The Washington times., 1922-08-13
Evil Of Modern Marriages d
Violation Of Natural Law. !
caine Contends.
BY SIR HALL CAME.
Copyright. 1894. in United States. Grsa
Britain, Austria, Denmark and
a4lfxaria 10

BY SIR HALL CAME.
copyright, 1894, in United States, Great
Britain. Austria. Denmark aud
switzerland.)
Nullity is a matrimonial suit for
the purpose of obtaining u decree
which shall declare that supposed
marriage Is not merely null and
void, but that it has, in fact. never
taken place.
Now there can be only one nat
ural ground for nullity-namely,
that the contract of marriage has
not been fulfilled, that the union
has not been perfected, that the de-
sign of nature In bringing two
persons of opposite sexes together
has for some reason been frus-
trated.
This is called non-consummation,
and consummation Is Of the essence
of marriage. II may almost be said
to be the marriage itself.
Tho Real and Only Proof. ~
A woman may go to church with
a man, take her wedding ring
from him, make her vows and sign
the register, but II she leaves him
at the church door and never after
ward unites herself to him. she Ia
not really married to him, and In
nearly all countries he may cast
her off by process Of nullity and
marry somebody else. I'd
The real and only proof that q
man and a woman are married is
not that they have gone through
a marriage ceremony, whether
civil or religious, but that they
have lived together as man and
wife, and where that proof exists
no nullity, according to natural
law, is possible.
Soldiers Case In Courts.
! And marriages have been nulli.
fled both by church and state on
other and far more trivial grounds
MISREPRESENTATION Of facts, errors
of registration and disregard Of
civil or ecclesiastical regulations.
II the English soldier whose case
Ia now in the courts obtains q de-
cree nullifying his marriage II will
be merely because his wife had not
fulfilled the condition of the civil
law requiring that she should live
twenty -one days In Scotland before
going through the marriage cere-
mony. @
Nor Is the operation Of the &C.
clesiastical law any better. Ny three
years residence In Rome made me
painfully aware that the subterfugss
for obtaining a decree Of nullity
sometimes reached the point Of scan.
dial. Z .
I remember an Italian count with
a Protestant wife still living. against
whom there was no complaint, OBJ
tanning a dispensation to marry an
American heiress. .H
I also remember a French woman
of liberal virtue who wished 70
leave her poor French husband anh
marry a rich German, entertaining
a company Of both sexes with d.
verting story OF q solemn conference
of doctors and lawyers, At which II
was gravely decided that her first
marriage had not been consummated.
The very machinery. which Church
and State set up to preserve a mar
riage often operates 70 dissolve II.
The rank weed sometimes chokes the
young grain.
Church Holds Against Divorce.
Then, take the case of divorce. II
is Of the essence Of marriage by
natural law that II should be perm
anent and lifelong.
The exalted teaching OF Christ,
which is above all laws OF Church
or state, and Is founded equally
on spiritual and natural law, seems
to be the first and last word on
that subject.
From the beginning God made
them male and female. For this
cause a man shall leave his father
and mother and cling to his wife.
And these tIOo shall be one flesh.
What therefore God hath Joined
together let no man put Gsitnder.
For nearly 1000 years the church
has understood these words to be
the divine prohibition Of divorce
With ali difference to the theolo-
eians. I humbly say they are moth.
ing OF the kind. II is presumptu.
GUS to assume that because the
union OF a male and a female has
been celebrated by a religious serv-
ice, therefore II is God who has
made them one flesh. ~
In too many cases II would appear
from the hideous consequences Of q
marriage that not God but the devil
had contrived II.
Narrowing Tragedies
The confusion of the religious
with divine sanction has
led to some Of the most narrowing
tragedies in human life.
A few weeks ago a poor little
mother drowned herself and her two
children in the Thames because sha
had been brutally treated by the
man she had married, and saw
nothing but death left to her.
When asked why she did not run
away from man who, had treated
her so Ill, she said perhaps with
memories of the day when she, TOO,
had cried at the steps of the altar
that she had "sworn to love, honor
and obey her husband"
The poor little soul was in no
sense bound to love, honor and obey
the wretched man who had deceived
and tortured her. and II she fled
from him and married a worthier