Christianity and Morals by Edward Westermarck

CHRISTIANITY revolutionised European legislation with regard to divorce. In pagan times Roman law was as liberal as possible so far as the husband's right to divorce his wife was concerned, and in the case of a "free" marriage, which implied that the wife did not fall under the _manus_ or power, of her husband, equally liberal with regard to the wife's right to dissolve the marriage. The dissolution of such a marriage could be brought about either by mutual agreement between both parties or by the will of one party only, and in this respect the legal position of the wife was the same as that of the husband. The rules of divorce which were recognised in the case of a free marriage were afterwards extended to marriages with _manus_; and in the end marriage with _manus_ fell into disuse altogether.

In the New Testament there are various passages bearing upon the question of divorce. A man who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and a woman who puts away her husband and is married to another is guilty of the same crime: "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." There are, however, two exceptions to this rule. Like Shammai and his school, Jesus taught, according to St. Matthew, that a man might put away his wife for fornication, which, however, has been considered to be an emendation made by the editor of the first gospel, but for no other reason; and Paul lays down the rule that if a Christian is married to an unbeliever and the latter departs, the Christian "is not under bondage." But, largely under the influence of Augustine, the Western Church gradually made up her mind to deny the dissolubility of a valid Christian marriage, at least if it had been consummated. Her doctrine on the subject was in the twelfth century definitely fixed by Gratian and Peter Lombard; it was dogmatically asserted by the Council of Trent, and was in the nineteenth century reaffirmed by Pius IX. and Leo XIII. A consummated Christian marriage is a sacrament and must as such remain valid for ever. It represents the union between Christ and the Church, and is consequently as indissoluble as that union. It is also permanent according to the law of nature, because only as permanent can marriage fulfil its object. And God made it so at the very beginning of our race, when He decreed that a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.