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THERE was an ancient Roman law, by which those who were unmarried
at the age of twenty-five were not admitted to the same privileges as
the married; amongst other clauses in this law, it was specified that
those who were not the very nearest kinsmen could gain nothing from a
will; and also, that those who were childless were to be deprived of
half of any property that might be bequeathed to them. The object of
this ancient Roman law was to increase the population of Rome and the
subject people, which had been much reduced in numbers by the civil
wars, not a long while before this law. The emperor, perceiving that
this enactment militated against the interests of those who continued in
a state of celibacy and remained childless for the sake of God, and
deeming it absurd to attempt the multiplication of the human species by
the care and zeal of man (since nature always receiving increase or
decrease according to the fiat from on high), made a law enjoining
that the unmarried and childless should have the same advantages as the
married. He even bestowed peculiar privileges on those who embraced a
life of continence and virginity, and permitted them, contrary to the
usage which prevailed throughout the Roman empire, to make a will
before they attained the age of puberty; for he believed that those who
devoted themselves to the service of God and the cultivation of
philosophy would, in all cases, judge aright. For a similar reason
the ancient Romans permitted the vestal virgins to make a will as soon
as they attained the age of six years. That was the greatest proof of
the superior reverence for religion. Constantine exempted the clergy
everywhere from taxation, and permitted litigants to appeal to the
decision of the bishops if they preferred them to the state rulers. He
enacted that their decree should be valid, and as far superior to that
of other judges as if pronounced by the emperor himself; that the
governors and subordinate military officers should see to the execution
of these decrees: and that the definitions made by synods should be
irreversible.
Having arrived at this point of my history, it would not be right to
omit all mention of the laws passed in favor of those individuals in the
churches who had received their freedom. Owing to the strictness of
the laws and the unwillingness of masters, there were many difficulties
in the way of the acquisition of this better freedom; that is to say,
of the freedom of the city of Rome. Constantine therefore made three
laws, enacting that all those individuals in the churches, whose
freedom should be attested by the priests, should receive the freedom
of Rome?
The records of these pious regulations are still extant, it having
been the custom to engrave on tablets all laws relating to manumission.
Such were the enactments of Constantine; in everything he sought to
promote the honor of religion; and religion was valued, not only for
its own sake, but also on account of the virtue of those who then
participated in it.
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