18 Walter Jacob
Imperial Rome sought to eliminate polygamy throughout the empire, but as one can see from repeated decrees by Theodosius (379395), Justinian (527-565), and Leo the Philosopher(886-912) with limited success.” According to Epstein matters changed through popular pressure in the Gaonic period(700-110), when clauses protecting the first wife were inserted into the ketubah. This method was used particularly by wealthy families to protect the status of their women folk. Such examples existed in ketubot found in the Cairo Geniza and were cited in Gaonic responsa. They stated:“That he may not marry or take during the bride’s lifetime and while she is with him another wife, slave-wife, or concubine except with her consent, and if he does... he shall from this moment be under obligation to pay her the ketubah in full, and release her by a bill of divorcement by which she shall be free to remarry.”' We may conclude that polygamy continued to be accepted in Jewish life when tolerated by the surrounding society. This meant that it was practiced to some extent in the Near East throughout history.
In Christian Europe the decree(herem) ascribed to Rabbenu Gershom (960-1040), prohibited polygamy in the Ashkenazic lands; this may have been due to a slow internal development® or have brought Jewish practice into line with the surrounding society. Falk, and earlier Frankel, has shown that the decree was in any case a part of a long series of steps taken in this direction.” The medieval legal discussions of polygamy did not deal with the nature of marriage or the status of women; they mainly treated the exceptions to monogamy which might be allowed in case of childlessness or the yibbum. Although the herem of Rabbenu Gershom prohibited the individual from marrying an additional wife, special permission for exceptions could be provided by one hundred rabbis from three districts, in other words in extraordinary circumstances, which will be discussed later. These rulings along with the nature of the contemporary discussion indicated that monogamy was established as the practical road of Ashkenazic Jewry; monogamy was considered binding by Asher ben