§ 18. INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON LEGISLATION, 109
we feel beneath the toga of the Roman lawgiver the warmth of a Christian heart. We perceive the influence of the evangelical preaching and exhortations of the father oi' uionasticism out of tlie Egyptian desert to the rulers of the world, Constantiiie and his sons: that they should show justice and mercy to the poor, and remember the judgment to come.
Even Julian, with all his hatred of the Christians, could not entirely renounce the influence of his education and of the reigning spirit of the age, but had to borrow from the church many of his measures for the reformation of heatlienism. He recognized especially the duty of benevolence toward all men, charity to the poor, and clemency to prisoners ; though this was contrary to the heathen sentiment, and though he proved himself anything but benevolent toward the Christians. But then the total failure of his philanthropic plans and measures shows that the true love for man can thrive only in Christian soil. And it is remarkable, that, with all this involuntary concession to Christianity, Julian himself passed not a single law in line with the progress of natural rights and equity.'
His successors trod in the footsteps of Constantine, and to the end of the West Roman empire kept the civil legislation under the influence of the Christian spirit, though thus often occasioning conflicts with the still lingering heathen element, and sometimes temporary apostasy and reaction. We observe also, in remarkable contradiction, that while the laws were milder in some respects, they were in others even more severe and bloody than ever before : a paradox to be explained no doubt in part by tlie despotic character of the Byzantine government, and in part by the disorders of the time.*
It now became necessary to collect the imperial ordinances '
' Troplong, p. 121. C. Schmidt, 378.
* Comp. de Rhoer, p. 59 sqq. The origin of this increased severity of penal laws is, at all events, not to be sought in the church ; for in the fourth and fifth centuries she was still rather averse to the death penalty. Comp. Ambros. Ep. 25 and 26 (al. 51 and 52), and Augustine, Ep. 153 ad Macedonium.
' Constitutiones or Leges. If answers to questions, they were called React ipta; if spontaneous decrees, Ediota.
110 THIKT) PERIOD. A.D. 31 J -590.
in a codex or corpus jurii^. Of the first two attcm])t3 of tliig kind, made iu the middle of the fourth century, only some fragments remain." But we have the Codex Thoodosimius, which Theodosius II. caused to be made by several jurists between the years 429 and 438. It contains the laws of the Christian emperors from Constantino down, adulterated with many heathen elements; and it was sanctioned by Yalentinian III. for the western empire. A hundred years later, in the flourishing period of tbe Byzantine state-church despotism, Justinian I., who, by the way, cannot be acquitted of the re proach of capricious and fickle law-making, committed to a immber of lawyers, under the direction of the renowned Tribonianns," the great task of making a complete revised and digested collection of the Roman law from the time of Hadrian to his own reign ; and thus arose, in the sliort period of seven years (527-534), throngh the combination of the best talent and the best facilities, the celebrated Codex Justinianeus^ which thenceforth became the universal law of the Roman empire, the sole text book in the academies at Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus, and the basis of the legal relations of the greater part of Christian Europe to this day.'
' The Codex Gregorianus and Codex Hcrmogenianus ; so called from the compilers, two private lawyers. They contained the rescripts and edicts of the heathen emperors from Hadrian to Constantine, and would facilitate a comparison of the heathen legislation with the Christian.
" Tribouianus, a native of Side in Paphlagonia, was an advocate and a poet, and rose by his talents, and the favor of Justinian, to be quaestor, consul, and at last magisterofficiorum. Gibbon compares him, both for his comprehensive learning and administrative ability and for his enormous avarice and venality, with Lord Bacon. But in one point these statesmen were very different : while Bacon was a decided Christian in his convictions, Tribonianus was accused of pagan proclivities and of atheism. In a popular tumult in Constantinople the emperor was obliged to dismiss him, but found him indispensable and soon restored him.
* The complete Codex Justinianeus, which has long outlasted the conquests of that emperor (as Napoleon's Code has outlasted his), comprises properly three separate works: (1) The InatituiioncH^ an elementary text book of jurisprudence, of the year 538. (2) The Dlgesta or Pandectm {TrdvhfKTai, complete repo.sitory), an abitract of the spirit of the whole Roman jurisjirudence, according to the decisions of the most distinguished jurists of the eailier times, composed in 530-533. (3) The Codex, first prepared in 528 and 520, but in 534 reconstructed, enlarged, and improved, and hence called Codex repcdlm prce'ectionis ; containing 4,648 ord»