Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/81

iy] transmission of the ROMAN LAW 63 nipotent — first awoke during the struggle between the Empire and the Papacy. Rules drawn from a system of law developed un- der paganism were not likely to remain unmodified when applied by the Church. But the effect of Chris- tianity on the development of Roman law does not become apparent before Constantine. From his time enactments begin in favor of the Church and its prop- erty and its privileges as legatee, as well as enactments conferring the supervision of charities upon the bishops and a power of interference in guardianships, and others recognizing the validity of acts done in the presence of priests, and imposing certain disabilities upon heretics. Of still greater importance was the institution of the bishop's court,* the penalties imposed upon divorce, and the repeal of the lex Papia Poppaeaque discour- aging celibacy. These enactments show the opposition between the Christian ideal and the Roman. The bishop's court was the realization of the desire of the early Church to rule itself and its members and to keep free from secular trammels ; pagan Rome had known nothing analogous. In the restrictions on divorce, the Chris- tian ideal of the sanctity of marriage struggles to assert itself. The provisions of the Roman law en- couraging fruitful marriages and imposing penalties on celibacy fell prostrate before monasticism, which was coming to be recognized as the perfect Christian life. The emperors, with a view to civic order, endeavored to control the conduct of the hordes of monks.* But 1 E.g., Novellae Valentinian III, Tit. XXXV. « See, e.g., Cod. Theod., Ub. XVI, Tit. UI.