Properly speaking, however, it is a voluntary contract, verbal or written, by which the donor expressly agrees to give, without consideration, something to the donee, and the latter in an equally express manner accepts the gift.
[3] Finally, bishops, priests, and deacons yet under parental power were allowed to dispose freely, even in favour of the Church, of property acquired by them after ordination [L. 33 (34) C. De episcopis et clericis, I, 3].
Synods of this epoch assert to some extent the validity of pious donations even when the legal requisites had not been observed, though as a rule they were not omitted.
Donations are valid and obligatory when made by persons capable of disposing of their property and accepted by the administrators of ecclesiastical institutions.
Nor are the faithful obliged to heed the restrictions which are placed by some modern civil codes in the way of a free disposition of their property.
The so-called amortization laws (against the traditional inalienability of tenure on the part of religious corporations) remained only a threat, though the Government reserved the right to establish such legislation.
As a rule, donations had to be authorized by the civil power if they exceed the value of five thousand marks (1250 dollars, or 250 pounds sterling) though in some states this figure was doubled.
That country recognized the civil personality of licit associations organized for a non-lucrative purpose, but declared illicit every religious congregation not approved by a special law.