after the _manus_ idea had been lost. They
could be applied also to the German notion of marriage after the Germans
abandoned the _mund_ idea. They also correspond to the Greek view of
marriage, for in Greece the authority of the father early became
obsolete in its despotic form. From the time of Diocletian the woman who
was _sui juris_ was a subject of the state without intermediary, just as
her brother or husband was, and she enjoyed free disposition of herself.
The same view of marriage passed into the Decretals of Gratian and into
our modern legislation.[1337]

+423. Free marriage.+ At the end of the fourth century A.D. the church
set aside the Roman notions of the importance of the _dos_ and _donatio
propter nuptias_, and made the _consensus_ the essential element in
marriage. This was an adoption of that form of "free marriage" of the
time of the empire which the class from which Christians came had
practiced. That is to say, that the church took up the form of marriage
which had been in the class mores of the class from which the church was
recruited. This is really all that can be said about the origin of
"Christian marriage." It is a perpetuation of the mores of the lowest
free classes in the Roman world. Justinian reintroduced the _dos_ and
_donatio_ for persons of the higher classes who were, in his time,
included in the church. People of the lower class were to utter the
_consensus_ in a church before three or four clergymen, and a
certificate was to be prepared.[1338] The lowest classes might still
neglect all ceremony. This law aimed to secure publicity, a distinct
expression of consent, and a record. There is no reference to any
religious blessing or other function of the clergy. They appear as civil
functionaries charged to witness and record an act of the parties.[1339]
In another novel[1340] all this was done away with except the written
contract about the dower, if there was one.[1341]

+424. Transition from Roman to Christian marriage.+ The ideal of
marriage which has just been described came into the Christian church
out of the Roman world. Roman wedding sacrifices were intended to obtain
signs of the approval of the gods on the wedding. They were domestic
sacrifices only, since the sacred things of the spouses were at home
only. The auspices ceased to be taken at marriages from the time of
Cicero. It became customary to declare that nothing unfavorable to the
marriage had occurred. There are many