Before Constantine, even, the Late Classical law of imperial decrees (_constitutiones, placita_) though the Roman form of city law was strictly kept, was genuinely a law for the _believers of the “Syncretic Church,”_[89] that mass of cults perfused by one single religiousness. In Rome itself, it is true, law was conceived of by a large part of the population as city-state law, but this feeling became weaker and weaker with every step towards the East. The fusion of the faithful into a single _jural community_ was effected in express form by the Emperor-cult, which was religious law through and through. In relation to this law Jews and Christians[90] were infidels who ensconced themselves with their own laws in another field of law. When in 212 the Aramæan Caracalla, by the _Constitutio Antoniana_, gave Roman citizenship to all inhabitants except _dediticii_ peregrins,[91] the form of his act was purely Classical, and no doubt there were plenty of people who understood it in the Classical spirit--i.e., as literally an incorporation of the citizens of every other city in the city of Rome. But the Emperor himself conceived it quite otherwise. It made everyone subject to the “Ruler of the Faithful,” the head of the cult-religion venerated as _Divus_. With Constantine came the great change; he turned Imperial Caliph law on to the creed-community of Christianity in lieu of that of Syncretism, and thereby _constituted the Christian Nation_. The labels “devout” and “unbeliever” changed places. From Constantine onwards the quiet transformation of “Roman” law into _orthodox Christian law_ proceeded more and more decisively, and it was as such that converted Asiatics and Germans received and adopted it. Thus a perfectly new law came into being in old forms. According to the old marriage-law it was impossible for a Roman burgher to marry the daughter of, say, a Capuan burgher if legal community, _connubium_, was not in force between the two cities.[92] But now the question was whether a Christian or a Jew--irrespective of whether he was Roman, Syrian, or Moor--could legally marry an infidel. For in the Magian law-world there was no _connubium_ between those of different faiths. There was not the slightest difficulty about an Irishman in Constantinople marrying a Negress if both were Christians, but how could a Monophysite Christian marry a Nestorian maiden who was his neighbour in their Syrian village? Racially they were probably indistinguishable, but they belonged to legally different nations.