APPENDIX to CHAP. II.
THE celebrated Martinus Bucerus, one of our excellent and learned Reformers, in enarrationibus ad cap. 19. Libri Judicum, has left us the following observation concerning concubinage; which seems to throw much light on the subject.
"Concubinæ erant legitimæ etiam uxores: sed hoc a matronis differebant, quod sine dote & sine solenni sanctificatione recipiebantur: & erant ferè ex ancillis, & servilis conditionis: & non erant adjutoria illius præstantioris gradus, ut omni rerum communione gauderent sed humiliore gradu, & quæ haberentur humiliore loco, quod ad administrationem domus attinet, & ad filiorum successionem.—Legitimum verò genus concubinarum est, quum habentur conjunctæ copula matrimoniali, ne abjici temere possint: tametsi non habeant communionem plenam omnium rerum cum marito, ut matres-familias: nec convenerunt pactis dotalibus, unde & nati ex illis non habent successionem in hæreditate paternâ cum natis ex matre-familias: sicut Abraham ex concubinis veris uxoribus, sed non matribus-familias, dona quædam deputavit, portionem hæreditatis nullam addixit.—Ex legitimo genere concubinarum fuerunt concubinæ sanctorum patrûm. Et quia Dominus dignitates & patrimonia, quæ suis contulit, conservari vult, optandum omninó ut hoc genus uxorum, uti apud sanctissimos olim Patres observatum est, rursus apud Christianos, & maximè in præstantibus familiis observaretur, &c."
"Concubines were also lawful wives; but in this they differed from the matrons, that they were received without dowry and a solemn sanctification. They were usually from maid-servants, and of a servile condition; and they were not help-mates of that superior degree, as to enjoy a communion of things in every respect, but in a lower degree, and were reckoned in a lower sphere, as to the administration of the house, and the succession of their sons.—They are a lawful kind of concubines, who are joined to their husbands by a matrimonial tie, so that they cannot rashly be put away; although they may not have a full communion of all things with their husbands, as mistresses of the family, nor did they agree [or come together] by dowry-contracts; wherefore the sons born of them have not a succession in the heritage of the father, with the sons of the mistress of the house. Thus Abraham gave gifts to the sons born of his concubines, who were true wives, but gave them no portion of the inheritance.—The concubines of the holy fathers were of the lawful kind. And because the Lord wills, that the dignities and patrimonies which He has conferred on His people, should be preserved, it is altogether to be wished, that this kind of wives, as observed among the holy patriarchs, might be again observed among Christians, and especially in great and illustrious families, &c."
There is much good sense in what Bucer says, not only as tending to give a scriptural and proper idea of concubinage, but also as pointing out a convenient medium between men of family and fortune being obliged to match with inferior women whom they may happen to take, so as to put them upon a footing with themselves and families, and the liberty of abandoning them to prostitution and ruin.
This hint of Bucer's, with respect to Christians, seems to have been taken in some parts of Germany; where we are told of wives of a sort of second degree, which they call left-handed wives; these are indeed taken with more ceremony, but, in other respects, differ little in their situation from the antient concubines. See Chambers, Tit. Hand—and Marriage.
Dr. Alexander, Hist. Wom. vol. ii. p. 267, writes thus concerning this custom in Prussia—"Though their code of laws seems in general to be as reasonable, and as consistent with sound policy as any in Europe, yet we still find in it an allowance given for a species of that concubinage which has long since been expelled from almost all the western world. A man may there marry what is called a left-handed wife, to whom he is married for life, and by the common ceremony—the only difference is, the bridegroom gives her his left hand instead of his right—but with this express agreement, that neither she nor her children shall live in the house of her husband, nor shall take his name, nor bear his arms, nor claim any dower or donation usually claimed by every other wife, nor dispose of any part of his property, exert any authority over his servants, nor succeed to his estates or his titles; but shall be contented with what was agreed on for their subsistence during his life, and with what he shall give them at his death. This privilege, however, is always in the power of the king to deny, and is seldom granted to any but such of the nobility as are left with large families, and, from the smallness of their fortunes, cannot afford to marry another legal wife, and rear up another family of the same rank with themselves."
There are certainly in the above very strong traces of the antient concubinage, which was allowed and practised under the divine law. If such a custom as this prevailed among us, and was inforced on men of rank and fashion, who are now turned-loose on the lower order of females, and debauch them at free cost, without being under the least responsibility towards them—it would not only prove a happy check to the most mischievous licentiousness in many instances, but be also a means of preventing the utter ruin of thousands, who, under the present system of things, are seduced, abandoned, and destroyed, without any remedy whatsoever, or almost any possibility of escape.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
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