelled to testify as strictly as others.

XII.
We shall assign the middle place to those who are not forbidden from giving testimony, nor excused from testifying by any law.

XIII.
We shall subdivide people of the minimum condition. For fortune makes some untestable, the merits of others do so, and the depravity of their own lives does so to others.

IIII.
For those whom fortune has cast down into the lowest poverty, the laws do not raise to the honor of testimony. And those who have either deserved to be sprinkled with the stains of infamy, or have provided some signal specimen of a depraved life, they are not admitted to the faith of testimony.

XV.
But because he who struggles against the will of the law does not offend the law...