On the Three Domestic Societies

II. The Husband

CHAPTER II.

On

The Power of the Husband over the Wife: and also on the age and equality of spouses.

This also pertains to the political treatment of Marriage: we should recognize that the majesty of the State’s power original: "Imperii Majestatem" does not extend so far as to overshadow the authority belonging to the Husband over the Wife by Divine Law, Natural Law, and Positive Law Human-made laws enacted by a government, as opposed to universal moral laws. Indeed, this authority is so great that when a Woman comes under the power of a Man, she is no longer considered to be established within her father’s religious or family rites. Citing Genesis 2:24, 31:14; Psalm 45:10; 1 Corinthians 11:10; Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18; and an example from the Greek geographer Pausanias, book 4, folio 217.

Arnisaeus Henning Arnisaeus (1570–1636), a physician and influential political theorist seems to defend this with sound reason against Roman Law in his Politics, chapter 3, and his Treatise on Marriage. Further legal support is cited from the works of Leopold Hackelman, Timaeus Faber, Justus Majer, and Jacob Cramer. The reasoning is that, without this established order, the stability of marriage would be disturbed. The illustrious Enenckel Georg Acacius Enenckel (1573–1620), a jurist who wrote on the rights of parents disagrees with this view. In the original state of innocence, the Woman was subject to the Man as her head; however, the curse of the Fall subjected the wife to the husband’s domination. Genesis 3:16: "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." Because a married daughter leaves her Father's legal power, among the Jews she was not compelled to provide for her Parents. Drusius, Hebrew Questions, book 2.

However, that law is truly detestable which, until not many years ago, the Lords of the land in France still claimed for themselves over new brides An allusion to the "droit du seigneur," the controversial and likely mythical right of a lord to have relations with a subordinate's bride on her wedding night. Papon, book 22, title 9. Both Bodin Jean Bodin (1530–1596), a French jurist who believed strong patriarchal families were the foundation of a stable state and Lather suggest that specific laws regarding Dowries Dowry: Property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage should be passed. This is suggested partly so that the wealth of a family house is not exhausted by the size of the dowries, and primarily so that with a moderate Dowry, Women may be more easily directed toward modesty and obedience to their Husbands. Citing Juvenal’s Satire 6, Nicolaus Betsius, and others. For this same reason, Bodin denies women the right of succession Inheritance of property or titles; Zabelius, in Arumaeus's Discourses, criticized this point incautiously. This principle certainly serves as the foundation for the "renunciations" Legal acts where a daughter formally gives up her claim to her father’s estate, often in exchange for a dowry commonly practiced by daughters in many places.