SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

person to get divorced. First, the party had to get a decree of separation from the ecclesiastical
court. Then the innocent party instituted charges in civil court to receive damages from the
person who had wronged him or her. Lastly, the party petitioned Parliament to obtain an Act of
Parliament that finally would sever the marriage. This process was expensive and time
consuming; therefore, divorce was uncommon and restricted to the wealthy. 11
English practice was therefore different than most Protestant countries such as
Switzerland, Germany, Scotland, and Scandinavia that viewed marriage as a non-sacramental
agreement or contract. Marriage in these countries could be blessed by the church if the couple
wished, but legally they were married when the contract was completed. In Protestant England,
however, the church courts retained control over marriage laws, although the Puritans departed
from the English practice by arguing to abolish the church courts and implementing marriage by
contract, thus following the changes occurring in Protestant countries. As the historian Sandra
VanBurkleo elaborates, “By insisting on sacramental marriage and administering canon law in
civil courts, Anglicans rowed against the Protestant current. But even radical Puritans thought
that marriage, unlike simple civil agreements, had social and cultural implications and so could
be regulated by secular authorities.” 12
In colonial America, both the Puritan and the Anglican models were practiced, with the
Puritan conceptions of marriage dominating the New England colonies and the Anglican in
Southern colonies. The liberality of divorce law hence took on a North-South aspect with the
most liberal divorce law in the New England colonies and the most conservative in the South.
Politicians and clergymen of both regions, however, wanted to see their citizens married. Early
11 P.K. Virdi, The Grounds for Divorce in Hindu and English Law: A Study in Comparative Law, (Jawaharnagar,
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1972), 46.
12 VanBurkleo, 14.
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