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 the disgrace of adultery: the list of mortal sins, either male or
female, was curtailed and enlarged by successive regulations, and the
obstacles of incurable impotence, long absence, and monastic profession,
were allowed to rescind the matrimonial obligation. Whoever transgressed
the permission of the law, was subject to various and heavy penalties.
The woman was stripped of her wealth and ornaments, without excepting
the bodkin of her hair: if the man introduced a new bride into his bed,
her fortune might be lawfully seized by the vengeance of his exiled
wife. Forfeiture was sometimes commuted to a fine; the fine was
sometimes aggravated by transportation to an island, or imprisonment in
a monastery; the injured party was released from the bonds of marriage;
but the offender, during life, or a term of years, was disabled from
the repetition of nuptials. The successor of Justinian yielded to the
prayers of his unhappy subjects, and restored the liberty of divorce by
mutual consent: the civilians were unanimous, [130] the theologians were
divided, [131] and the ambiguous word, which contains the precept
of Christ, is flexible to any interpretation that the wisdom of a
legislator can demand.

[Footnote 126: Sacellum Viriplacae, (Valerius Maximus, l. ii. c. 1,)
in the Palatine region, appears in the time of Theodosius, in the
description of Rome by Publius Victor.]

[Footnote 127: Valerius Maximus, l. ii. c. 9. With some propriety he
judges divorce more criminal than celibacy: illo namque conjugalia sacre
spreta tantum, hoc etiam injuriose tractata.]

[Footnote 128: See the laws of Augustus and his successors, in
Heineccius, ad Legem Papiam-Poppaeam, c. 19, in Opp. tom. vi. P. i. p.
323--333.]

[Footnote 129: Aliae sunt leges Caesarum, aliae Christi; aliud
Papinianus, aliud Paulus nocter praecipit, (Jerom. tom. i. p. 198.
Selden, Uxor Ebraica l. iii. c. 31 p. 847--853.)]

[Footnote 130: The Institutes are silent; but we may consult the Codes
of Theodosius (l. iii. tit. xvi., with Godefroy's Commentary, tom. i. p.
310--315) and Justinian, (l. v. tit. xvii.,) the Pandects (l. xxiv.
tit. ii.) and the Novels, (xxii. cxvii. cxxvii. cxxxiv. cxl.) Justinian
fluctuated to the last between civil and ecclesiastical law.]

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