Note 267 — Chapter XI · HISTORY OF SEPARATION AND DIVORCE UNDER ENGLISH AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW (continued 2)

Scheurl, Das gem. deut. Eherecht, 294 ff., forcibly argues that the conception of divorce through magisterial intervention, as opposed to self-divorce, is a mark of Reformation thought. According to Luther, God speaks through the civil magistrate. Hence in case of divorce from the bond of wedlock by judicial decree it is not "man," but God himself, who parts man and wife. Therefore the command of Jesus is not broken. So here we have another illustration of the casuistry necessitated by the appeal to authority.