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change in the matrimonial conditions. Nowhere is the 

 liberalising inflnence of the jus gentium clearer than in the 

 way in which it gradually abolished the old religions 

 marriage by confarreatio, and brought about, what modern 

 lawyers are accustomed to call the looseness in entering 

 upon matrimony which distinguished the latter periods 

 of the Roman empire. 



Matrimony is decidedly religious in its essential charac- 

 ter; it is a condition which lies beyond the frontiers of 

 civil society. This the Roman lawyers felt well, when 

 they said that " maris et /eminte conjicgatio, quam nos matri- 

 monium appellamiis,^^ descends from the '■\jus naturale, and 

 the definition Avhich the heathen lawyer, Modestinus, gives 

 of marriage, lias scarcely been surpassed in delicacy of 

 feelings by any medioival church-father or modern divme 

 and philosopher. " Nii^tiw, he says, sunt conjimctio maris 

 et femince, et consortium omnis vitce, (Mvini et humani juris com- 

 municatioy When matrimony is thus a merely religious 

 condition in its essential point, it has on the other side 

 external relations which belong to the province of civil 

 society. These external relations of matrimony fall 

 under the jurisdiction of the civil law. Matrimony thus 

 becomes in the same time a civil institution, whilst its 

 roots, as is poetically said, lie in heaven. These external 

 relations civil law must regulate according to the sacred 

 character of matrimony itself, but only these external 

 relations ; and it has to take care tliat none of its regula- 

 tions and orders touch this sacred character itself. 



It has been in modern times a matter of dispute, 

 whether the conclusion of a marriage ought to be a mere 

 civil act, or whether the stamp of religion is necessary 

 for its completion. The general, deep-rooted feeling of 

 mankind manifests a decided favour of religious par- 

 ticipation, if not sanction ; it shews that an internal 

 though indistinct conviction is alive in man. that the true 



