Please tell me why for loop never executes

[gautiergator]

For some reason the for loop never executes. Any idea why?
The program is supposed to convert a user entered roman numeral to decimal. I can place cout<<"Test"; in the loop or after it and neither will ever execute.
I have all of the code below.

romantype.h

#ifndef ROMANTYPE_H
#define ROMANTYPE_H
#include <cstring>

/*
 * No description
 */
class romanType
{
	public:
		// class constructor
		romanType();
		// class destructor
		~romanType();
		//printDecimal
		void printDecimal() const;
		//printDecimal
		void printRoman() const;
		//convertRoman
		void convertRoman();

        char myRoman[];
        int myDecimal;
};

#endif // ROMANTYPE_H

romantype.cpp

#include "romantype.h" // class's header file
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <cstring>


//const static int M = 1000;
//const static int D = 500;
//const static int C = 100;
//const static int L = 50;
//const static int X = 10;
//const static int V = 5;
//const static int I = 1;


using namespace std;

// class constructor
romanType::romanType()
{
	char myRoman[] = "";
	myDecimal = 0;
}

// class destructor
romanType::~romanType()
{
	// code here
}

//Print Decimal
void romanType::printDecimal() const
{
    cout<<"The Decimal value is "<<myDecimal<<endl;                      
}

//Print Roman
void romanType::printRoman() const
{
    cout<<"The Roman numeral is "<<myRoman<<endl;                      
}

//Convert Roman
void romanType::convertRoman()
{
    int counter;
    int length;
    char charNow[1] = "";
    char charPrev[1] = "";
    int valueNow = 0;
    int valuePrev = 0;
    
    length = strlen(myRoman);
    
    for(counter=length; counter<1; counter--)
    {
         charNow[1] = myRoman[counter];
         cout<<myRoman[counter]<<endl;
         
         if (charNow == "M")
         {valueNow = 1000;}
         else 
              if (charNow == "D")
                 {valueNow = 500;}
         else
              if (charNow == "C")
                 {valueNow = 100;}
         else
              if (charNow == "L")
                 {valueNow = 50;}
         else
              if (charNow == "X")
                 {valueNow = 10;}
         else
              if (charNow == "V")
                 {valueNow = 5;}
         else
              if (charNow == "I")
                 {valueNow = 1;}
                                                                    
         if (valueNow < valuePrev)
            {myDecimal = myDecimal - valueNow;}
         else
            {myDecimal = myDecimal + valueNow;}

         valuePrev = valueNow;
    };//end for                          
}

and finally main.cpp

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include "romantype.h"

using namespace std;

char userIn;
romanType romanConverter;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    cout<<"Please enter a Roman Numeral: ";
    cin>>romanConverter.myRoman;
    romanConverter.convertRoman();
    romanConverter.printDecimal();
    romanConverter.printRoman();
    system("PAUSE");
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}