Those women are excepted from this decree who have been forced into marriage, and have not subsequently given their consent thereto. Any judge, or priest, who is aware that such an offence has been committed, and neglects to punish it, shall be compelled to pay five pounds of gold to the royal treasury; and, in case he should not be able or willing to inflict such punishment, he shall bring the matter before the king, in order that he may impose the penalty which is not in the power of the magistrate or priest to inflict. =FLAVIUS CHINTASVINTUS, KING.= =III. Concerning Men and Women who Illegally Assume the Tonsure and Dress of Religious Orders.= We should eradicate the reproach of apostasy, in order that we may enjoy the favor of God. For if we think it is an evidence of piety to punish sins of less importance, to a much greater extent should we visit with severe censure any crime committed against the Divine Power. Therefore, we decree by this law, which shall remain perpetually in force hereafter; that whoever adopts the dress of a religious order, and assumes the honorable mark of the tonsure, either for the purpose of performing penance, or through the pious wishes of parents, and without any suspicion of fraud; or through their own will and devotion to the Church; and afterwards, apostatizing, resumes intercourse with the laity; shall, at the instance of any one, be brought again by force under the control of the religious order to which they belong; and, branded with infamy, shall be forever confined in monasteries, and subjected to the severest penance. In cases of this kind, indulgence shall only be shown to those who have been influenced by the deceit of others, or such as have returned to the order of their own accord; provided that among such persons a man has not taken another wife, or a woman another husband. And those also shall be exempt from the operation of this law, who assumed their vows when they neither knew what they were doing, nor remembered what they had done. The property of persons practising such deception shall belong to their sons and their relatives, as follows: if the man is married and has children, and should have received any gift from his wife, it shall be transferred to her, and, after her death, shall descend to their children. But if she should be dead, or they should have no children, the lawful heirs of the offender shall have the property. But whatever, at any time, the husband received through his wife, shall belong to her nearest heirs.