CHAP. III. ¶ Of the power of an Husband over his Wife,
 as also of the mutuall duties betwixt them: and whether it be expedient to
 renew the law of divorcement or not. A LL assemblies of men lawfully joyned together,
 whether they be Families, Colledges, Universities, or Commonweals, are kept
 together and preserved by the mutuall duties of commanding
 and obeying: for as much as that libertie which nature hath
 given unto every one to live at his owne pleasure, bound within no lawes, is
 yet subject unto the rule and power of some other. All which power to commaund
 over others, is either The division of power and
 commaund. publick or privat: The power publick, is either free from
 law, as is theirs which hold the chiefest place of soveraigntie; or els
 restrained by law, as is the power of the Magistrats, who although they
 commaund over privat men, are yet themselves subject unto the commaunds and
 laws of others their superiours. The power privat, consisteth either in the
 heads of families, or in corporations, or colledges, where all by a generall
 consent, or the greater part, commaundeth over the rest. But the domesticall
 

 Domesticall power of foure sorts. power is of foure
 sorts: viz. The power of the Husband over his Wife, the
 power of the Father over his children, the power of the Lord over his slaves,
 and the power of the head of a Familie over his mercenarie servants. And for as
 much as the right and lawfull government of everie Commonweale, Corporation,
 Colledge, Societie, and Familie dependeth of the due knowledge of commaunding
 and obeying; let us now speake of every part of commaunding in such order as is
 by us before set downe. For naturall libertie is such, as for a man next unto
 God not to be subiect to any man living, neither to suffer the commaund of any
 other than of himselfe; that is to say, of Reason, which is alwaies conformable
 unto the will of God. This naturall commaundement The first
 & greatest commaund is the commaund of Reason over our affections, &
 so over our selves. of Reason over our affections and desires, is the
 first, the greatest and most antient that is:
 for before that one can well commaund over others, hee must first learne to
 commaund himselfe, giving unto Reason the soveraigntie of commaund; and unto
 his affections obedience: so shall it come to passe that everie one shall have
 that which of right unto him belongeth, which is the first and fairest justice
 that is; and that where of the common Hebrew proverb grew, That every mans
 charitie should first begin of himselfe: which is no other thing than to keepe
 our affections obedient unto Reason. This is the first law of naturall
 commaund, which God by his expresse commaundement Gen.
 cap. 2. established, as we see in the speech which God had both unto
 her that was the first Gen.
 cap. 3 mother of us all; as also against him who first defiled
 himself with his brothers bloud
 Gen. cap. 4 . For that commaund which he had before given
 the Husband and his Wife, is two wayes to be understood; first literally for
 the power the Husband hath over his Wife, and then morally for the commaund the
 soule hath over the bodie, and reason over affection. For that reasonable part
 of understanding, is in man as the Husband; and Affection, as the Woman: For
 before God had created Eva, it was said of Adam, 
 Male and female created he them Gen. cap. 1. .
 Wherefore the woman in holy writ is oftentimes taken for affection: but never more than with
 Salomon, who so lived as a man unto women most kind; but so writ, as
 if he had bene unto them a sworne enemie, whereas he thought nothing lesse, all
 that his speech being to bee understood of mans unreasonable desires, as well
 declareth the wise and grave Rabbin Maymon 

 Rabbi Maymon. lib. x. nemore. .
 But leave we the morall discourse unto Philosophers and
 Divines to dispute of, and let us take that which belongeth unto civill
 policie, and speake of the power the Husband hath over the Wife, as proper unto
 this our question. By the name of a Wife I understand a just and lawfull Wife,
 and not concubine, which is not in the power of him that keepeth her; albeit
 that the Roman lawes call it mariage, and not concubinage, A
 man hath no power over his Concubine, or her that is but unto him
 betrothed. if the concubine be franke and free: which all nations
 have of good right rejected, and as it were by secret consent abrogated, as a
 thing dishonest and of evill example. Neither doth this power that the Husband
 hath over his Wife extend unto her that is but betrothed, upon whome the
 betrothed man may not lay his hand; which hath ever bene lawful unto the
 Husband, both by the Civil and Canon law: yea if the betrothed
 man shall lay violent hand, or force her that is to him
 affianced or betrothed, he shall therefore by right suffer capitall punishment.
