ree,
though a magisterial permission was needed for remarriage. This question
of remarriage, and the treatment of the adulterer, were also matters of
dispute. The remarriage of the innocent party was generally accepted; in
England it began in the middle of the sixteenth century, was pronounced
valid by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and confirmed by Parliament. Many
Reformers were opposed, however, to the remarriage of the adulterous
party. Beust, Beza, and Melancthon would have him hanged and so settle the
question of remarriage; Luther and Calvin would like to kill him, but
since the civil rulers were slack in adopting that measure they allowed
him to remarry, if possible in some other part of the country.[333]

The final outcome was that Protestantism framed a conception of marriage
mainly on the legal and economic factor--a factor not ignored but strictly
subordinated by the Canonists--and regarded it as essentially a contract.
In so doing they were on the negative side effecting a real progress, for
they broke the power of an antiquated and artificial system, but on the
positive side they were merely returning to a conception which prevails in
barbarous societies, and is most pronounced when marriage is most
assimilable to purchase. The steps taken by Protestantism involved a
considerable change in the nature of marriage, but not necessarily any
great changes in its form. Marriage was no longer a sacrament, but it was
still a public and not a private function and was still, however
inconsistently, solemnized in Church. And as Protestantism had no rival
code to set up, both in Germany and England it fell back on the general
principles of Canon law, modifying them to suit its own special attitude
and needs.[334] It was the later Puritanic movement, first in the
Netherlands (1580), then in England (1653), and afterwards in New England,
which introduced a serious and coherent conception of Protestant marriage,
and began to establish it on a civil base.

The English Reformers under Edward VI and his enlightened
advisers, including Archbishop Cranmer, took liberal views of
marriage, and were prepared to carry through many admirable
reforms. The early death of that King exerted a profound
influence on the legal history of English marriage. The Catholic
reaction under Queen Mary killed off the more radical Reformers,
while the subsequent accession of Queen Elizabeth, whose attitude
towards m