A Popular Treatise on the Law of Marriage and Divorce (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. ENGLISH LAW. The history of divorce in English law is particularly interesting. Down to the passing of the Divorce Act of 1858, the theory of the law of England was the same as that of the Eoman church. There were attempts during the period of the Kef ormation to introduce a greater license of divorce, and in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesi- asticarum (a code of ecclesiastical law projected by a royal commission, but never enacted) the leaders of the Keformation sanctioned principles which were considered very liberal. Divorce was to be granted for adultery, and the innocent spouse was to be permitted to marry again. Other grounds for divorce were specified, such as desertion, continued absence, and savageness of temper. Separation from bed and board was to be superseded by this more complete remedy. And the more advanced reformers advocated even greater liberty of divorce, justifying their propositions by a reference to the Scriptures.But the law remained unchanged. The constitution of marriage belonged to the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. The tie was indissoluble. The marriage, indeed, might be declared null and void in certain cases, e. g., consanguinity or affinity. This proceeding was not a dissolution of marriage so much as a declaration that no real marriage had taken place between the parties. Divorce from bed and board was granted for adultery and cruelty. Here the marriage, being originally good, was not dissolved, but a separation was ordered either for a limited or indefinite time. The spouse was not permitted to marry again. But while the law remained unchanged, the practice of granting complete divorces by private act of parliament had come into existence. The legislature did in particular cases that which it refused to do by general...