Note 32 — Chapter XI · HISTORY OF SEPARATION AND DIVORCE UNDER ENGLISH AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW

By the Jewish law, of course, the woman had no right to divorce her husband for any cause; the man putting away his wife could take other wives; and the woman divorced for adultery—the only cause of separation contemplated by Jesus—was stoned to death. Cf. Geffcken, Ehescheidung, 17; and Woolsey, op. cit., 59 ff., 70 ff., who holds that the words of Jesus apply to the wife equally with the man, and that the innocent, though not the guilty, party may marry again, sustaining his position, as he fancies, by reference to Paul in 1 Cor., chap. 7. For a fair sample of theological special pleading see Browne, Marriage of Divorced Persons in Church, 30 ff.