Why The Catholic Church Allow Divorce To Happen

Divorce did not come about until the Protestant Reformation and even then, it was mostly used by upper class citizens. “Fornication, clandestine marriage, and adultery were sexual offenses related to marriage.” Adultery was seen as a “wife’s crime” and was very serious. On the other hand, men did the same thing but were not punished for it. These men even had children outside of their marriage and the wife was expected to take care of them just the same. This happened mostly with high status families, but in poorer families men resulted to bigamy of desertion. Either way, the woman was put in an unfair position that she had to deal with.13

A papal dispensation, or permission from the pope, needed to be issued in order for Prince Henry to marry his brother’s widow. According to the book of Leviticus, the marriage was prohibited and “if a brother is to marry the wife of a brother they will remain childless”. After the death of her husband, Catherine denied that her marriage had been consummated and that no dispensation was required. Both England and Spain agreed that a papal dispensation was needed to assure that the marriage was justifiable. However, even after the papal dispensation was granted, Prince Henry and his brother’s widow did not wed because King Henry VII failed to keep his end of the bargain (“Henry VIII King of England” 2).

While these were the main causes of Reformation in continental Europe, in England, King Henry VIII initiated the Reformation. Henry VIII wanted to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, after she had failed to produce a male heir to the throne. However, a divorce was not a simple issue. Henry VIII was a Roman Catholic and the Roman Catholic faith believed in marriage for life. It did not recognise, let alone support, divorce. He also wanted to prevent the interference of foreign powers in the national and international affairs of the country.

Source 9 and 7 disagrees with the statement and tells us that Henrys wish to divorce Catherine of Aragon was the driving force in the break from Rome. Source 9 is a letter written by Eustace Chapuys it tells us of his suspicions to why Cranmer was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury, “to the great astonishment of everybody”. He tells us that it is suspected that Cranmer has been made Archbishop as he “may authorise the new marriage in this parliament and can grant the necessary divorce”. Promoting Cranmer to Archbishop so hastily without consulting the Pope shows a clear break and the cause is shown to be the Henrys haste to gain the “necessary divorce”. Source 7 says about the Act in Restraint of Appeals that “in earlier drafts of the act, specific reference was made to the King’s divorce and the problems of succession”, this shows that one of the main pieces of legislation surrounding the break from Rome contained the personal matter of the King’s divorce, showing it was an important factor. However the validity of Source 9 is questionable as it is written by the ambassador to Charles V. Charles V was Catherine of Aragon’s nephew so Chapuys would probably place Catherine’s importance, in the break with rome, first.

3.) How important do you think maintaining the marriage should be when a couple enters relationship counseling because of conflict and emotional distress? Do counselors have a greater ethical responsibility to encourage couples to maintain the marriage when children are involved? What guidelines would you provide to a new couple 's counselor trying to help a couple decide whether to stay together or divorce?

The argument has been put forth that Elizabeth failed to marry due to her council’s attitude. While her council played a vital role, they weren’t the only contributing factor; unsuitable candidates and the political advantage that came with negotiations also resulted in her failure to marry. Elizabeth was ultimately in control of the matches, however relied on the support provided by her councillors.

The United States of America is the land of the free and the home of the brave; however, it can also be called the country that holds the highest divorce rates. America’s divorce rate in 2010 was at forty one percent and is still currently growing (Divorce Rates by Country). Forty percent of these divorces had children involved (Divorce Rates in America). With such shocking statistics, it is easy to see that America’s divorce system is in dire need of change. Since divorce can ruin families, harm a child’s all around well-being, and holds the potential of being prevented, there should be more strict regulations to receive a divorce and a stronger push for covenant marriages.

