Some Short Thoughts About Divorce
It is probably safe to assume that people have been looking for ways to dissolve marriages ever since the concept was introduced. The trappings and particular requirements may have changed many times over the course of history, but the ability to divorce one’s spouse remains a fundamental aspect of human partnerships. The ability to extricate oneself from what may be in retrospect a bad decision to have made is as important to personal liberty as the power to select one’s own mate in the first place.
The right to marry and, if desired, break that marriage was one of the central freedoms enjoyed by citizens of the Roman Empire. Appearing before a magistrate, a Roman man and his wife would simply express their desire to part ways and the decision would be recorded. Even though the breaking of marital bonds was a comparatively trivial thing to do, it was not a trivial action itself. Social pressures would demand a measure of circumspection before declaring the intent to separate.
During Europe’s Medieval Era, the pervasive power of the Catholic church and other religious institutions removed the authority to pronounce and end marriages from the civil sphere. Marriage ceremonies soon became religious affairs, with a man and a woman bonded together by the authority of the priest and under the auspices of God. Civil courts no longer had jurisdiction over matrimony.
Before this point there had been no real stigma attached to those who dissolved their bonds. However, if wedlock was as the church claimed a holy state blessed by God, then those who sought to remove those bonds were seen as being not very serious about their faith, and possibly not pious people at all.
Hundreds of years later this sentiment remains, in varying degrees and with different manifestations, in many modern cultures. This may be due to remaining religious antipathy towards the concept of this kind of dissociation, or simply that the culture does not tolerate it very well in general. For whatever reasons, there are many husbands and wives in the world who no longer want to be married to their spouse but do not have the opportunity to easily end the relationship.
The earliest and possibly best known defiance of the Catholic church’s domination of matrimonial proceedings came from the English king Henry VIII. Unable to secure an annulment from the papal authority and increasingly unhappy with his wife Catherine’s inability to sire a male heir, the king took matters into his own hands and broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.
Things are no longer as difficult for couples seeking an acceptable way to split apart. While it is true that many countries in today’s world still have religious qualms about the ease with which marriages can be terminated, a new and very secular consideration has arisen in recent decades. More of a civil contract than a spiritual one in the minds of many modern nations, it is now necessary to be aware of and address many different legal issues germane to the process and execution of annulment and separation.
For marriage to be as free and unfettered as private citizens deserve, the argument goes, then it is important to provide the means with which to escape if necessary. In some countries the rate of divorce may be similar to the incidence of marriage, but this can be taken as an index of personal liberty and the freedom to make all decisions oneself rather than a moral or ethical failing.
With our revolutionary programs in marriage counselling Toronto and couples therapy Toronto, we provide a solution for those struggling in their relationship.
Processing your request, Please wait....
