Bigamy - Historical Origins of Anti-Bigamy Laws

Historical Origins of Anti-Bigamy Laws

Before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire during the reign of the Emperor Constantine I, Diocletian and Maximian passed strict anti-polygamy laws in 285 that mandated monogamy was the only form of legal marital configuration, as had traditionally been the case in classical Greece and Rome themselves. However, it took time for Jewish communities to accept the imperial edict, as the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius had to force them to adapt to the new situation in 393. It was not until 1000 that Rabbi Gershom ben Judah ruled polygamy inadmissible within Jewish communities.

According to feminist historian Sarah McDougall, the origin of Christian European insistence on monogamy, and insistence on its enforcement, arose as a consequence of 16th century Islamic incursions into Central Europe and the advent of European colonialism within the Americas, Africa and Asia, which exposed European Christians to cultures that practised polygamy. As a consequence, nominal Christian male bigamists were subjected to unprecedented harsh punishments, such as execution, galley servitude, exile and prolonged imprisonment as a result of their actions. McDougall argues that female bigamists were not as harshly punished due to concepts of female 'inferiority' and the 'absence' of female moral agency.