Post by Arthur on Dec 4, 2010 10:14:30 GMT -6
The ancient Athenians liberally allowed divorce, but the person requesting divorce had to submit the request to a magistrate, and the magistrate could determine whether the reasons given were sufficient.
Divorce was rare in early Roman culture but as their empire grew in power and authority Roman civil law embraced the maxim, “matrimonia debent esse libera” ("marriages ought to be free"), and either husband or wife could renounce the marriage at will. Though civil authority rarely intervened in divorces, social and familial taboos guaranteed that divorce occurred only after serious circumspection. The Christian emperors Constantine and Theodosius restricted the grounds for divorce to grave cause, but this was relaxed by Justinian in the sixth century.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, familial life was regulated more by ecclesiastical authority than civil authority. By the ninth or tenth century, the divorce rate had been greatly reduced under the influence of the Christian Church, which considered marriage a sacrament instituted by God and Christ indissoluble by mere human action.
When the Roman Empire disintegrated (5th century), tribes of Germanic and Celtic peoples flowed into what is now France, Germany, and Italy. Because they brought with them their pagan religions and culture, they ran into friction with the Christian Church as the Church fathers attempted to change things.
In defiance of the Church, old Burgundian and Roman Law did authorize divorce but only in certain cases: adultery (only on the part of the woman); use of potions to induce abortion or impotence; or grave robbing. But if a wife threw out her abusive husband, she could be strangled and thrown into a ditch.
The Romans thought in terms of equality between the sexes; the Germans placed the man above the woman, but neither civilization punished male adultery. The Gallo-Romans practiced divorce by mutual consent, but among the wandering barbarian tribes, a wife could usually divorce a husband only if he committed murder or robbed a grave.
Divorce was rare in early Roman culture but as their empire grew in power and authority Roman civil law embraced the maxim, “matrimonia debent esse libera” ("marriages ought to be free"), and either husband or wife could renounce the marriage at will. Though civil authority rarely intervened in divorces, social and familial taboos guaranteed that divorce occurred only after serious circumspection. The Christian emperors Constantine and Theodosius restricted the grounds for divorce to grave cause, but this was relaxed by Justinian in the sixth century.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, familial life was regulated more by ecclesiastical authority than civil authority. By the ninth or tenth century, the divorce rate had been greatly reduced under the influence of the Christian Church, which considered marriage a sacrament instituted by God and Christ indissoluble by mere human action.
When the Roman Empire disintegrated (5th century), tribes of Germanic and Celtic peoples flowed into what is now France, Germany, and Italy. Because they brought with them their pagan religions and culture, they ran into friction with the Christian Church as the Church fathers attempted to change things.
In defiance of the Church, old Burgundian and Roman Law did authorize divorce but only in certain cases: adultery (only on the part of the woman); use of potions to induce abortion or impotence; or grave robbing. But if a wife threw out her abusive husband, she could be strangled and thrown into a ditch.
The Romans thought in terms of equality between the sexes; the Germans placed the man above the woman, but neither civilization punished male adultery. The Gallo-Romans practiced divorce by mutual consent, but among the wandering barbarian tribes, a wife could usually divorce a husband only if he committed murder or robbed a grave.