1. Sometimes, however, although the thing be possessed with perfect good faith, yet use, however long, will never give the property; as, for instance, when the possession is of a free person, a thing sacred or religious, or a fugitive slave.
2. Things stolen, or seized by violence, cannot be acquired by use, although they have been possessed bona fide during the length of time above prescribed; for such acquisition is prohibited, as to things stolen, by the law of the Twelve Tables, and by the lex Atinia; as to things seized by violence, by the lex Julia et Plautia.
3. When it is said that the acquisition by use of things stolen or seized by violence is prohibited by these laws, it is not meant that the thief himself, or he who possesses himself of the thing by violence, is unable to acquire the property, for another reason prevents them, namely, that their possession is mala fide; but no one else, although he has in good faith purchased or taken away from them, is able to acquire the property in use. Whence, as to movables, it does not often happen that a bona fide possessor gains the property in them by use. For whenever any one sees, or makes over for any other reason, a thing belonging to another, it is a theft.
Supposing a thing lent or let to the deceased
4. Sometimes, however, it is otherwise; for, if an heir, supposing a thing lent or let to the deceased, or deposited with him, to be a part of the inheritance, sells or gives it as a gift or dowry to a person who receives it bona fide, there is no doubt that the person receiving it may acquire the property in it by use; for the thing is not tainted with the vice of theft, as the heir who has bona fide alienated it as his own, has not been guilty of a theft.
5. So if the usufructuary of a female slave sells or gives away her child, believing it to be his property, he does not commit theft; for there is no theft without the intention to commit theft.
6. It may also happen in various other ways, that a man may transfer a thing belonging to another without committing a theft, so that the possessor acquires the property in it by use.
7. As to movables, it may more easily happen that a person may, without violence, take possession of a place vacant by the absence or negligence of the owner, or his having died without a successor; and although his possession is mala fide, since he knows that he has seized on land not belonging to him, yet if he transfers it to a person who receives it bona fide, this person will acquire the property in it by long possession, as the thing he receives has neither been stolen nor seized by violence.
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