 But what if by consent of the man and of the woman, contract of mariage be made
 by words of the present time, before they know one another; for that, the law
 calleth just marriage: I am for all that of opinion the power of an Husband not
 to be yet gotten by such a contract, except the Wife have followed her Husband:
 for as much as by the decrees of the Divines and Canonists (whose authoritie is
 in this matter the greatest) as often as question is made of the right of
 mariages, scarce any regard is had of such mariages betwixt man and wife,
 except it be of fact consumat, by the mutuall conjunction of their bodies;
 which by the consent of many nations is expresly received, as often as question
 is made of enjoying of such commodities as are
 to be gained by mariage. But after that lawful conjunction
 How the Husband sometimes hath not of right power over his Wife, and
 why. of man and wife (which we have spoken of) the Wife is in the
 power of her Husband, except he be a slave, or the sonne of the maister of the
 Familie, who have no authoritie over their wives, & much lesse over their
 children; which although their married father were manumised, should yet fall
 into the power of their grandfather. The reason whereof is, for that a Familie
 should have but one head, one maister, and one Lord: whereas otherwise if it
 should have many heads, their commaunds would be contrarie, one forbidding what
 another commandeth, to the continuall disturbance of the whole familie. And
 therefore the woman by condition free, marrying her selfe unto the maister of
 the families sonne, is in the power of her father in law, as is also the
 free man marrying himselfe unto the maister
 of the families daughter, in the power of another man if he go to dwell in the
 house of his Father in law: albeit that in all other things he enioy his right
 and libertie. Neither seemeth it a thing reasonable, that is by the Roman laws
 ordained, That the married daughter, except she be before by her Father set at
 libertie, although she have forsaken his house and dwell with her Husband,
 shall not yet for all that be in the power of her Husband, but of her father: A
 thing contrary unto the law of nature, which willeth, That every man shuld be
 maister of his owne house, (as saith Homer ) to the end
 that he may be a law unto his familie: and repugnant 
 also unto the law of God, which commaundeth the Wife to forsake father
 and mother to follow her Husband; and also
 giveth power unto the Husband to confirme or breake the vowes of his Wife.
 Wherefore that law of the Romans is * Numeri. 3. 
 worthily abrogated, and especially with us: for that the custome generally
 exempteth the married woman out of the power of her father; as was likewise in
 the Lacedemonian Commonweale, as Plutarch writeth, where
 the married woman saith thus; When I was a daughter I did the commaund of my
 father, but since that I am married, it is my Husband to whome I owe mine
 obeysance: for otherwise the wife might tread under foot the commaundement of
 her Husband, and acquit her selfe when shee saw good under the guard of her
 father. Now the interpretors of this Roman law have used many cautions to avoid
 the absurdities and inconveniences following, if the
 wife should not be subiect to her husband, untill she were
 set at libertie by her father. Yet in that point the lawes of all people agree
 with the lawes of God and nature, That The wife by all the
 lawes of God and man bound to obey her husband. the wife ought to be
 obedient unto her husband, and not to refuse his commaunds not repugnant unto
 honestie. One Italian Doctor there is of opinion, That the wife is not in the
 power of her husband: but for that of his assertion so singuler and absurd, hee
 hath brought neither reason nor authoritie, there hath bene none so fond to
 follow the same. For it is certaine by the law of Romulus, 
 that the husband had not onely the commaund of his wife, but
 also power of life and death over her, in foure cases, without
 Foure cases wherin a man by Romulus his law had power of
 life and death over his wife. any forme of judiciall processe against
 her: that is to wit, for Adulterie, for suborning of a child, for
 counterfeiting of false keyes, and for drinking of wine. Howbeit the rigor
 of those lawes were by the kindnesse of
 husbands by little and little moderated, and the punishment of adulterie
 committed to the discretion of the parents of the wife: which began to be
 renewed & again put in practise in the time of Tiberius 
 the Emperour; for that the husband putting away his wife for
 adulterie, or himselfe attainted * Tacitus lib. 2 with
 the same crime, the offence remained unpunished, not without the great reproach
 of their kindred, who in auncient time (after the manner of the Romans)
 punished the adulterous women with death, or with exile. And albeit that the
 power of the husband over his wife was much diminished, yet neverthelesse by
 the oration Livi. lib. 33. 
