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Christian views on divorce find their basis both in biblical sources dating to the giving of the law to Moses () and political developments in the Christian world long after standardization of the Bible. According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus emphasized the permanence of marriage, but also its integrity. In the book of Matthew Jesus says "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery".〔e.g., , , , , see also Expounding of the Law#Divorce〕 Paul the Apostle concurred but added an exception, known as the Pauline privilege. The Catholic Church prohibits divorce, and permits annulment (a finding that the marriage was never valid) under a narrow set of circumstances. The Eastern Orthodox Church permits divorce and remarriage in church in certain circumstances,〔See Timothy (now Archbishop Kalistos) Ware, (''The Orthodox Church'' )〕 though its rules are generally more restrictive than the civil divorce rules of most countries. Most Protestant churches discourage divorce except as a last resort, but do not actually prohibit it through church doctrine. The Christian emperors Constantine and Theodosius restricted the grounds for divorce to grave cause, but this was relaxed by Justinian in the sixth century. After the fall of the empire, familial life was regulated more by ecclesiastical authority than civil authority. == Roman Catholic Church == By the ninth or tenth century, the divorce rate had been greatly reduced under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church,〔Kent's Commentaries on American Law, p. 96 (14th ed. 1896))〕 which considered marriage a sacrament instituted by God and Christ indissoluble by mere human action.〔Cf. (Mark 10:9 ); Canons of the Council of Trent, Twenty-fourth Session. 〕 Although divorce, as known today, was generally allowed in Western Europe after the tenth century, separation of husband and wife and the annulment of marriage were well-known. What is today referred to as “separate maintenance” (or "legal separation") was termed "divorce a mensa et thoro" ("divorce from bed-and-board"). The husband and wife physically separated and were forbidden to live or cohabit together; but their marital relationship did not fully terminate.〔Kent's Commentaries on American Law, p. 125, n. 1 (14th ed. 1896).〕 Civil courts had no power over marriage or divorce. Canon law makes no provision for divorce, but a declaration of nullity may be granted when proof is produced that essential conditions for contracting a valid marriage were absent— in other words, that the sacrament did not take place due to some impediment. The grounds for annulment are determined by Church authority and applied in ecclesiastical courts. Annulment was known as “divorce a vinculo matrimonii,” or “divorce from all the bonds of marriage,” for canonical causes of impediment existing at the time of the marriage. “For in cases of total divorce, the marriage is declared null, as having been absolutely unlawful ''ab initio''.”〔W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 428 (Legal Classics Library spec. ed. 1984).〕〔Kent's Commentaries on American Law, p. 1225, n. 1.〕〔E.Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England, 235 (Legal Classics Library spec. ed. 1985).〕 The Church holds that the sacrament of marriage produces one person from two, inseparable from each other: “By marriage the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being of legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage or at least incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection and cover, she performs everything.”〔Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, p. 435 (Legal Classics Library spec. ed. 1984.〕 Since husband and wife became one person upon marriage, that oneness can only be seen as null if the parties improperly entered into the marriage initially, in which the marriage does not validly exist. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Christian views on divorce」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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