Page:Is Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister Lawful?.djvu/8

4 with a deceased wife's sister" illegal, i.e. contrary to the law of God, as laid down by Him in His written Word. In the great mass of writings which we have of the Fathers of any note in the Church, there is no sanction given to such marriages; but, on the contrary, when the Fathers have occasion to mention anything about such a union, they distinctly say that it is their custom, and that of the Church, not to consider such marriages as legal by the Word of God. S. Basil in the fourth century says, "Our custom has the force of law, because it has been handed down to us, i.e. in the Holy Writings, that marriage with a wife’s sister is not reckoned as marriage, and we are commanded not to receive such persons to the Holy Communion until they be separated."

We must remember that S. Basil, like all the others, is giving the custom and law of the Church as founded on God's command. Also the Eastern par up to this day forbids such marriages as being illegal.

The Western part of the Church, consisting of the Roman and Anglican divisions, has never taught that such marriages are lawful in the sight of God.

Not until A.D. 1500 was the Roman division asked to allow such a marriage by dispensation—a right which that division arrogates to itself, which is, of course, at once glaringly wrong and