The Marlborough Muddle
I2o THE C O M M O N W EAL December 8, I926 m cope with an abuse so widespread, and religiousauthority is the best of all for the purpose. THE statement of the Reverend Samuel M. Zwemer, a'...
...Surely any- body who wishes to see how it affects him or her has a perfect right to find out...
...Some writer familiar with the material would do us all a great service if he transcribed from the official records a series of cases similar to the one now enkindling so much misguided wrath...
...We shall go over the ground a little carefully here because we feel that acrimonious references to the matter have done nobody any good...
...Such opinions are not usually considered final...
...Those who read the greatest address of his academic career--it was reprinted not long ago by the London Mercury--will remember with what remarkable power and conviction he de-veloped the idea that mankind cannot afford to lose contact with the "sources" of its inspiration and forti- tude...
...It is con- ceivable that a few even of the very indignant would take the trouble to read what he had to say...
...Manning is obviously not stupid enough to make...
...That is precisely why there are civil trials...
...Manning would admit that the free-will provision is wise in itself...
...Meanwhile nothing was said about the possible invalidity of their contract...
...He be- lieved that education might be defined as a develop-ment of ability to feel at home in any century--among any cultivated people...
...Precisely because one cannot help thinking that Bishop Man-ning is among the "many," it is interesting to consider his words...
...I2o THE C O M M O N W EAL December 8, I926 m cope with an abuse so widespread, and religiousauthority is the best of all for the purpose...
...He had no abstract of the arguments which had been presented...
...Every time he refuses to recognize the righteousness of a civil separation, he appeals to a moral law binding on the faithful over and beyond civil regulations...
...But in any case he would come knowing that the law is not American or English or French, but universal...
...But very likely Dr...
...If he does not consider the Catholic doc- trine of the sanctity of the matrimonial bond "for-eign," why should he term the administration of that doctrine "foreign" ? That the prestige of wealth influenced the court is a popular feeling based on ignorance...
...Surely Dr...
...It is satis- factory to know that the Persian government, since the consecration of Monsignor Cluzel as first apostolic delegate to Persia fifty years ago, has been friendly to Catholic missionary effort, and that a native priest- hood of the old Chaldean church still survives, in union with the Holy See...
...Few men brought to the study of antiquity so much vitality or robust curiosity...
...She had married again...
...Such a contract is impossible, says the Church with a wise regard for human nature, unless it is assented to by the will...
...An English Catholic di-ocesan court answered in the negative, and Rome up- held their verdict...
...Phillimore was, as is well known, a convert to the Catholic Church...
...The parties were united for years and children were born to them...
...She had previously been divorced by a civil court...
...That money has occasionally played a r61e in the history of the Church nobody will deny...
...But when Dr...
...The question at issue is simply this: "Were the Marlboroughs married...
...We appreciate the Bishop's efforts to stem the tide of divorce...
...The same central idea was valuably contributed to by outstanding published investigations...
...There is a con- siderable amount of precedent on the point and a study of it would be illuminating...
...If those who talk so glibly on the street-corners would take the trouble to gather a few data, they might be surprised to discover that the greater portion of those who have appealed to the ecclesiastical courts were persons so humble and obscure that they did not make news...
...It might refuse to render the service, and we should then admit that the Bishop had been treated uncharitably...
...Manning spoke he did not know what the evidence was...
...In the face of these circumstances, it was "imper-tinent" of a Roman Catholic tribunal to rule upon the matter at all, and more "impertinent" to declare there had been no marriage...
...Consequently it would have been salutary to remem-ber that just as this basic agreement was not "im-pertinent," the equally well-established and binding provisions concerning what constitutes marriage could not be termed "impertinent" without a display of ill- temper...
...She was, at least to some extent, interested in seeing whether her position could be legitimized in the eyes of the Catholic Church...
...But surely one does not need much enlightenment to discover that the vow of poverty would be a forgotten and curious tradition were it not for that same Church...
...He is probably fully aware of the fact that this law is nowhere more highly respected than inside what he would term the Roman Church...
...Certain episodes in the Hussein legend," says Professor Edward G. Brown, of Cambridge, England, one of the leading authorities on Persian literature and history, "would almost seem to indicate an unconscious sense of soli- darity with the Christians . . arising from their participation in the doctrine of atonement...
...In answering her question negatively, the Catholic court was following certain established provisions re- garding the marriage contract...
...Or was he betrayed mo- mentarily into crass lip-worship of a kind of bigotry specifically allied with the worst elements in America ? Here, then, was the former Duchess of Marlbor- ough seeking information about a very simple ques- tion...
...The present Catholic law on this aspect of the matter is a compromise arrived at after generations of experience and of thoughtful debating pro and contra...
...It is one thing to differ...
