were never put in practice till about the year of Rome 520, which was before CHRIST 229 years, in the cafe of Carvilius Ruga, who divorced his wife because she was barren; aftef which they became fcandaloufly frequent, as a corruption of manners prevailed in the republic, till the Roman women grew as licentious in leaving their husbands, as the hufbands were in putting them away.-What was the character of the Roman ladies in this respect, we may learn from Juvenal *, who wrote not many years after this time. In Sat. vi. he is diffuading his friend Urfidius Pofthumus from marriage, by fetting before him the monstrous practices of the Roman women, one of which was, leaving their husbands, and marrying other men.

Speaking of their imperiousness, he fays, their grand argument, in all disputes with their husbands, was

Hoc volo-fic jubeo, fit pro ratione voluntas.
Imperat ergo viro:-

Then he proceeds

1.222.

* So from Seneca, who fays-" Who is now ashamed "of breaking the nuptial union, when so many ladies of ❝eminence and quality reckon their years not by the "number of confuls, but of husbands; and are divorced "in hopes of marrying, and marry in hopes of being di"vorced." De Benef. Lib. iii. c. 16.

Puffendorf obferves, Lib. vi. c. 1. § 15. that the borrowing and lending of wives among the Romans, is a practice much talked of by authors.

-Sed.

Sed mox hæc regna relinquit

Permutatque domos, & Hamea conterit. Inde
Avolat, & fpreti repetit veftigia lecti.

Ornatos paulo ante fores, pendentia linquit
Vela domus, & adhuc virides in limine ramos.
Sic crefcit numerus, fic fiunt octo mariti
Quinque per autumnos; titulo res digna fepulchri.
"So will I have it-fo command I ftill,
"And yield no reafon but my fov'reign will."
Then the imperious wanton leaves her spouse,
From man to man fhe flies, from house to house,
Forgetful of her bride's attire, and bridal vows.
Again + fhe feeks her firft-deferted man,

And, in five years, eight hufbands crown her plan.---
Pity, but fuch atchievments fhould be known,
Engrav'd on brafs or monumental stone !

* Permutatque domos] Ab uno viro ad alium aliumque tranfiens.-Going from one husband to another and another. Lud. Prateus.

This line proves that they did not wait for their hulbands' death to marry others, as does the next: for they can hardly be fuppofed to bury seven husbands in five years.

Ovid, who lived a little earlier than Juvenal, cenfures the man who makes a fcruple of his wife's going to others, as unacquainted with true politeness.

Rufticus eft nimium quem ladit adultera conjux,

Et NOTOS MORES non fatis urbis habet.

He that won't lend his wife's an awkward clown,
Unfkill'd in the known fashion of the town.

Martial, cotemporary with Juvenal, has an epigram which fhews the liberties which were taken by a Roman lady.

Machum GELLIA non habet nifi unum,
Turpe eft hoc magis, uxor eft duorum.
One spark ferves honeft Gellia at a time,
But her two hufbands are a fouler crime.

Martial vi. 7. fpeaks of a woman not above thirty years of age, who had been married to ten different men.

Aut minus, aut certe non plus tricefima lux eft,
Et nubit decimo jam THELESINA viro.
VOL. I.

Bb

That

That this was a common practice, appears from 1. 45, &c.

Quid quod & antiquis uxor de moribus illi
Quæritur? O medici! mediam pretundite venam !
Delicias hominis! Tarpeium limen adora
Pronus, & auratam Junoni cæde Juvencam ;
Si tibi contigerit capitis matrona pudici.

What fhall I fay to him who seeks a wife
Of antient manners, uncorrupt of life?
Surely he's mad-come, Doctor, breathe a vein,
And try to bring him to himself again.
But if, by chance, a woman could be found.
Modeft and chafte, through all the empire round,
Thrice happy mortal !-to thy deftin'd bed
Let her, with thanks to all the Gods, be led.

In short, fuch was the profligacy of the Roman women, that if one could be found fit for his friend to marry, he would call her a Phanix as we say:

Rara avis in terris nigroque fimillima cygno.

