The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

MATRIMONY. 471boring State for a legal separation which is deniedthem in their own. Christ is not-divided, nor do theApostles contradict each other.The Catholic Chureh, following the light of theGospel, forbids a divorced man to enter into secondespousals during the life of his former partner. Thisis the inflexible law she first proclaimed in the faceof Pagan emperors and people, and which she hasever upheld, in spite of the passions and voluptuousness of her own rebellious children.Henry VIII., once an obedient son and defenderof the Church, conceived, in an evil hour, a criminalattachment for Anne Boleyn, a lady of thequeen shousehold, whom he desired to marry after beingdivorced from his lawful consort, Catherine of Arragon.But Pope Clement VII., whose sanction he solicited, sternly refused to ratify the separation, thoughthe Pontiff could have easily foreseen that his determined action would involve the Church in persecution, and a whole nation in the unhappy schismof its ruler. Had the Pope acquiesced in the repudiation of Catherine, and in the marriage of AnneBoleyn, England indeed would have -been sparedto the Church, but the Church herself would hav^surrendered her peerless title of Mistress of Truth.When NapoleonI.repudiated his devoted wife,Josephine, and married Marie Louise of Austria, swell assured was he of the fruitlessness of his attempt to obtain from the Holy See the sanction ofhis divorce and subsequent marriage, that he did noteven consult the Holy Father on the subject.