Documents of every description, where he who made them and the witnesses to the same are dead, and in which the signature of the former and the attestation of the witnesses appear, when brought into court to be verified, may be proved by comparison of their seals and signatures with those of other documents; and the proof shall be sufficient in this investigation, if the seals and signatures of three or four other documents, when introduced, shall be evidently those of the parties in question. But if the documents aforesaid shall not have been published within the time prescribed by law, they shall be invalid. =FLAVIUS CHINTASVINTUS, KING.= =XV. Concerning Holographic Wills.= It happens frequently, through necessity, that the solemnities of the law cannot be complied with; and where the locality is such that witnesses cannot be found, by whom any one may have his will subscribed according to the regulations required by law, the testator may write those things in his own hand which he desires to have done; provided it be specifically stated, what he intends to dispose of, or what business he wishes any one he may select to transact; the day and the year being both given in the instrument. And when the will has been written, the testator himself shall sign it; and if said will should come into the possession of him for whose benefit it was made, or into that of his heirs, within thirty years, it must be presented to the bishop or the judge within six months thereafter. The bishop and the judge--three other documents having been produced in which the signature of the testator appears--shall then determine, by comparison of all these documents, whether the will which the testator wrote with his own hand is genuine or not, and if it should become evident that it is genuine, then the bishop, or the judge, or other reputable witnesses, shall confirm the same by their signatures, and, in this manner, the said holographic will shall be fully proved and established. =FLAVIUS RECESVINTUS, KING.= =XVI. Concerning the Comparison of Documents, and the Infliction of Penalties prescribed by Wills.=