But to return to Wetstein.-" Others un"derstand this s' duty of the first wife, to "whom the husband might by his unjust "divorce give occafion of committing adul

tery, or of flying to a fecond or adulterous

marriage: but Thefe do not explain what "those words-and shall marry another—are "to the purpose; fince the divorced woman "would be equally in danger of committing adultery, whether the husband who put ber away, marries another or not. This difficulty came into my mind at Matt, xix. 9;

66

but on confidering the matter again, I do τσ not think those words fuperfluous, but fö to cohere with the reft of the fentence, as

σε

to denote, that though the unjust divorce was the occafion of the divorced wife's adultery, yet the husband's fecond marriage was the occafion of the divorce: For ex

ample-If a man, having met with another "woman, who pleafed him better than his "wife, fhould, in order to enjoy the other,

give his wife a bill of divorcement, and grant "her liberty to marry any body else, whom "the chofe, would this be any thing elfe "than to expofe her to an adulterer, and to "commit the crime of pimping?" So the Roman laws-"To act the part of a pimp, is

*

"not

*Wetstein remarks, on the title of St. Mark's gofpel, that St. Mark wrote his gospel at Rome-Wetstein fays farther, In doctrina de divortio manifeftè ad jus Romanum refpicit. "In the doctrine concerning divorce, he manifeftly had refpect to the law of the Romans."

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In the latter part of Wetstein's note on Mark x. 12. p. 603, col. 2. he fays-Ex eo quod CHRISTUS de viris uxores repudiantibus dixerat, Marcus infert-multo fceleftius effe, fi mulier virum deferat. Quod & Romahis, quibus. Marcus fcripfit, licitum, & tum temporis, licentia fupra modum graffante, familiare erat, postquam Meffalina Claudii Imperatoris uxor, Claudio vivente, filio publicè nupferat, & ipfe Claudius Octaviam Cæfaris filiam L. Silano a patre defponfatam Neroni collocaverat. Tacit Annal. xi. 27. xii. 3. 9.

"From that which CHRIST had faid concerning men repudiating their wives, Mark infers, that it was by far more wicked for a woman to leave her husband."" This I do not fee is deducible from the words of the Evangelift; however Wetstein proceeds.

"Which was permitted by the Romans, to whom "Mark wrote, and at that time (licentiou fnefs fpread

BB 2

ing

"not lefs a crime than to make a gain by proftituting the body.-He who makes a gain of the adultery of his wife, whatever his rank or condition be, is punished as an "adulterer.-If a man, in order to defame his "wife, fhall put an adulterer in his place, "both the hufband and wife fhall, by law, be "adjudged guilty of the crime of adultery."

By all this it appears, that nothing kept this learned man from thinking, with those first mentioned, that the ' duTV relates to the fecond wife, (who, to make the man guilty of adultery, must be a divorced woman) but his fuppofing, that in this view the fame matter is repeated twice over, which it certainly is not. See before, p.

This makes him also, on fecond thoughts, differ from his own note on Matt. xix. 9. and take the μoixatαι, Mark x. 11. in the sense of the Hebrew Hiphil conjugation, as causing her to

commit

"ing beyond measure) was a familiar thing, after "Meffalina, the wife of the Emperor Claudius, had "publicly married Silius, in Claudius's life-time, and "Claudius himself had married Octavia, the daughter "of Cæfar, to Nera, who had been betrothed by her "father to L. Silanus.'

All this may certainly account for St. Mark's recording what OUR LORD faid to the difciples in the house, touching women putting away their husbands, and being married to other men, which is omitted in Matthew.

"Mochatur] i. e. Machari facit illam, nempe "priorem a fe miffam. ex collat. Matt. v. 32. Facere "recté dicitur qui facto caufam præbet. Et mos eft "Helleniftarum verba formæ Hiphil per activa exprime"re, ut Rom. viii. 26. Gal. iv. 6. Pole Synop. in "Matt. xix. 9."

"Committeth