The Church is seen in its fairest light in its provisions to protect the wife from sexual brutality on the part of her husband, and it deserves high praise for its stand on such matters.[384] Various other laws show the same regard for the interests of women.  A man who was entering priestly office could not cast off his wife and leave her destitute, but must provide living and raiment for her.[385] Neither husband nor wife could embrace the celibate life nor devote themselves to continence without the consent of the other.[386] A man who cohabited with a woman as his concubine, even though she was of servile condition or questionable character, could not dismiss her and marry another saving for adultery.[387] Slaves were now allowed to contract marriages and masters were not permitted to dissolve them.[388]

[Sidenote:  Divorce.]

It has always been and still is the boast of the Roman Catholic Church that it has been the supreme protector of women on account of its stand on divorce.  Says Cardinal Gibbons[389]:  “Christian wives and mothers, what gratitude you owe to the Catholic Church for the honorable position you now hold in society!  If you are no longer regarded as the slave, but the equal, of your husbands; if you are no longer the toy of his caprice, and liable to be discarded at any moment; but if you are recognised as the mistress and queen of your household, you owe your emancipation to the Church.  You are especially indebted for your liberty to the Popes who rose up in all the majesty of their spiritual power to vindicate the rights of injured wives against the lustful tyranny of their husbands.”  In view of such a claim I may be justified in entering a somewhat more detailed account of this subject.

On the subject of divorce the Roman Catholic Church took the decided position which it continues to maintain at the present day.  Marriage when entered upon under all the conditions demanded by the Church for a valid union is indissoluble.[390] A separation “from bed and board” (quoad thorum seu quoad cohabitationem) is allowed for various causes, such as excessive cruelty, for a determinate or an indeterminate period; but there is no absolute divorce even for adultery.  For this cause a separation may, indeed, take place, but the bond of matrimony is not dissolved thereby and neither the innocent nor the guilty party may marry again during the lifetime of the other partner.

All this seems very rigorous.  It is true that the Roman Catholic Church does not permit “divorce.”  But it allows fourteen cases where a marriage can be declared absolutely null and void, as if it had never existed; and in these cases the man or woman may marry again.  To say that the Roman Church does not allow divorce is, therefore, playing upon words.  The instruments used to render its strict theory ineffective are “diriment impediments” and “dispensations.”