maritum.

[237] Virginitas praeferenda coniugio--August., vol. 44, p. 142 of
Migne. The Council of Trent, eleven centuries later, in its
twenty-fourth session, re-echoed this sentiment and anathematised any
one who should deny it.

[238] Migne, vol. 16, p. 342.

[239] Id., II, p. 1074.

[240] Tertullian _ad uxorem_, i, 3.

[241] Id. _ad uxorem_, i, 5. See also Gregory of Nyassa, _de Virg_.,
iii, on the evils of matrimony.

[242] v. Tertullian, _ad uxorem_. For Paul of Nolan, see Migne, vol. 61,
p. 22.

[243] Laudo nuptias, laudo coniugium, sed quia mihi virgines generant.

[244] _Ad uxorem_, i, 7 and 9: non aliud dicendum erit secundum
matrimonium quam species stupri.

[245] Jerome, _Epist_., 123. See also id., _Epistola de viduitate
servanda_, Migne 22, p. 550, and the _Epist. de monogamia_, Migne, 22,
p. 1046. Ambrose, _de viduis liber unus_, Migne, 16, p. 234. Cf. Alanus
de Insulis in Migne, vol. 210, p. 194: Vidua ad secundas nuptias non
transeat.

[246] See, e.g., St. Cyprian, _de habitu virginum_. Tertullian, _de
virginibus velandis_ and _de cultu feminarum_. Treatises on the way
widows should dress were written, among others, by St. Paul of Nolan,
_Epist_. 23, Sec.Sec. 133-135--Migne 61; Augustine, St. Fulgentius Rusp., St.
Paulinus Aquil., and St. Petrus Damianus.

[247] _De cultu feminarum_, i, 8.

[248] Lavacrum etiam corporum ususque balneorum non sit assiduus, sed eo
quo solet intervallo temporis tribuatur, hoc est, semel in mense. Nisi
infirmitatis necessitas cogat, corpus saepius non lavandum--Augustine,
_de monialibus_, Migne, vol. 33, page 963.

CHAPTER III

RIGHTS OF WOMEN AS MODIFIED BY THE CHRISTIAN EMPERORS

Christianity became the state religion under Constantine, who issued the
Edict of Milan, giving toleration to the Christians, in the year 313.
The emperors from Constantine through Justinian (527-565) modified the
various laws pertaining to the rights of women in various ways. To the
enactments of Justinian, who caused the whole body of the Roman law to
be collected, I intend to give special attention. We must not, as yet,
expect to find the strict views of the Church Fathers carried out in any
severe degree. On the contrary the old Roman law was still so powerful
that it was for the most part beyond the control of ecclesiasts.
Justinian was an ardent admirer of it and could not escape from its
prevailing spirit. Canon law had not yet developed. When the old Roman
civ