Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/141

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then becomes an article of traffic in the hands of the professional match-maker, who is usually an old woman of low social grade, but remarkable for her tactful and deceptive aptitudes.^[1] By her arts a suitable family alliance is arranged, but unless by a subterfuge, the proposed husband is not permitted to behold his future wife.^[2]

Once a marriage has been decided on,^[3] it is considered fitting that all the innocence of the ingenuous damsel should be put to flight on the threshold of the wedded state. In the dusk of the evening the bride is fetched from her home by a torchlight procession to the sound of pipes and flutes and orgiastic songs. Although women are not allowed to attend the theatre, on this occasion the theatre is brought to the houses of the contracting parties; and the installation of a wife takes place amid a scene of riot and debauchery, of lewdness and obscenity, which tears the veil from all the secrets of sexual co-habitation.^[4]]*

↑ Chrysostom, Quales duc. sint Uxores, 5 (in Migne, iii, 233); [Greek: graidia mutheuonta, k. t. l.
↑ Even Arcadius had to be content with a portrait and a verbal description of the charms of Eudoxia, the daughter of a subject and a townsman; Zosimus, v, 3.
↑ The early Christians gradually inclined to the custom of asking a formal benediction from the clergy as an essential part of the marriage ceremony, but about the time of Chrysostom the practice began to be disregarded. With the disuse also of pagan rites it began to be doubted whether nuptials could be legal unless accompanied at least by an orgiastic festival. To dispel this misgiving Theodosius II in 428 decreed that no sort of formal contract was required, but merely fair evidence that the parties had agreed to enter the connubial state; Cod. Theod., III, vii, 3. The Christian rite was not made compulsory till the end of the ninth century; Leo Sap. Novel., lxxxix.
↑ Chrysostom, In Matth. Hom. xxxvii, 5 (in Migne, vii, 425); In Act. Apost., xlii, 3 (in Migne, ix, 300); In Epist. I ad Corinth. Hom. xii, 5 (in Migne, x, 102), etc. His favourite theme for objurga-*

[1] Chrysostom, Quales duc. sint Uxores, 5 (in Migne, iii, 233); [Greek: graidia mutheuonta, k. t. l.

[2] Even Arcadius had to be content with a portrait and a verbal description of the charms of Eudoxia, the daughter of a subject and a townsman; Zosimus, v, 3.

[3] The early Christians gradually inclined to the custom of asking a formal benediction from the clergy as an essential part of the marriage ceremony, but about the time of Chrysostom the practice began to be disregarded. With the disuse also of pagan rites it began to be doubted whether nuptials could be legal unless accompanied at least by an orgiastic festival. To dispel this misgiving Theodosius II in 428 decreed that no sort of formal contract was required, but merely fair evidence that the parties had agreed to enter the connubial state; Cod. Theod., III, vii, 3. The Christian rite was not made compulsory till the end of the ninth century; Leo Sap. Novel., lxxxix.

[4] Chrysostom, In Matth. Hom. xxxvii, 5 (in Migne, vii, 425); In Act. Apost., xlii, 3 (in Migne, ix, 300); In Epist. I ad Corinth. Hom. xii, 5 (in Migne, x, 102), etc. His favourite theme for objurga-*

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