THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND DIVORCE
SIR,—As one much involved, I beg leave to comment, with due respect, on the review (October 3) of Dr. A. R. Winnett's treatise, Divorce and Remarriage in Anglicanism, by the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. R. C. Mortimer. I was privileged to peruse Dr. Winnett's valuable work in script.
Dr. Mortimer dismisses the marriage usage of the Anglo-Saxon Church (it allowed divorce, with re- marriage, for adultery, enslavement for crime, deser- tion, etc., also by mutual consent) as being merely an unsuccessful attempt by Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury (669-90) to introduce the Eastern Church's usage into England. But, apart from the fact that the Eastern Church, as such, did not exist until 1054, Theodore was the trusted emissary of the Pope who had consecrated him, and was unlikely to initiate anything displeasing to his master. It would appear that he accepted what he had found, namely a usage derived from the legal code of King Ethelbert of Kent (552-616). This usage was practised for nearly 500 years before its suppression by the Normans in favour of Rome's canon law.
Of the period between the Conquest and the Re- formation Dr. Mortimer writes appreciatively,'`From 1066 to the Reformation there can be no doubt that divorce with the right to remarry was unknown in England.' This, of a period during which the Church's system of nullity worked at high pressure, in which marriage was never so insecure, and of which our eminent jurists, Pollock and Maitland, wrote, 'Reck- less of mundane consequences, the Church, while treating marriage as a formless contract, multiplied impediments which made the formation of a valid marriage a matter of chance.' (History of English Law.)
Of the period since the Reformation (it is covered by Dr. Winnett's book), Dr. Mortimer states, 'The law remained firmly based on the old doctrine of the 'absolute indissolubility of marriage.' The Reformation Fathers knew well how the 'old doctrine' worked in practice; they never made it a doctrine of the Church of England; nor did they embody it in any law of Church or State. Dr. Mortimer cites, in support of his foregoing contention, the so-called 'canons' of 1603-4 which are alleged to have forbidden re- marriage to those divorced by the Church Courts alone (with all respect, the allegation is untrue, as inspection of the 'canons themselves shows). But. moreover, as the late Gregory Dix pointed out, the `canons' were neither enacted nor operated. The truth is that remarriage after divorce, however obtained, has always been—and still is—the practice of the Church of England, as, indeed, it is the practice of every Christian Church:—Yours faithfully,
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