 which Marcus Cato the Censor made unto the people in defence of
 the law Oppia (which tooke from women their habilliments
 of collours, and forbad them to weare above 
 one ounce of gold) it appeareth that the women were al their lives in the
 government of their fathers, their brethren, their husbands, & next
 kinsmen, in such sort, as that without their leave or authoritie, they could
 make no contract, or yet doe any lawfull act. This Cato 
 the Censor flourished about 550 yeares after the lawes of Romulus: 
 and 200 years after, Ulpian the Lawyer
 writeth, That Tutors and Governers were wont to be given to women and orphans;
 but when they were married, that then they were in the hand of the man, that is
 to say in the power of the husband. And if any should say That he divided the
 title of persons that are in the power of others, from them that are in the
 power of others; it followeth not thereof that wives were in the power of their
 husbands, but was by him so done, to show the difference of power the husband
 hath over his wife, the father over his
 children, and the lord over his slaves. And what doubt is there but that this
 word Hand, signifieth oftentimes power and authoritie?
 the Hebrews, Greeks, & Latines, having alwaies so used it, as when they
 say, The hand of the King; and, To come into the hand of
 the enemie. And Festus Pompeius, speaking of the husband
 bringing home his wife, useth the word Mancipare, a word
 proper unto slaves: which word we yet use in many our customes and lawes, where
 question is of the emancipating of women. But to make it plaine, this power of
 husbands over their wives to have bene common unto all people, we will by two
 or three examples declare the same. Olorus 
 King of Thracia compelled the Dacians overcome by their
 

 Justin. lib. 32. enemies, to serve their wives, in
 token of extreame servitude, & of the greatest reproach that he could
 devise to doe them. We read also that by the lawes of the Lombards the woman
 was in the same subjection that the auntient Romans were, and that the husbands
 had all power of life and death over their wives, which they yet used in the
 time of Baldus, not yet 260. yeares ago. And not to
 seeke farther, what people had ever so great power over their wives as had our
 auncestors? The French men (saith Lib. 6. Belli
 Gallici. 

 Caesar ) have power of life and death over their wives
 and children, in like manner as over their slaves: and beeing never so little
 suspected to have wrought their husbands death, are to be tortured by their
 owne kinsmen, and being found guiltie are by them to be cruelly executed,
 without any further authoritie from the Magistrat. But for 

 That it was lawfull for a man to kill his wife for drinking
 of wine drinking of wine it was much more manifest that it was cause
 sufficient by the Roman lawes for the husband to put his wife to death; wherein
 all the Dion. Halic. lib. 2. Plin. li. 14 cap. 13.
 Valer. de instit. antiq. auntient writers agree; which was not only
 the custome of the Romans, but also (as Theophrastus 
 writeth) of the auntient inhabitants of Marseiles in Province, and the Milesians,
 who used the same law against their wives that had drunke wine, judging that the disordered
 desires of the woman subject to wine, would also make her drunke, and so
 afterwards Cicero de nat. lib. 3. & de Repub. lib. 1.
