Note 214 — Chapter XI · HISTORY OF SEPARATION AND DIVORCE UNDER ENGLISH AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW

According to Stölzel, Ueber das landesherrl. Ehescheidungsrecht, 46 ff., passim, after the creation of consistories, as well as before, the head of the state—Landesherr—retained a right of dispensation as summus episcopus; and in Protestant lands his power to grant divorces in certain cases was not entirely superseded by the imperial law of 1875. These points, especially the last, have given rise to a controversial literature: see Meurer, Das landesh. Ehescheidungsrecht, 12 ff., who holds that the authority of the Landesherr was superseded by the act of 1875; and compare Hubrich, Das Recht der Ehescheidung, 147 ff.; the works cited by Stölzel, op. cit., 54 ff.; by Meurer, op. cit., 8 ff.; and those in this connection described in Bibliographical Note XI.