Note 68 — Chapter XI · HISTORY OF SEPARATION AND DIVORCE UNDER ENGLISH AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW

Constantine allowed the wife the right of divorce whose husband had been four years absent in the army without sending her word. Justinian first raised the period of waiting to ten years, and then entirely abolished divorce for this cause. "Dagegen blieb die Scheidungsbefugniss bestehen für den Fall der Impotenz, wobei jedoch nach Justinians Bestimmung eine Probezeit von zwei, später von drei Jahren eingehalten werden sollte." A vow of chastity or imprisonment was also counted a legal ground of separation by Justinian: Geffcken, op. cit., 27. Cf. also Glasson, Le mariage civil et le divorce, 205, who appears to confuse divorce ex consensu and bona gratia.