Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/534

 628 MUNICIPAL REGIME DISAPPEARS. BOOK V. property, nor the order of succession, nor obligations, nor legal proceedings. It placed itself outside *h(i law, and outside all things purely terrestrial. La^.- vas in- dependent ; it could draw its rules from nature, from the human conscience, from the powerful idea of the just that is in men's minds. It could develop in com- plete liberty; could be reformed and improved without obstacle ; could follow the progress of morals, and could conform itself to the interests and social needs of every generation. The happy influence of the new idea is easily seen in the history of Iloman law. During several centuries preceding the triumph of Christianity, Roman law had already been striving to disengage itself from reli- gion, and to approach natural equity; but it proceeded only by shifts and devices, Avhich enervated and en- feebled its moral authority. The work of regenerating legislation, announced by the Stoic philosoi)hers, pur- sued by the noble efforts of Roman jurisconsults, out- lined by the artifices and expedients of the pretor, could not completely succeed except by favor of the independence which the new religion allowed to the law. We can see, as Christianity gained ground, that the Roman codes admitted new rules no longer by subterfuges, but openly and without hesitation. The domestic penates having been overthrown, and the sacred fires extinguished, the ancient constitution of the family disappeared forever, and with it the rules that had flowed fiom this source. The father had lost the absolute authority which his priesthood had former- ly given him, and preserved only that which nature itself had conferred upon him for the good of the child. The Avife, whom the old religion placed in a position inferior to the husband, became morally his equal. The