Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/580

512 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliv to deliver his name and family from the disgrace of adultery; the list of mortal sins, either male or female, was curtailed and enlarged by successive regulations, and the obstacles of incur- able impotence, long absence, and monastic profession, were allowed to rescind the matrimonial obligation. Whoever trans- gressed the permission of the law was subject to various and heavy penalties. The woman was stript of her wealth and ornaments, without excepting the bodkin of her hair ; if the man introduced a new bride into his bed, her fortune might be law- fully seized by the vengeance of his exiled wife. Forfeiture was sometimes commuted to a fine; the fine was sometimes aggravated by transportation to an island or imprisonment in a monastery; the injured party was released from the bonds of marriage ; but the offender, during life or a term of years, was disabled from the repetition of nuptials. The successor of Justinian yielded to the prayers of his unhappy subjects, and restored the liberty of divorce by mutual consent ; the civilians were unanimous, 131 the theologians were divided, 132 and the am- biguous word, which contains the precept of Christ, is flexible to any interpretation that the wisdom of a legislator can demand, incest, con- The freedom of love and marriage was restrained among the andtefr Romans by natural and civil impediments. An instinct, almost innate and universal, appears to prohibit the incestuous com- merce 133 of parents and children in the infinite series of ascend- ing and descending generations. Concerning the oblique and collateral branches, nature is indifferent, reason mute, and custom various and arbitrary. In Egypt, the marriage of 131 The Institutes are silent, but we may consult the Code6 of Theodosius (1. iii. tit. xvi. with Godefroy's Commentary, torn. i. p. 310-315) and Justinian (1. v. tit. xvii.), the Pandeots (1. xxiv. tit. ii.) and the Novels (xxii. cxvii. cxxvii. cxxxiv. cxl.). Justinian fluctuated to the last between the civil and ecclesiastical law. 132 In pure Greek, iropvsla. is not a common word ; nor can the proper meaning, fornication, be strictly applied to matrimonial sin. In a figurative sense, how far, and to what offences, may it be extended ? Did Christ speak the Eabbinical or Syriac tongue ? Of what original word is iropveia the translation ? How variously is that Greek word translated in the versions ancient and modern ! There are two (Mark, x. 11, Luke, xvi. 18) to one (Matthew, xix. 9) that such ground of divorce was not accepted by Jesus. Some critics have presumed to think, by an evasive answer, he avoided the giving offence either to the school of Sammai or to that of Hillel (Selden, Uxor Ebraica, 1. iii. c. 18-22, 28, 31). 133 The principles of the Eoman jurisprudence are exposed by Justinian (Institut. 1. i. tit. x.) ; and the law6 and manners of the different nations of antiquity concern- ing forbidden degrees, etc. are copiously explained by Dr. Taylor in his Elements of Civil Law (p. 108, 314-339), a work of amusing, though various, reading ; but which cannot be praised for philosophical precision. tards