From Hate to Love

Author’s NoteThe indissolubility of marriage was part of the doctrine of the Christian Church from early times and it was held that all s****l activity outside marriage was suspect. The first breach in this doctrine was made by the Protestant Reformers, who regarded it as permissible for a man to repudiate an adulterous wife and, even if she was not put to death by the executioner, to marry again. Sometime later, adultery by the husband if coupled with severe cruelty was recognised as grounds for a wife to seek the termination of a marriage. In contrast to the non-Roman Catholic Churches in Scotland and on the Continent of Europe, the Church of England was less progressive and still upheld the doctrine of indissolubility. Eventually Parliament assumed the power to dissolve marriage. However, this was so expensive a procedure that the total number of divorces granted by Parliament between 1602 and 1859 was only 317. In 1837, after heated debates, it became lawful for a husband to obtain a judicial divorce from a wife guilty of adultery. But a wife had to prove that her husband’s adultery was aggravated by cruelty or vice. This provision was not rescinded until 1923. The power of the King’s Proctor to intervene during the six-month period between the decree nisi and the decree absolute was very unpopular, but continued until the Divorce Reform Act of 1969.