§ 19. ELEVATION OF AVOMAIST AifD THE FAMILY. Hi
This body of Roman law ' is an important source of oui knowledge of the Christian life in its relations to the state and its influence npon it. It is, to be sure, in great part the legacy of pagan Rome, which was constitutionally endowed with legislative and administrative genius, and thereby as it were predestined to universal empire. 13ut it received essential modification through the orientalizing change in the character of the empire from the time of Coiistantine, through the infusion of various Germanic elements, through the influence of the law of Moses, and, in its best points, through the spirit of Christianity. The church it fully recognizes as a legitimate institution and of divine authority, and several of its laws were enacted at the direct instance of bishops. So the " Common Law," the unwritten traditional law of England and America, though descending from the Anglo-Saxon times, therefore from heathen Germandom, lias ripened under the influence of Christianity and the church, and betrays this influence even far more plainly than the Roman code, especially in all that regards the individual and personal rights and liberties of man.
§ 19. Elevation of Woman and the Family.
The benign effect of Christianity on legislation in the Gr^eco Roman empire is especially noticeable in the following points :
nances in 765 titles, in chronological order. To these is added (4) a later Appendix : Novellce constitut tones [yeapal StaTa^en), or simply Novellce (a barbarism) ; that is, 168 decrees of Justinian, subsequently collected from the 1st January, 535, to his death in 565, mostly in Greek, or in both Greek and Latin. Excepting some of the novels of Justinian, the codex was composed in the Latin language, which Justinian and Tribonianus understood ; but afterward, as this tongue died out in the East, it was translated into Greek, and sanctioned in this form by the emperor Phocas in 600. The emperor Basil the Macedonian in 876 caused a Greek abstract {■np6xftpov t&v vS/j-oju) to be prepared, which, under the name of the Basilica, gradually supplanted foe book of Justinian in the Byzantine empire. The Pandects have narrowly escaped destruction. Most of the editions and manuscripts of the west (not all ne Gibbon says) are taken from the Codex Florentinus, which was transcribed in the beginning of the seventh century at Constantinople, and afterward carried by the rissitudes of war and trade to Amalfi, to Pisa, and in 1411 to Florence.
' Called Corpus juris Romani or C. juris civilis, in distinction from Corpus jnrit eanonici, the lloraan Catholic church law, which is based chiefly on the canons of th« ancient councils, as the civil law is upon the rescripts and edicts of the emperors.
112 THIBD PERIOD. A.l>. 311-590.
1. In the treatment of women. From the beginning, Chris tianitj labored, primarily in the silent way of fact, for the elevation of the female sex from the degraded, slavish position, which it occupied in the heathen world;' and even in this period it produced such illustrious models of female virtue as Norma, Anthusa, and Monica, who connuanded the highest respect of the heathens themselves. The Christian emperors pursued this work, though the Roman legislation stops considerably short of the later Germanic in regard to the rights of woman. Constantine in 321 granted women the same right aa men to control their property, except in the sale of their landed estates. At the same time, from regard to their modesty, he prohibited the summoning them in person before the public tribunal. Theodosius I. in 390 was the first to allow the mother a certain right of guardianship, which had formerly been intrusted exclusively to men. Theodosius II. in 439 interdicted, but unfortunately with little success, the scandalous trade of the lenones^ who lived by the prostitution of women, and paid a considerable license tax to the state.'' Woman received protection in various ways against the beastly passion of man. The rape of consecrated virgins and widows was punishable, from the time of Constantine, with death."
2. In the marriage laws. Constantine gave marriage its due freedom by abolishing the old Roman penalties against celibacy and childlessness.' On the other hand, marriage now came to be restricted under heavy penalties by the introduction of tlie Old Testament prohibitions of marriage within certain degrees of consanguinity, which subsequently were arl>itrarily extended even to the relation of cousin down to the third remove.* Justinian forbade also marriage between godparent and godchild, on the ground of spiritual kinship. But better than all, the dignity and sanctity of marriage were new
' On this subject, and on the heiUlien family life, comp. vol. ii. § OS (p. ;>5I sqq.). ' Cod. Theod. lib. xv. tit. 8: de Icnonibus.
' C. Theod. ix. 24 : de raptu virgiaum et viduarum (probably nua' and dea oonesscs).
* C. Theod. viii. 16, 1. Comp. Euseb. Vit. Const, iv. 26.
* C. Theod. iii. VI: de Lncestis nuptiis.