(2) Improved laws. During the first three centuries, some noteworthy reforms occurred in the Roman laws. These, though largely such as heathen statesmanship by its own interior development might gradually have wrought, were likely due in some degree to the indirect influence of Christianity. Moral forces are exceedingly subtle; and it is not at all incredible that the influence of the gospel should have penetrated, in some measure, even to the legislation of a hostile empire. Under the Christian emperors, though reform stopped short of the proper goal, there was from the outset an impulse toward a higher justice and a more thorough respect for human rights. Greater privileges were accorded to women. An edict of Constantine granted them the same right in respect to the control of property as was enjoyed by males, with the exception that they could not sell landed estates without a special permission. Theodosius ordained that the mother should have the prerogative of guardianship in certain cases; namely, when there was no legal guardian at hand, and she, being of age, was willing to bind herself not to marry.1 Laws were passed at various times designed to limit, and ultimately to abolish, the infamous trade in female virtue.2 Attempts in this direction, however, were only partially successful. The same may be said of the endeavors to give better security to the sanctity of the marriage relation. Laws were passed against concubinage; severe penalties were attached to the crime 1 Codex Justin., Lib. V., Tit. xxxv. 2. 2 Codex Theod., XV., viii. 1, 2, 8 Codex Justin., V., xxvi. of rape and adultery1; and attempts were made at different times to limit the practice of divorce by making it allowable only on occasion of gross crimes.2 But the current of a corrupt society was too strong for the legislator, and, instead of being held in check by the laws, caused them in more than one instance to be relaxed. Laws were passed in favor of children, carrying still farther the limitation of the old paternal absolutism which preceding heathen emperors had begun to restrict. The exposing of children was forbidden. The right to sell them on the ground of poverty, or any other plea, was abolished by Theodosius.3 Children thus sold into slavery were declared free, and the purchaser who had used a free child as a slave could claim no recompense. In this relation, however, he had largely been anticipated by heathen legislation. The stealing of children for the purpose of enslaving them was made by Constantine a capital offence.1 Slaves failed to receive the same honor before the State as before the Church. Laws unjustly discriminating against them were left upon the statute-book. Still, their condition was ameliorated in various respects. The laws aimed to relieve them from the necessity of taking a degrading part in certain public amusements. The general policy of the government was favorable to their manumission. Even in the time of Constantine, as already indicated, a solemn religious sanction was given to the act of manumission by the provision that it might take place in church and on 1 Codex Justin., I., iii. 54; Codex Theod., IX., xxiv., xxv. 2 Codex Theod., III., xvi. 3 Ibid., III., iii. 4 Ibid, IX., xvii. Sunday.1 Certain services to the State were allowed to establish a title to freedom. Ordination to the ministry, with the consent of a master, was counted a declaration of emancipation.2 Jews and pagans were denied legal right to hold a Christian slave. As to the number who received their liberty, we have the testimony of Salvianus, in the fifth century, that manumission was of daily occurrence.* Laws were passed designed to prevent unnecessary suffering on the part of criminals. An edict against gladiatorial combats was issued by Constantine in 325,5 but no decisive progress was made toward their suppression till the early part of the fifth century, when a decree was re-enforced and made effective by the blood of the martyr. The circumstances, as given by Theodoret, were these: "A certain man named Telemachus, who had embraced a monastic life, came from the East to Rome at a time when these cruel spectacles were being exhibited. After gazing upon the combat from the amphitheatre, he descended into the arena, and tried to separate the gladiators. The sanguinary spectators, possessed by the demon who delights in the effusion of blood, were irritated at the interruption of their cruel sports, and stoned him who had occasioned the cessation. On being apprised of this circumstance, the admirable Emperor [Honorius] numbered him with the victorious martyrs, and abolished these iniquitous spectacles." 6 As an estimate, by a very careful and well-informed 1 Codex Theod., II., viii. 1. 2 Justinian, Novella cxxiii. writer, of the laws of the Empire under Christian rule, we may quote the following: "The legislation exhibits. not yet the character of a complete whole, of a scientific unity; still, the reformatory action of Christianity is clearly apparent. It left therein indelible traces of the spirit of love and equity which God, through Jesus Christ, has disseminated in the world. At the time of the fall of the Empire of the Occident, the relations of civil society have already become fundamentally changed; the pitiless egoism and the aristocratic asperity of heathen antiquity have been eliminated from most of the laws. If these progressive victories of love allowed traces of the old jurisprudence still to remain, this was due to the fact that the last days of a world in process of downfall were not favorable to the revision. of the statute-book. Justinian carried forward the remodelling of the jurisprudence, as far as this was possible in a time of stormy transition. He fixed the code for a series of centuries; and so the Roman jurisprudence survived, not as Roman jurisprudence in the old sense, but as Roman jurisprudence modified by Christianity. The Middle Ages, and later the immortal author of the civil code [the first Napoleon], completed the reform." 1 1 C. Schmidt, Essai Historique sur la Société Civile dans le Monde Romain. CHAPTER II. CHRISTIANITY ON AND BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE EMPIRE. 1. ARABIA.-The nomadic life prevailing in a large part of this country was a great hinderance in the way of its thorough evangelization. Still some, the monks in particular, were able to win converts. In the latter part of the fourth century the Saracen queen Mavia inserted among the conditions of peace with the Romans the requirement that a certain monk by the name of Moses should be constituted the bishop of her people.1 According to Theodoret, the stylite Symeon had great celebrity among the Saracen nomads, and influenced many of them to accept of Christian baptism.2 In Arabia Felix, a work of some importance was accomplished by Theophilus, a native of the island Diu, but educated at Constantinople. Through his influence a prince embraced Christianity, and several churches were established. The good-begun work, however, finally succumbed to the opposition of the Jews, who were especially powerful in that region.3 2. ARMENIA AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. — The efficient activity of the Armenian Gregory, beginning in the 1 Rufinus, Hist. Eccl., ii. 6; Socrates, iv. 36; Sozomen, vi. 38; Theodoret, iv. 23. 2 Hist. Relig., xxvi. 3 Philostorgius, Hist. Eccl., iii. 4, 5. |