The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-09-16

therefore no authority power TO dissolve The
same "What God hath joined together let no
man put asunder" The divine law Is unchange
able. This is only by way of illustration of the
marked difference between the and his Holy
Synod. and the Catholic Church ii shows the
inconsistency of the former, and the stability and
unchangeabeness of the latter.
The successor of Alexander l., Nicholas l., was
still more extravagant III his spiritual jurisdiction
and concessions When religious persecution
waged in Poland and its brave and noble sons were
imprisoned, banshed to Siberia, or sent as slaves
to work in the mines, Nicholas issued an ukase
lberating the wives of these men from the matri-
monia bonds, with the permission Of the imperial
autocrat to contract matrimonial alliances.
For the favor granted only one condition I'M
posed namely, that the issue of these marriages,
and the children of their exiled husbands, would
be raised in the Russian "OrthodoX' church. But
the Polish Catholic women, faithful to the tradi-
lions of their forefathers, and bewailng the de
parture OF their exiled husbands spurned the spr-
itual privileges and concessions of the imperial
tyrant and preferred to anguish in prison or die
of starvation rather than violate their conscience
or prove unfaithful to their martyred husbands.
Here two facts, as strange as they are
deniable present themselves: CD Every church
that severed its connection with the Apostolic See
was inconsistent and changeable What one gen
Grafton believed to be divine truths was changed
for the next generation. The reason for this
strange anomaly is evident, because there was no
unerring court to declare with certainty what the
divine law was: and, as in Russia when the laws
of God and those of the state emanated from the
same source, the former, like the latter, were
changed to suit the exigencies of the times, the
whims and caprices of the ruling monarch (2) In
all instances after separation from the Holy See
took place. the sacredness and indissolubility OF
the sacrament Of matrimony were disregarded.
Ever since the schism of Photius, the ancient
canons of the primitive church regarding marriage
have undergone an indefinite variety of changes.
Even Photius, in his new code of Canon Law,
changed the Novella of Justinian by the addition
of three new causes for divorce
The changes ia the Russian church and the
multiplication Of new causes cannot be a matter
of surprise when one realizes that both the civil
and ecclesiastical laws simply depend upon an
ukase of the emperor. Human laws are changed;
the same ,,ower that makes and unmakes these laws
administers the divine laws and makes unmakes
these also to suit his purpose, carry out his de-
signs The changes have been taking place since
the days of Photius.
Usage sanctions the CUSTOM and his majesty is
not in the least concerned about the fact that what
his predecessors declared to be the divine law,
religious truth to be something entirely different
after one OF two generations. Such has been the
development of the religious comedy for the past
eleven centuries and it will continue to the end.
T. D.