ghts of injured wives against the lustful tyranny of
their husbands." In view of such a claim I may be justified in entering
a somewhat more detailed account of this subject.

On the subject of divorce the Roman Catholic Church took the decided
position which it continues to maintain at the present day. Marriage
when entered upon under all the conditions demanded by the Church for a
valid union is indissoluble.[390] A separation "from bed and board"
(_quoad thorum seu quoad cohabitationem_) is allowed for various causes,
such as excessive cruelty, for a determinate or an indeterminate period;
but there is no absolute divorce even for adultery. For this cause a
separation may, indeed, take place, but the bond of matrimony is not
dissolved thereby and neither the innocent nor the guilty party may
marry again during the lifetime of the other partner.

All this seems very rigorous. It is true that the Roman Catholic Church
does not permit "divorce." But it allows fourteen cases where a marriage
can be declared absolutely null and void, as if it had never existed;
and in these cases the man or woman may marry again. To say that the
Roman Church does not allow divorce is, therefore, playing upon words.
The instruments used to render its strict theory ineffective are
"diriment impediments" and "dispensations."

By the doctrine of "diriment impediments" the Pope or a duly constituted
representative can declare that a marriage has been null and void from
the very beginning because of some impediment defined in the canon law.
Canon IV of the twenty-fourth session of the Council of Trent
anathematises anyone who shall say that the Church cannot constitute
impediments dissolving marriage, or that she has erred in constituting
them. The impediments which can annul marriage are described in the
official Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. vii, pages 697-698. Among them are
impuberty and impotency. Then there is "disparity of worship," which
renders void the marriage of a Christian--that is, a Roman Catholic,
with an infidel,--that is, one who is unbaptised. Marriage of a Roman
Catholic with a baptised non-Catholic constitutes a "relative"
impediment and needs a special dispensation and provisoes, such as a
guarantee to bring up the children in the Roman faith to give it
validity. Another impediment is based on the presumption of want of
consent, "the nullity being caused by a defect of consent." "This
defect," says the Catholic Encyclopedi