The English Reformation was a detailed process, in 16th-century England, where the Church of England broke ties with the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. It all began with King Henry VIII marriage with Catherine of Aragon. After years of marriage Catherine had not produced a male heir who survived into adulthood angering the King. With this in mind King Henry will set his eyes own Anne Boleyn who was a maid of honor to Queen Catherine. By the late 1520s, Henry wanted his marriage to Catherine annulled, claiming it to be invalid due to the fact that Catherine was his late brothers wife making it wrong for Henry VIII to be allowed to marry her. In 1527 Henry asked the Pope, Pope Clement VII, to annul his marriage. The pope refused in fear of the Queen’s nephew, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. this

Furthermore, in England, King Henry VIII considered himself a worthy Catholic king. He had “enthusiastically attacked the outbreak of Protestant heresy when it began, and the papacy gave him the title Defender of the Faith as a result”. This did not matter when Henry wanted to divorce from Catherine of Aragon. When the church would not grant the divorce he wanted, Henry’s resulting decision to create the Church of England set the standards for more than a century of religious conflict/isues in England. The Act of Supremacy in 1534 essentially “took power away from the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.” Henry VIII made an entirely new church which he made himself head of, because he was the king. This demonstrates the actions that politics affected Europe and that they were not always necessarily for religious purposes but for power and personal

Henry VIII married his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon, in a political marriage (much like most weddings of the time). When Catherine of Aragon had stillborn children as well as early infancy deaths to all of their children, except Mary, Henry VIII began to worry that he would not have a son to heir the thrown. He began to petition the court for an annulment, so that we could marry his mistress Ann of Boleyn. At first Catherine, was kept in the dark of Henry's plans, he was using the text of Leviticus to justify his annulment. In the book of Leviticus, it states that if a man takes his brother's wife they shall remain childless. Even though they had a healthy daughter, Mary, this

Cramner appealed to Parliament to confirm that Henry’s marriage to Catherine was invalid. Henry secretly marries a lady in his court, Anne Boleyn, in 1533. He decides to officially break with the Catholic church the following year and makes himself the head of the Church of England. He appoints Cramner as his new Archbishop and Cramner publicly declares the marriage between King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon as invalid.

As king of England, Henry has the power and the unquestionable authority to act based off his own desires even if they are not legally or morally acceptable. Because his current wife, Catherine, who was also his brother’s widow, has failed to birth a son, he wishes to divorce her and take Queen Anne as his new wife. Without a male heir to the throne, Henry’s lineage will come to an end and England will be left without a successor. He admits this to More during their meeting in Act 1, saying,

He came with an idea. Henry as a deeply religious man deduced that God did not gave him a boy since he married his brother´s widow. That action was wrong according to the Book of Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible. Henry claimed that God do not agree with such marriage and that an earlier pope, Julius II, did a mistake when he assented to this matrimony. After this deduction he demanded annulment from the pope Clement VII.

It is my understanding that you have been tasked to defend the validity of her majesty’s marriage to King Henry VIII due to your skillfulness in the art of law. I admire your determination, but your work will be futile in preventing the divorce from occurring, England’s parliament, and even members of Convocation seem to have conveniently forgotten their loyalty to God. Those who have not, fear that dissenting the proposals put forth by Master Cromwell will result in treason, and even in some cases their own demise. I myself am among those, and that is why I write to you so desperately.

The fourth misconception that most people have about women in Islam and sharia law is the concept of divorce. In the same article that was mentioned in the previous paragraph, “Women's rights in Islam,” Nicolau states, “Being left at the mercy of man who can disavow her (the wife) at his free will, without being obliged to show any reasons determining him to do so, the Moslem woman is nothing else but a simple piece of patrimony for her husband” (Women's rights in Islam). In other words, Nicolau believes that Muslim women are humiliated and treated as objects by their husbands because husbands can initiate divorce whenever they wish to do so. Nevertheless, this is a common misconception that most people have, which is that only men could divorce their spouse, where in reality they both could. In fact, there are mostly five primary conditions for a divorce to be issued in Islam. The first condition is by mutual consent, which is when both spouses agree to the divorce. The second condition is if a wife made it conditional at the day of the Aqd (the marital contract), that she also want to be able to initiate divorce. The third condition is divorce Khula, which is when a wife wants a divorce for no obvious reason, then she would have to return the dowry that the husband gave her, and in return, he gives her the divorce paper. The fourth condition is the divorce for a valid reason, which is if a wife has a valid reason such as any type of abuse done toward her by the husband, or