A Short History of Women's Rights: From the Days of Augustus to the Present Time. with Special Reference to England and the United States. Second Edition Revised, With Additions. — John Shaqi
A Short History of Women's Rights: From the Days of Augustus to the Present Time. with Special Reference to England and the United States. Second Edition Revised, With Additions.Hecker, Eugene A. (Eugene Arthur)
History
A Short History of Women's Rights: From the Days of Augustus to the Present Time. with Special Reference to England and the United States. Second Edition Revised, With Additions.
Hecker, Eugene A. (Eugene Arthur)
Women's rights -- History
Justinian made more minute regulations on the subject of divorce. To the
valid causes for divorce as laid down by Theodosius and Valentinian he
added impotence; if a separation was obtained on this ground, the
husband might retain ante-nuptial gifts.[250] Abortion committed by the
wife or bathing with other men than her husband or inveigling other men
to be her paramours--these offences on the part of the wife gave her
husband the right of divorce.[251] Captivity of either party for a
prolonged period of time was always a valid reason. Justinian added
also[252] that a man who dismissed his wife without any of the legal
causes mentioned above existing or who was himself guilty of any of
these offences must give to his wife one fourth of his property up to a
sum not to exceed one hundred _librae_ of gold, if he owned property
worth four hundred _librae_ or more; if he had less, one fourth of all
he possessed was forfeit. The same penalties held for the wife who
presumed to dismiss her husband without the offences legally recognised
existing. The forfeited money was at the free disposal of the blameless
party if there were no children; these being extant, the property must
be preserved intact for their inheritance and merely the usufruct could
be enjoyed by the trustees. A woman who secured a divorce through a
fault of her husband had always to wait at least a year before marrying
again _propter seminis confusionem_.[253]
[Sidenote: Justin revokes decrees of Justinian.]
Justin, the nephew and successor of Justinian, reaffirmed the right to
divorce by mutual consent, thus abrogating the laws of his
predecessors.[254] Justinian had ordained that if husband and wife
separated by mutual consent, they were to be forced to spend the rest of
their lives in a convent and forfeit to it one third of their
goods.[255] Justin, then, made the pious efforts of his uncle naught.
Nothing can more clearly illustrate than his decree how small a power
the Church still possessed to mould the tenor of the law; for such a
thing as divorce by mutual consent, without any necessary reason, was a
serious misdemeanour in the eyes of the Church Fathers, who passed upon
it their severest censures.
[Sidenote: Adultery.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account