I Shall make some brief preliminary observations on Justinian's Institutes 3.23.5, then look at the history of sales of loca religiosa and the liber homo in classical and earlier Roman law, and then I shall return to the text cited. My purpose is to show how the examination of the origins of the text from Justinian's Institutes provides us with an insight into the development of classical and earlier law, how on this occasion the compilers interpreted their instructions to compile the Corpus Iuris Civilis and thereby also perhaps how the compilers viewed the past.