Page:Vindicationoflaw00hath.djvu/67

Rh had been no consummation of the first marriage. Whilst on the subject of dispensation I may notice that, as late as in 1723, the Parliament of Paris, on an "Appel comme d'abus," in the Marquis of Sailly's case, declared his child by a deceased wife's sister illegitimate, notwithstanding the marriage had been had under a dispensation from the Pope, on the ground that the Pope could not dispense with God's law.

But how has our Church dealt with the subject since the Reformation?

Dr. M'Caul, in his letter to Mr. Lyall, page 21, deals with this part of the case in a very singular manner. After quoting several Protestant versions of the 18th verse, which render it as a prohibition against marrying a wife's sister during the lifetime of the former, he says, "In Cranmer's Bible the translation is similar, 'Thou shalt not take a woman and her sister else to vex her, that thou woldest uncover her secretes as long as she liveth. I confess this seems to me a very different translation, for it appears to refer "as long as she liveth" to the sister, and not to the wife. But this is not all. Dr. M'Caul adds, "And to this translation Cranmer adhered, as may be seen in the 'Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum,' which expresses the joint judgment of Cranmer, Goodwin, Cox, May, Peter Martyr, and Rowland Taylor. Chap. v. is, 'Enumeratio personarum in Levitico prohibitarum,—In Levitico dispositæ