nt statement. "At a
period of early, although uncertain, date the rule became firmly and
irrevocably established, that no digamus, or husband of a second wife,
was admissible to Holy Orders; and although there is no reason for
supposing that marriage after taking orders was prohibited to a
bachelor, it was strictly forbidden to a widower."[1310] So it came
about that, inasmuch as marriage was, in any case, only a concession and
a compromise, and in so far a departure from strict rectitude, a second
marriage was regarded with disfavor, and any subsequent ones were
regarded with reprobation which increased in a high progression. This
has remained the view of the Eastern church, in which a fourth marriage
is unlawful. The Western church has not kept the early view, and has set
no limit to remarriage, but orthodox and popular mores have frowned upon
it after the second or, at most, the third. In Arabia, before the time
of Mohammed, widows were forced into seclusion and misery for a year,
and they became a class of forlorn, almost vagabond, dependents. It was
a shame for a man if his mother contracted a second marriage.[1311] In
the Middle Ages popular reprobation was manifested by celebrations
which were always grotesque and noisy, and sometimes licentious. They
were called charivaris. They were enacted in case of the remarriage of
widows and sometimes in the case of widowers. They are said to have
been a very ancient custom in Provence.[1312] This might mean that
opposition to second marriages was due to Manichaean doctrines which were
widely held in that region. The customs of popular reprobation were,
however, very widespread, and nowadays amongst us the neighbors
sometimes express in this way their disapproval of any sex relations
which are in any way not in accord with the mores. In the Salic law it
was provided that any woman who married a second time must do so at
night.[1313] The other laws of the barbarian nations contain evidence of
disapproval.[1314] Innocent III ruled, in 1213, that a man did not incur
the ecclesiastical disabilities of second marriage, "no matter how many
concubines he might have had, either at one time or in succession."[1315]
The mediaeval _coutumes_ of northern France are indifferent to second
marriages.[1316] The ancient German custom approved of the self-immolation
of a widow at her husband's death, but did not require it. The
remarriage of widows was not approved and the widows did not desi