XXIX.4 On laws that clash with the legislator’s intention
There are laws that the legislator has so little known that they are contrary to the very goal he had in mind. Those who established among the French that when one of two claimants to a benefice dies, the benefice devolves to the survivor, sought no doubt to put out quarrels ; but a contrary effect results from it : we see ecclesiastics attacking and fighting each other to the death like English mastiffs.