DONATI. 385 DONATISTS. at Florence. He ninde many valuable contribu- tions to astronomy and mcteorolofiy, and in 185S discovered the comet bearing his name. Sec Do- XATi's Comet. DONATION (Lat. donatio, gift, from donarc, to ^rive. Inuii donuni, Skt. dunu. gift, from Lat. dare, Gk. Si56mi didonai, Skt. da, to give). In strict leg-al usage, the word donation is confined to the transfer of personal property made with- out consideration : the word "gift' being at com- mon law restricted to a particular kind of transfer of real estate — that by which there is created an estate in fee tail — an estate., that is, which is granted to a man and the heirs of his body. The instrument by which such a transfer is made is technically termed a deed of gift. In popular usage, however, the term gift is more commonly employed in the sense of donation, and in the United States this is its usual legal signification also. The general classification of the gifts of personal property is twofold: gifts inter rivos (between the living), which go into effect at once and have no reference to future events; and gifts mortis cniisa (because of — that is, in expectation of — death). This last form of gift is usually intended to avoid the neces- sity of making a will when circumstances ren- der that impossible or diflicult. Only personal property can pass in this way ; the transfer must be made when the death of the donor appears imminent, there must be deliverj- of the prop- erty, and the gift takes effect only upon the death of the donor. The gift, therefore, is really a conditional one and is i/iso facto revoked by the recovery of the donor, or may be recalled by bim before death actually occurs. A gift inter viros, on the contrary, is absolute, and not revocable. All kinds of personal property are subject to gift, including even a cfto.se in action, that is, property of which the owner has not the actual jjossession. but the right of possession, and which he may reduce to possession by legal action. Such a right can only be transferred by a duly executed written assignment. The only cases in which a gift of personal property, inter viros, is revocable are where it is prejudicial to the legal rights of creditors, when the donor is legally incapable of making the gift, or when the trans- action is vitiated by fraud. It is a general rule of law that a transfer of personal property will not be presumed to be a donation, or gift: that is to say. unless there is evidence to the contrary, it will be assumed that the transfer of valuable property was made for a valuable consiileration. Thus the support of a child by a relative not his parent will render any estate which he may possess liable for a compensation ; and it has even been held under spet'ial circumstances that a father may maintain a claim for the expense of sustaining his child where the latter possesses a separate estate. A special use of the word donation in this conn- trj' is in the expression 'donation lands.' which were certain lands set apart by the State of Penn- sylvania after the Revolution, in the northwest part of its territory, as a gift to its citizens who had sen-ed in the Revolutionary Army. See Conveyance; Delivery; Gift: Personai, Prop- erty. The phrase donatio propter nvptias (a gift on account of marriage) was used in the civil or Roman law to designate the sum paid by a hus- band as the offset to the wife's dowry; this was considered partly as a jointure for the wife in case of her survival, partly as security for the return of the wife's dowry to her heirs if she failed to survive her husljand. Consult the au- thorities referred to under the titles Gift ; Trust, etc. DONATION OF PEPIN. The gift of tem- jjoral sovereignty over the Exarchate of Ravenna, the Pentapolis, and the territory of Bologna and Ferrara bestowed upon the Pope by Pe])in the Short, King of the Franks, in 7'>'y. In the pre- ceding year Pope Stephen III. had siunnioticd the Frankish King to aid him against Aistulf, King of the Lombards. Pepin crossed the Alps and defeated Aistulf, but as the latter still contiiuied hostile to the Pope, Pepin invaded Italy a second time in 7.55. reduced the Lombards to subjection, and took from them twenty-two cities, the keys of which he presented to .Saint Peter's. In 774 Charles the Great confirmed the Papacy in pos- session of the territories granted by Pepin, and enlarged to a considerable extent the boundaries of the earlier grant. The donations of Pepin and Charles the Great laid the foundation of the temporal power of the Pope. Consult Abel, Jahrbiiclier dcs friinkischen Rciclis iinter Karl dem Gi'osscn (Leipzig. 188.3) . See Papal States. DONATION OF CONSTANTINE (Lat. donatio Constantini) . A forged document of un- certain date, possibly publish.ed about a.d. 754, professing to be the record of a gift bestowed by Constantine the Great upon Pope Sylvester I. By it the Bishop of Rome was granted, besides certain marks and insignia of honor, such as the tiara, the lorura and imperial robes, the tem- poral sovereignty over Rome and all Italy. The Donation of Constantine, though a very clumsy forgery, was regarded for a long time as genuine, but up to the twelfth century was never made use of to vindicate Papal claims. A translation of the Donation is given in Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (New York, 1802). DONATI'S COMET. A comet discovered June 2, 1858, at Florence. When nearest the earth it had an apparent length of 50°. corre- sponding to the enormous linear size of 45,000,- 000 miles. The tail was 10.000,000 miles wide. The comet was seen until Jlarch, 1859. DON'ATISTS. The followers of Donatu-s the Great, a schismatic body of Christians in Xorth Africa, who flourished during the fourth century. In the persecution imder Diocletian (a.d, :!0.3), the Christians had been orilcred to give up their sacred books. Those who complied with this de- mand were called Traditores, and the question how to deal with them soon became a pressing one in Church discipline. Should they be re- admitted to Church fellowship; and. if so, upon what conditions? The main body of the Church, led by Rome, favored a policy of mildness. I'.ut there was also a strict party, insisting that the Traditores were unworthy, that their presence would corrujit the body ecclesiastic, and that any priestly functions which they might perform would be ipso facto null and void. For no priest could convey a grace which he himself hail not; and a 'holy' Church must consist only of holy members. This puritan party demamled of all who would enter their fellowship that they
