to be faithful. A wife committing adultery was to be exiled and deprived of half of her dowry, while she had to tolerate her husband's sexual relationships with concubines. On the other hand, "if a woman of the lower classes attracted her master or patron, she had little choice but to become his concubine."
             Christian conception of marriage is completely opposite to that which emerges from Germanic laws. Christian marriage is based on the free consent of both partners. This Christian vision of marriage originated from basic values from the Bible, such as monogamy, indissolubility of marriage and prohibition of incest. In fact, ecclesiastical authorities considered women as "the weak sex and guilty Eves". According to Christian doctrine, however, women were, exactly as men, divine creatures.
             Germanic and Roman laws and Christianity were, as Suzanne Fonay Wemple clearly suggested in her book, the three main factors influencing women lives in the early middle ages. As these three elements slowly melted, women conditions d
             ...