Read the document
Nemini licentia concedatur constante matrimonio concubinam penes se habere.
“No one, while a marriage stands, is permitted to keep a concubine at hand.”
Codex Justinianus · 5.26.1 (Constantine, 326)
Constantine's law, preserved in Justinian's code.
Put it in context
From Constantine forward, imperial law and church authority increasingly reinforce one another. That makes it harder to separate inherited Roman assumptions from developing Christian teaching by looking at practice alone.
This particular legislation cites no Scripture. It is a civil rule about concubinage, which is not identical to a rule about plural marriage.
What is disputed
Roman law distinguished concubinage from marriage, and reading a law about one as though it governed the other is a common error. Whether Constantine's legislation reflects Christian influence, imperial policy, or both is a standard historical dispute.
How I read this record
This is my conclusion from the source, not part of the quotation.
The document shows an older Roman marriage rule continuing under Christian imperial authority. It is one point where civil law and Christian social practice begin to occupy the same institutional world.
Open the sources
- Codex Justinianus book 5 at the Grenoble Roman law library ↗ · Find title 26, law 1.