the Church can not dispense in
some of those degrees, or ordain that others may hinder and dissolve it;
let him be anathema."

[Sidenote: Inheritance]

The minute and far-fetched subtleties which the Roman Church has
employed in the interpretation of these relationships make escape from
the marital tie feasible for the man who is eager to disencumber himself
of his life's partner. The man of limited means will have a hard time of
it. The great and wealthy have been able at all periods, by working one
or more of these doctrines, to reduce the theory of the Roman Church to
nullity in practice. Napoleon had his marriage to Josephine annulled on
the ground that he had never intended to enter into a religious marriage
with her, although the day before the ceremony he had had the union
secretly blessed by Cardinal Fesch. On the basis of this avowed lack of
intent, his marriage with Josephine was declared null and void, and he
was free to marry Louisa. A plea along the same lines is being worked by
the Count de Castellane now. Louis XII, having fallen in love with Anne
of Brittany, suddenly discovered that his wife was his fourth cousin,
that she was deformed, and that her father had been his godfather; and
for this the Pope gave him a dispensation and his legitimate wife was
sent away. The Pope did not thunder against Louis XIV for committing
adultery with women like Louise de la Valliere and Madame de Montespan.
It is certainly true that in the case of Philip Augustus of France and
Henry VIII of England the Pope did protect injured wives; but both these
monarchs were questioning the Vatican's autocracy. The matrimonial
relations of John of England, Philip's contemporary, were more corrupt
than those of the French king; but, while the Pope chastised John for
his defiance of his political autonomy, he did not excommunicate him on
any ground of morality. The statement of Cardinal Gibbons is not
entirely in accordance with history; he does not take all facts into
consideration, as is also true of his complacent assumption that outside
of the Roman Church no economic forces and no individuals have had any
effect in elevating the moral and economic status of women.

Questions such as those of inheritance belong properly to civil law;
but the canon law claimed to be heard in any case into which any
spiritual interest could be foisted. Thus in the year 1199 Innocent III
enacted that children of heretics be deprived of all their of