[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 civilisation in Italy has succumbed completely to its barbarian conquerors; when the East has been definitely sundered from the West; when the Church has risen supreme, has won temporal power, and has developed canon law into a force equal to the civil law,—­then finally we shall expect to see the legal rights of women changed in accordance with two new world forces—­the Roman Catholic Church and the Germanic nations.  I shall now discuss legislation having to do with my subject under the Christian emperors from Constantine (306-337) through the reign of Justinian (527-565).