 Plu. in Problem. Rom. cap. 6. Arnob. lib. 2. adversus gentes. Tertul in Apolog. cap. 6. Gellius lib. 10 cap. 23. &
 Alcimus Siculus apud Athenaeum. an
 adultresse. We also find that the power given unto the husband by the law of
 Romulus, To put his wife to
 death for adulterie, without the authoritie of the
 Magistrat was common to all Greece, as well as to the Romans. For the law of
 Julia which gave leave onely unto the father to kill
 his daughter together with the adulterer, being taken in the deed doing, and not otherwise, was made by Augustus the Emperour above seven hundred yeares after
 the law of Romulus: And yet by the same law it was
 permitted unto certaine persons to do the same that the father might, against
 their adulterous wives: a right small punishment being appointed for the
 husband, who besides the persons in the law excepted, had killed the
 adulterours taken in the fact. But the publick punishment of adulterie
 derogateth nothing from the power of the husband, in other
 The punishment of wives for adulterie. 
 sorts of corrections over his wife, not extending unto death, which is unto husbands forbidden.
 After that Theodora the Empresse having got the maisterie over Iustinian the Emperour her husband, a blockish and
 unlearned Prince, when she had made al the lawes she could for the advantage of
 women against their husbands; she amongst 
 others also changed the paine of death for adulterie, into the note of infamie:
 as did also in auntient time the Athenians, excommunicating the adulterors, with the note also of infamie, as we read in the
 Pleas of Demosthenes : which seemeth but a thing ridiculous,
 considering that the note of infamie cannot take any honour from
 her which hath already lost the same, and is altogether defamed: for that upon the matter she remaineth altogether unpunished, &
 that for such a crime as the law of God Levit. 20. Daniel 12. Deu 24 
 punisheth with the most rigorous death that then was, (that is to say with stoning)
 and which the auntient Ægyptians punished at the least with cutting off the nose of
 the woman, and the mans privities. But in other crimes which more concerned the
 husband than the publicke state, and deserved not death, power is by the consent of all men given unto the husband to
 chastice his wife, so that it be sparingly done, and within measure. And to the
 end that husbands should not abuse the power the law
 gave them over their wives, they had an action against their husbands, in case of evill entreatment,
 or froward usage; which was afterward by the law of Iustinian 
 taken away, and a penaltie decreed against them that
 had given the cause of the seperation: which were especially grounded upon adulterie; and poisoning attempted, but not
 having taken effect. Yet notwithstanding the decree of Iustinian, 
 it is by our custome permitted unto the wife wronged or
 evill entreated by her husband, to require seperation. And yet for all 
 that is no action of iniurie to be suffered betwixt the husband and the wife (as some 
 No action of injurie to be admitted
 betwixt a man & his wife, and why. would have it) and that for
 the honour and dignitie of marriage; which the law hath had in so great regard,
 that it permitteth not the husband, or any third man to have an action of felonie
 against the wife, although she have embeseled or purloyned all her
 The hatred betwixt
 man and wife of all others most deadly. husbands moveables. But as no
 love is greater than that of marriage, (as saith Artemidorus )
 so is the hatred of all others most deadly, if it once take root betwixt man and wife;
 as was well declared by Leo Embassadour from them of Bizance unto the Athenians,
 whome when they in a great assembly had laughed to scorne for his small
 stature, Why (said he) do you laugh at me a dwarfe, seeing my wife is much
 lesse than my selfe, and scarce so high as my knee; who pleased, although wee
 lie in a verie little bed, yet falling out the one with the other, the great
 Citie of Constantinople is too little for us
 two? Which his pleasant speech served wel to the matter he had in hand, which
 was to persuade the Athenians unto peace; which is not easie to doe betwixt the
 husband and the wife, especially if one of them hath once sought after the life
 of the other. And for that cause the law of God concerning divorcement (which
 was afterwards Divorcement by the law of God allowed. 
