Commentaries on the Last Two Titles of the Digest

... magistracy original: "magistratum"... or regarding Law: Women. 41. Digest, On the same title. What of children? By no means Law: Another's. 18. Code, On the same title; Law 31, paragraph "although," 6. Digest, On business managed. Accursius; Sichardus in the said law 18; Hotoman in epitome of the Digest, on the same title, no. 7. Can a wife defend her husband in court? No; since the affairs of others cannot be conducted by women unless they are commissioned for their own interest and proper profit, Law: Because absent. 4. Code, On the said title where Accursius; Hotoman in the said place.

5. Women cannot intervene for another, that is, note 1, to wit by acting as surety, as most interpret, Law: The praetor says. 7. paragraph 3. Digest, On minors. By the Senatus Consultum Velleianum a decree of the Senate forbidding women to act as guarantors for the debts of others it is forbidden for women to intervene for others, lest they take upon themselves the obligation of another, Law 1, Law 2 in the beginning and paragraph 1 and throughout the entire title, Digest and Code, On the Senatus Consultum Velleianum. Nevertheless, women are not safe from intervention by the law itself, but by the aid of an exception, Law 4, paragraph 1; Law 8, paragraph Marcellus 9 and 10, Digest, On the same. Fabrus in this place excepts two cases where the interventions of women are null and void by the law itself, by the constitutions of Justinian. One is in Novellae 134, chapter 8 if a woman has intervened for her husband. The other in Law: Ancient. 23, paragraph final, Code, On the Senatus Consultum Velleianum if she has intervened otherwise than by a completed public instrument, signed by three witnesses. Cujacius notes on the sentences of Paulus, book 2, title 11. Furthermore, a woman can renounce the benefit of the Senatus Consultum Velleianum, as much out of court as in court, Law final, paragraph penultimate, Digest, on this title where a caution of not opposing the exception made before the judgment was established is proposed. Hotoman in epitome on the same, no. 16; Fachinaeus 2, controversies 60; Zasius 2, responses 18; Bronchorst 1, miscellanies 62. Dissenting is Gomez 2, resolutions 13, no. 17; Wissenbach in paratitla, Digest, On the Senatus Consultum Velleianum, no. 9.

6. But since an intervention of this kind, by which one acts as surety for another, is not a civil or public duty, Law 1, paragraph 1, Digest, on the said title, On the Senatus Consultum Velleianum, I would prefer with P. Fabrus to refer the word Intervention to a legal defense...