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 CHAPTER V

EFFECT OF THE REFORMATION ON MARRIAGE

has been already pointed out that in the course of the Middle Ages marriage had “lost its civil character," and become altogether part of the ecclesiastical system. It was one of the Seven Sacraments, and as such possessed the "indelible character." Divorce with liberty of re-marriage was altogether prohibited. This rigorous law was quite beyond human endurance, and the Church had to provide the mitigations of its own theory. These were provided in the elaborate system of dispensations, by means of which unhappy and impolitic marriages were, on one pretext or another, nullified, and many unions, prohibited by the canons, were made possible. The exaltation of the papal power was materially helped forward by the public