Note 248 — Chapter XI · HISTORY OF SEPARATION AND DIVORCE UNDER ENGLISH AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (continued 2)

These ordinances are known as the "Ecclesiastical Constitutions" of 1597. Canon 105 urges greater care in matrimonial causes, especially in cases where marriage "is required to be dissolved or annulled;" and it is strictly charged "that in all proceedings in divorce and nullities of marriage, good circumspection and advice be used, and that the truth may, as far as possible, be sifted out by depositions of witnesses and other lawful proofs; and that credit be not given to the sole confession of the parties themselves, howsoever taken upon oath either within or without the court." The 107th canon requires a bond to be given in case of "sentences pronounced only for divorce and separation à thoro et mensâ," that "the parties so separated shall live chastely, and neither shall they, during each other's life, contract matrimony with other persons." From these canons it has been inferred with some plausibility that both "dissolving divorce" and "nullifying divorce" are contemplated as valid and customary; and that the requiring of a bond implies that the marriage which the bond is intended to prevent would have been valid: see Law Review (Eng.), I, 359, 360, and the opinions there cited; also Plea for an Alteration in the Divorce Laws (London, 1831), 3 ff.