he monastic life, returned to the world, his or her goods
were forfeit to the monastery which he or she had left.[274]

[Sidenote: Various enactments on marriage.]

The consent of the father or, if he was dead, of near relatives was
emphatically declared necessary by the Christian emperors for a marriage
and the woman had practically no will of her own although, if several
suitors were proposed to her, she might be requested to name which one
she preferred.[275] Marriage with a Jew was treated as adultery.[276]
Women who belonged to heretical sects were to have no privileges.[277]
Justinus and Justinian abrogated the old law which forbade senators to
marry freedwomen or any woman who had herself or whose parents had
followed the stage. Actresses were now permitted, on giving up their
profession, to claim all the rights of other free women; and a senator
could marry such or even a freedwoman without prejudice.[278]

[Sidenote: Changes in the laws of inheritance.]

Under the old law, as we have seen, a son and a daughter had equal
rights to intestate succession; but beyond the relationship of daughter
to father or sister to brother women had no rights to intestate
succession unless there were no agnates, that is, male relatives on the
father's side. Thus, an aunt would not be called to the estate of a
nephew who died childless, but the uncle was regularly admitted. So,
too, a nephew was admitted to the intestate succession of an uncle, who
died without issue, but the niece was shut out. All this was changed by
Justinian, who gave women the same rights of inheritance as men under
such conditions.[279] If the children were unorthodox, they were to have
absolutely no share of either parent's goods.[280]

[Sidenote: Women as guardians.]

[Sidenote: In suits.]

The Christian emperors permitted widows to be guardians over their
children if they promised on oath not to marry again and gave security
against fraud.[281] Justinian forbade women to act by themselves in any
legal matters.[282]

[Sidenote: Bills of attainder.]

Arcadius and Honorius (397 A.D.) enacted some particularly savage bills
of attainder, which were in painful contrast to the clemency of their
pagan predecessors. Those guilty of high treason were decapitated and
their goods escheated to the crown. "To the sons of such a man [i.e.,
one condemned for high treason]," write these amiable Christians,[283]
"we allow their lives out of special royal mercy--f