Note 34 — Chapter XI · HISTORY OF SEPARATION AND DIVORCE UNDER ENGLISH AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW

The Catholic doctrine as finally settled. Woolsey, assuming that this is a case of separation of two "believers" for some "dissension" or other cause less than adultery (which he holds allows a second marriage), says, "we have here an actual separation a mensa et toro without a separation a vinculo matrimonii. This third state between absolute divorce and full marriage union has then the sanction of the Apostle—not of course as something desirable, but probably as a kind of barricade against divorce and a defense of the Saviour's commandment. It may be introduced therefore into the law of Christian lands."—Divorce, 73, 74.