Persons

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to the history of the law of marriage. The formation of marriage was for many centuries a matter for the Church and its law. In medieval times marriage was held to be a sacrament and indissoluble. Divorce a vinculo matrimonii meant a decree of nullity, not dissolution. Divorce a mensa et thoro, or judicial separation, was available on grounds of misconduct, but the parties were not free to remarry. Bastardy, the status of children born outside marriage, was also for the canon law. The second part of the chapter goes into the common law of coverture, the status of married women, and the slow progress towards giving wives the right to own property and make contracts. It ends with the piecemeal reforms of divorce law, following the establishment of a secular divorce court in 1857.