ars B.C.[1282]

+403. Child marriage in Europe.+ The marriage of children was not in the
mores of the ancient Germans. The mediaeval church allowed child marriage
for princes, etc. The motive was political alliance, or family or
property interest.[1283] The fable was that Joseph was an old man and
the Virgin Mary only a girl. This story was invented to make the notion
of a virgin wife and mother easier. The marriage was only a child
marriage. In England, from the end of the thirteenth to late in the
seventeenth century, cases of child marriage occurred, at first in the
highest classes, later in all classes, and finally most frequently in
the highest and lowest classes. In Scotland premature marriages were so
common that, in 1600, they were forbidden, the limits being set at
fourteen and twelve years for males and females respectively. The chief
motive was to avoid feudal dues on the part of tenants in chief of the
crown, if the father should die and leave infants who would become
wards liable to forced marriages or to mulcts to avoid the same.[1284]

+404.+ Child marriage is due, then, to the predominance of worldly
considerations in marriage, especially when the interests considered are
those of the parents, not of the children; also to abuse of parental
authority through vanity and self-will; also to superstitious notions
about the other world and the interests of the dead there; also to
attempts, in the interest of the children, to avoid the evil
consequences of other bad social arrangements.

+405. Cloistering.+ The custom of cloistering women has spread, within
historic times, from some point in central Asia. The laws of Hammurabi
show that, 2200 years B.C., men and women, in the Euphrates Valley,
consorted freely and equally in life. Later, in the Euphrates Valley, we
find the custom of cloistering amongst the highest classes. It became
more and more vigorous amongst the Persians and spread to the common
people. It was not an original custom of the Arabs and was not
introduced by the Mohammedan religion. It was learned and assumed from
the Persians.[1285] Seclusion of women, to a greater or less degree, has
prevailed in the mores of many nations. In fact, there is only a
question of degree between an excessive harem system and our own code of
propriety which lays restraints on women to which men are not subject.
The most probable explanation of the customs of veiling and cloistering
is that they are due to the s