 common to all people, and yet at this present is used in Affrick, and in all
 the east) gave leave to the husband to put away his wife, if she pleased him
 not, with charge that he might never take her againe, and yet might well marrie
 another; which was a meane to keepe the insolent wives in subjection, as also
 to represse the anger of the wayward husbands; for what woman (except she were
 an arrant whore) would bee so desirous of a man, as to marry an husband that
 without any just or probable cause had put
 away his wife. Now if it shall seeme to any an unreasonable thing, to bee
 lawfull for a man to put away his wife, for no other cause but for that hee
 liketh her not, I will not greatly strive, either therefore depart from the law
 now with us in use. Yet nothing seemeth unto me more pernitious, than to
 constraine the parties so in dislike to live together (except they will) to
 declare the cause of the divorcement they desire, Whether in
 divorcement it be better to expressethe cause thereof, or to have the
 same concealed. & also wel prove the same before
 the Judge: For in so doing, the honor of the one or of both the parties is
 hazarded, which should not so be if neither of them were enforced to prove
 the cause of the divorce unto the Judge. As did in auncient time the Hebrews,
 and yet do at this present also, as we see in their Pandects, where is
 described the lawful act of divorcement, & the bil of divorcement
 which Rabi Ieïel of Paris gave unto
 his wife the xxix. of Octob. in the yere
 from the creation of the world 5018 In the yeare of Christ 1240. . Another
 example thereof is also extant in the Epitome of the Hebrew Pandects, collected
 by the Lawyer Moyses de Maymon in Chaldea, where the
 Judge of the place having seene the special procuration, & the act of him
 that had put away his wife in the presence of three witnesses, adjoyneth
 thereunto these words, That he did purely and simply divorce her, and without
 any cause showing, giving them both leave to marry whome they should see good.
 In which doing the woman was not dishonoured, but might with safe reputation
 marrie with another sortable to her owne qualitie. And
 albeit that the Athenians admitted no divorcement, except the cause were first
 proved before the Judges, yet seemed it to all good men to be a thing of great
 daunger, insomuch that 

 Plut. in Alci. 

 Alcibiades fearing the publick scandall tooke his wife
 openly complaining before the Judges, and carried her away home upon his
 shoulders. More indifferently delt the auncient Romans, in joyning no cause at
 all unto the bill of divorcement: as is to be seene when
 Paulus Æmilius put away his wife, whome he confessed to be very
 wise, * Plut. in Aemi. honest; and nobly descended;
 and by whom he had also many faire children: but when his wives friends
 complaining unto him, would needs know of him the cause of the divorce, he
 showed them his shoo, which was very handsomly and well made; and yet said he,
 none of you but my selfe feeleth where this shoo wringeth mee.
 But what if the cause seeme not sufficient unto the Judge? or be not
 well proved? is it therefore meet to enforce
 the parties to live together, in that societie which is of all other the
 straitest, having alwaies the one the other the obiect of their griefs stil
 before their eies. Truly I am not of that opinion: for seeing themselves
 brought into extreame servitude, Divorcement
 necessarie. feare, and perpetuall discord, hereof ensue adulteries,
 and oftentimes murthers and poysonings, for the most part to men unknowne; as
 it was discovered in Rome, before the law of divorcement (first made by
 Spurius Carvilius, about 500. yeares after the foundation
 of the citie) a woman being apprehended and convicted for poysoning her
 husband, accused other her companions in the fact, who afterward by mutuall
 accusations appeached seventie others of the same crime for poysoning their
 husbands, who were all therefore executed: which how much the more is it to bee
 feared where divorcements are altogether
 forbidden? For both the Greek and the Roman Emperours, willing to take away the
 often use and easinesse of divorcements, and to amend the auncient custome,
 ordained no other penaltie than the losse of the dowry, or of the other
 matrimonial conventions, unto the partie that shuld be the cause of the
 divorce. Anastasius also suffered divorcement, by
 consent of both parties, to bee made without any penaltie or punishment: which
 was by Justinian the Emperour, or rather
 Theodora his wife forbidden. Now of that which we have
 alreadie said, every man as I suppose, may of himselfe judge which is most
 expedient for a Commonweale. But what change or varietie of lawes soever in such diversitie of Commonweals,
 there was never law or custome that exempted the wife from the obeysance, and
 not onely from the obeysance, but also from
 the reverence that shee oweth unto her husband; in such sort that the law
 permitteth not the wife to sue her husband without the leave of the Magistrat.
