Page:The Rise of American Civilization (Volume 1).djvu/149

 or more of bondage, while the father of the child, if the master, usually got off with some trivial penalty imposed by the court of his peers. Even for their frivolities the women of New England were roundly scored in sermons. "At the resurrection of the just," exclaimed a divine, "there will be no such sight to be met as Angels carrying painted ladies in their arms."

In spite of the tenacity of inherited English custom, the relative religious freedom and the economic opportunities of the New World worked radical changes in the spirit of the family institution. The Puritans of Massachusetts were in open revolt against Catholic and Anglican doctrines with respect to matrimony and, in keeping with their professions, they made marriage a civil institution, taking it out of the hands of the clergy, but in 1692 they were compelled by the Crown to accept the ecclesiastical ceremony as of equal validity. Fully aware that the law of England which controlled their charter provided that weddings should be solemnized by ministers, they effected their departure by practice long before they ventured to sanction it by statute in defiance of the mother country.

Putting aside also the Catholic bar against divorce and the Anglican modification which permitted separation only on the ground of adultery, Puritans authorized the dissolution of the matrimonial tie for various reasons, including desertion and cruel treatment. Likewise, among the Quakers marriage became a civil institution requiring for legality merely pledges of loyalty made in the presence of witnesses, while divorce was permitted on scriptural grounds. Moreover, even conduct during marriage was to some extent controlled by law in Massachusetts, where the custom of England which permitted the husband to chastise his wife was abolished and wife-beating forbidden by statute. Thus the Puritan woman was protected against a cruel husband and allowed to escape, if she wished, from his harsh régime. Only in the colonies where the Anglican party was dominant did the strict rules of the English law apply to the making