...Not only was it the original home of the Mithraic cult, whose work in creating a Christian ambient in ancient Rome is only beginning to be studied as it deserves, but in the annual "Passion Play," which commemorates the death of Hussein, still celebrated annually at the feast of Mohurrum, there is a likeness to the Christian Holy Week that is startling--the more so as the name of Our Saviour occurs again and again...
...His case may he outlined briefly: The marriage was solemnized in his diocese and was upheld by the Anglican Church, speaking through the Bishop of Oxford, as valid after the Duke had ob-tained a civil divorce decree...
...Should Bishop Manning care to get an opinion from a canonical court regard- ing some detail of parish organization, nobody would December 8, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL I2...
...Here he would find that numerous trained legal minds had so reasoned before him...
...Bishop Manning, however, replies in the affirmative...
...It follows logically from the doctrine that free will is an essential constituent of human nature: if marriage is a personal contract, the "whole man" must enter into it, and that neces-sarily means free will...
...In other words, they have the same origin as the doctrine of indissoluble marriage...
...But before making reference to this undoubtedly widespread sentiment, it is best to repeat that the question upon which the tribunal passed was merely this: "Were the Marlboroughs married...
...We answer that the tribunal, like hundreds of similar courts through the world, was rightfully estab-lished to administer canon law...
...THE MARLBOROUGH MUDDLE S URELY all of us are obliged to Dr...
...and one may even appeal over it to the Pope...
...Manning, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, for his rather headstrong pronouncement on the subject of the Marlborough marriage...
...Which side is right must be con- sidered a matter of pure probability...
...He merely delivered an opinion from the outside, quite in the same way as a policeman might decide that a dark man found leav- ing a room where a murder had been committed was the culprit...
...He might reason that years of living as man and wife would alter the situa- tion to the extent of making the bargain voluntary...
...Here the provision which based the decision was the simple ruling that marriage is a personal contract between two people, by means of which each pledges himself or herself to the other...
...This is a code of moral legislation which is one and the same for the universal Church and which has been appealed to and applied since the days of the Fathers...
...The "impertinence" was largely due to the fact that the tribunal was "foreign"--i.e., foreign to the United States and foreign to the Protestant Episcopal body...
...The evidence submitted was insufficient...
...deny him the privilege or say that the court was barred from responding...
...These are all his-torically derivative from natural law and revelation...
...This stated rather concisely a great deal of opinion held by Americans who have no intimate acquaintance with the processes of canon law, and it afforded Catholic authorities an opportunity to discuss a subject which ordinarily would almost certainly put a congregation to sleep...
...History reveals that this point of view was upheld officially by the universal Church al- ready in the ninth century...
...This case--which we believe is stated fairly-=-is re- inforced by a certain amount of popular feeling that "money" and "social prestige" had something to do with the solution...
...Here he displayed something of the same poetic sense which made his work as a writer of original verse so illuminating and attractive...
...The matter of evidence remains...
...Can these things be called "impertinent...
...It is another to know what the difference is about...
...Manning considers it insufficient, and the Catholic tribunal con- sidered it adequate...
...Manning would not have us infer that because the Duchess had once been married inside the Protestant Episcopal communion, it would be "impertinent" for her to change her mind about that communion ? This charge of "impertinence" would, we suggest, be rather dam- aging to all Episcopalians--they having once exercised the same impertinence concerning Rome...
...This means clearly that you and I are not bound to accept the burdens of matrimony unless we really agreed in the beginning to accept them...
...To call it foreign is equivalent to saying that the Catholic Church itself is foreign--a charge which Dr...
...Here again resi- dents in glass houses should not take up the r61e of David--size is not the only requirement for the part...
...Very likely her French husband suggested the action and outlined what it implied...
...The Marl-borough case has been preceded by many another...
...And that is also precisely why, we submit, it is more logical to credit the Catholic answer to the Marlbor- ough question than to accept Dr...
...Many people are exemplifying the first without taking any heed of the second...
...One may legiti- mately differ with a judgment of a canonical court...
...THE statement of the Reverend Samuel M. Zwemer, a' Protestant missionary for many years in the East, that Persia is "ripe for the benefits of Christian civili- zation," may be a little exaggerated, but it will not surprise those who know anything of the religious should not be forgotten, are an Aryan race, akin to most European stocks, have never accepted Moham- medism "en bloc," and their history is a long record of invasion and martyrdom at the hands of the Turks, those Calvinists of Islam...
...Did it have the right to weigh this question...
...Manning's opinion...
...Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about Persh is the hold that the doctrine of atonement by blood has always had upon the imagination of its people...
...The defense of personal free- dom as a moral truth has cost Catholic philosophy many a hard battle, and it would be unfortunate if the antagonists were now Christian bishops...
...ALTHOUGH the world of classical scholarship will regret in a particular way the passing of Pro-fessor John Swinnerton Phillimore, whose death was announced recently, it is a distinct loss to all modern English culture...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 5