 But as nothing is greater, better, or more necessarie for the preservation not
 of Families only, but of Commonweals also, than the honest obedience of wives
 towards their husbands, as saith Euripides : so beseemeth
 it not the husband under the shadow of this power, to make a slave of his wife.
 And wheras Marcus Varro 
 Wives to be corrected rather with words then with
 stripes. is of opinion that slaves ought rather to be corrected with
 words than with stripes; much more ought the wife to be, whom both God and mans
 law doth call his housefellow. So Homer bringing in
 Iupiter reproving his wife Iuno, 
 and seeing her rebellions, useth great threats, but proceedeth unto no further
 extremities. And Cato commonly
 reputed to be a sworne enemie unto women, did never beat his
 wife, reputing that to be as it were a sacrilege; but used so to maintaine the
 power and dignitie of a husband, as that he had his wife alwaies at commaund:
 which he shal never do which of a maister is become her companion, &
 afterward her servant, & of a servant her very slave. As was of old
 obiected unto the Lacedemonians, who called their wives their
 Plut. in Laconicis. Ladies
 and Mistresses: which the Romans did also, not the privat men only, but even
 Arist. lib. 2. Politic. their
 Emperors themselves, in the declination of their Empire; who at length
 together with their domesticall government lost also their publick soveraigntie.
 Albeit that Tranquillus in Claudio. 
 such women as take pleasure in commaunding their effeminat
 husbands, are like unto them that had rather to guide the blind, than to follow
 the wise and cleere sighted. Now the law of God, and the holy tongue, which hath named all things
 according The authoritie and power of the husband over his wife. 
 to the true nature and proprietie thereof, calleth the husband
 Bahal , that is to say, Lord and maister;
 to show that unto him belongeth the soveraigntie to commaund. The lawes also
 of all nations, to abate the pride of women, and to make men know that
 they ought to excell their wives in wisedome and vertue,
 have ordained that the honor and glorie of the wife should depend of her
 husband, as of the Sunne: in such sort that if the husband be noble, he
 enobleth his base wife; but if the wife beeing nobly borne marry a man of base
 degree, shee looseth her nobilitie, albeit that of auncient time
 there have bene many and yet are, which take their nobilitie and
 gentrie from their mothers, and not from their
 fathers; as the Lycians, the Delphiens, the Xanthiques, the Ilienses, and the
 Capadocians: whether it were for the uncertaintie of their fathers, or for that
 they had lost all their nobilitie in the warres; as in Campagne; where the
 wives (for the cause aforesaid) ennoble their base husbands and their children;
 as also among the Indians in Calecut, the kings even yet, and the Nobilitie
 which they call Naires have scarce at any time their
 owne children inheritors of their kingdome or goods, but the children of noble
 women although they be bastards: yet for all that the interpretors of the law
 hold, that it ought not so to be done either by custome or decrees; for the
 generall agreement of almost all people to the contrarie, as Herodotus 
 hath long ago written. And therefore it is most right that
 the wife should follow the Condition,
 Countrie, Familie, Dwelling, and beginning of her husband: and in case that her
 husband be an exiled or banished man, yet is the wife bound to follow him,
 wherein all the interpretors both of the Canon and Civill law agree. All lawes
 and customes also have made the husband maister of his wives actions, and to
 take the profit of all the lands and goods that to her befall: and suffer not
 the wife to stand in judgement either as plaintive or defendant, without the
 authoritie of her husband; or at least without the authoritie of the Judge who
 may give her authoritie so to do in the absence of her husband, or he refusing
 so to doe. All undoubtfull arguments to shew the authoritie, power, and
 commaund that the husband hath over his wife, by the lawes both of God and man:
 as also of the subjection, reverence, and obedience which 
 the woman oweth unto her husband, in all honour and things
 lawfull. Yet I doubt not, but that women in their matrimoniall contracts have
 sometimes used to covenant not to be in any thing subject unto their husbands:
 but for as much as such covenants and agreements are contrarie to the lawes
 both of God and man, as also unto publick honestie, they are not to bee
 observed and kept, in such sort, as that no man can thereunto to be bound by
 oath.