Forfeiture was sometimes
commuted to a fine; the fine was sometimes aggravated by transportation
to an island or imprisonment in a monastery; the injured party was
released from the bonds of marriage; but the offender during life or a
term of years was disabled from the repetition of nuptials. The
successor of Justinian yielded to the prayers of his unhappy subjects,
and restored the liberty of divorce by mutual consent: the civilians
were unanimous, the theologians were divided, and the ambiguous word,
which contains the precept of Christ, is flexible to any interpretation
that the wisdom of a legislator can demand.
The freedom of love and marriage was restrained among the Romans by
natural and civil impediments. An instinct, almost innate and universal,
appears to prohibit the incestuous commerce of parents and children in
the infinite series of ascending and descending generations. Concerning
the oblique and collateral branches nature is indifferent, reason mute,
and custom various and arbitrary. In Egypt the marriage of brothers and
sisters was admitted without scruple or exception: a Spartan might
espouse the daughter of his father, an Athenian that of his mother; and
the nuptials of an uncle with his niece were applauded at Athens as a
happy union of the dearest relations.
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