definitions of the same word at the same
time. There are, in the mythologies, many cases of virgin birth. The
Scandinavian valkyre was the messenger of the god to the hero and the
life attendant of the latter. He loved her, but she, to keep her
calling, must remain a virgin. Otherwise she gave up her divine position
and deathlessness in order to live and die with him.[1331] The notion of
merit and power in renunciation is heathen, not Christian, in origin.
The most revolting application of it was when two married people
renounced conjugal intimacy in order to be holy.

+420. Marriage in early Christianity.+ In the earliest centuries of
Christianity very little attention seems to have been paid to marriage
by the Christians. It was left to the mores of each national group,
omitting the sacrifices to the heathen gods. It is not possible to trace
the descent of Christian marriage from Jewish, Greek, or Roman marriage,
but the best authorities think that its fundamental idea is Jewish
(carnal union), not Roman (jural relations).[1332] "The church found the
solemn ceremonies for concluding marriage existing [in each nation]. No
divine command in regard to this matter is to be found" [in the New
Testament].[1333] The church, in time, added new ceremonies to suit its
own views. Hence there was the same variety at first inside the church
as there had been before Christianity. There can, therefore, be no doubt
that, throughout the Latin branch of the church, the usages and theories
of Roman marriage passed over into the Christian church. Lecky says that
at Rome monogamy was from the earliest times strictly enjoined; and it
was one of the greatest benefits that have resulted from the expansion
of Roman power, that it made this type dominant in Europe.[1334]
Although the Romans had strict monogamy in their early history, they
had abandoned it before their expansion began to have effect, and
monogamy was the rule, in the civilized world, for those who were not
rich and great, quite independently of Roman influence, at the time of
Christ. The Roman marriage of the time of the empire, especially in the
social class which chiefly became Christians, was "free marriage,"
consisting in _consensus_ and delivery of the bride. Richer people added
_instrumenta dotalia_ as documents to regulate property rights, and as
proofs of the marital affection of the groom by virtue of which he meant
to make the bride his wife, not his concubine. The ma