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| Amendment of the Law in Force respecting Childless Persons, and of the Law of Wills.
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Chapter XXVI.—Amendment of the Law in Force respecting
Childless Persons, and of the Law of Wills.
So numerous, indeed, were the benefits of this kind conferred by the
emperor on every province, as to afford ample materials to any who
might desire to record them. Among these may be instanced those laws
which he entirely remodelled, and established on a more equitable
basis: the nature of which reform may be briefly and easily explained.
The childless were punished under the old law with the forfeiture of
their hereditary property, a merciless statute, which dealt with them
as positive criminals. The emperor annulled this, and decreed that
those so circumstanced should inherit. He regulated the question on the
principles of equity and justice, arguing willful transgressors should
be chastised with the penalties their crimes deserve. But nature
herself denies children to many, who long, perhaps, for a numerous
offspring, but are disappointed of their hope by bodily infirmity.
Others continue childless, not from any dislike of posterity, but
because their ardent love of philosophy3326
| 3326 [The word “philosophy,” here and in the 28th chapter,
plainly indicates that virginity which was so highly honored in the
earlier ages of Christianity, and the undue exaltation of which was
productive, necessarily, of evils which it is scarcely possible to
estimate at their full extent.—Bag.] On the growing
prevalence of the practice of virginity compare Hatch, Virgins,
in Smith and Cheetham, Dict. But this note belongs rather to the
paragraph below; for the author does not refer to Christian virginity
but primarily to philosophical celibacy in this instance. The
Neo-Platonic philosophy of the times, through its doctrine of the
purification of the soul by its liberation from the body or sensuous
things, taught celibacy and ascetic practices generally. So Plotinus
(d. 270 a.d.) practiced and taught to a
degree, and Porphyry (d. 301+) more explicitly. Compare rich literature
on Neo-Platonism, and conveniently Zeller, Outlines of Gr.
Philos. Lond., 1886, p. 326–43, passim. | renders them averse to the conjugal
union. Women, too, consecrated to the service of God, have maintained a
pure and spotless virginity, and have devoted themselves, soul and body
to a life of entire chastity and holiness. What then? Should this
conduct be deemed worthy of punishment, or rather of admiration and
praise; since to desire this state is in itself honorable, and to
maintain it surpasses the power of unassisted nature? Surely those
whose bodily infirmity destroys their hope of offspring are worthy of
pity, not of punishment: and he who devotes himself to a higher object
calls not for chastisement, but especial admiration. On such principles
of sound reason did the emperor rectify the defects of this law. Again,
with regard to the wills of dying persons, the old laws had ordained
that they should be expressed, even at the latest breath, as it were,
in certain definite words, and had prescribed the exact form and terms
to be employed. This practice had occasioned many fraudulent attempts
to hinder the intentions of the deceased from being carried into full
effect. As soon as our emperor was aware of these abuses, he reformed
this law likewise, declaring that a dying man ought to be permitted to
indicate his last wishes in as few words as possible, and in whatever
terms he pleased; and to set forth his will in any written form; or
even by word of mouth, provided it were done in the presence of proper
witnesses, who might be competent faithfully to discharge their
trust.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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