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Roman jurists have defined marriage as the permanent state of union of one man and one woman but they did non mention the form referring the agreement or the
contract. The definition of marriage from the Digest has been accepted in Prohéros without insisting on formal proceedings of the wedding or blessing as requirements of religious ceremony although the Byzantine Empire has already accepted
Christianity. Epanagoge also sustains the Roman (Modestinus') definition of marriage with additionally prescribed features of the agreement -
wedding, blessing or literal contract. Leo VI proceeded step forward and his novel 89 from
(the year) 893 prescribed church benediction as obligatory form of entering into such a
contract.
Due to the fact that numerous marriages did not follow the requirements of wedding ceremony and
benediction, the emperors Alexius I (XI cent.) and Andronicus II, (Paleologi
emperor; XIVcent.) prescribed by their novels church marriage as
obligatory. The Serbian translators of Byzantine legal miscellanies accepted the definition of Modestinus in Proh"iros
(law-rule of St. Sava) and Epanagoge (The Syntagm of Vlastar) not incorporating the contents of novels of Byzantine
emperors. This "mistake" was corrected by the Code of Dušan prescribing that no marriage should became contracted without wedding ceremony and church benediction
(Art. 2 and 3).
Key words: Roman
law, Digest, Proh"iros, Epanagoge, Eclogue, novels, Byzantine law, Serbian
law, Law-rule of St. Sava, The Syntagm of Vlastar, The Code of Dušan.
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