The History of the Decliine and Fall of the Empire

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1838. Excerpt: ... an action was instituted for the recovery of a mar-Chap. nage-portion, the prcetor, as the guardian of equity, l examined the cause and the characters, and gently inclined the scale in favour of the guiltless and injured party. Augustus, who united the powers of both magistrates, adopted their different modes of repressing or chastising the licence of divorce.128 The presence of seven Roman witnesses was required for the validity of this solemn and deliberate act: if any adequate provocation had been given by the husband, instead of the delay of two years, he was compelled to refund immediately, or in the space of six months; but if he could arraign the manners of his wife, her guilt or levity was expiated by the loss of the sixth or eighth part of her marriage-portion. The Christian princes were the first who specified the just causes of a private divorce; their institutions, from Constantine to Justinian, appear to fluctuate between the custom of the empire and the wishes of the church129, and the author of the Novels too frequently reforms the jurisprudence of the Code and Pandects. In the most rigorous laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the executioner. But the sacred right of the husband was invariably maintained, to deliver his name and family from 128 See the laws of Augustus and his successors, in Heineccius, ad Legem Papiam-Poppaeam, c. 19. in Opp. torn. vi. P. i. p. 323--333. 11 Alia; sunt leges Caisarum, alia; Christi; aliud Papinianus, aliud Paulus noster praecipit (Jerom, torn. i. p. 198. Selden, Uxor Ebraica, l.Hi.c.31. p. 847--853.). the disgrace of adult...