hich they could not obtain in Corinth, just as
discontented spouses, in our times, sue in a neighboring State for a legal
separation which is denied them in their own. Christ is not divided, nor
do the Apostles contradict one another.

The Catholic Church, following the light of the Gospel, forbids a divorced
man to enter into second espousals during the life of his former partner.
This is the inflexible law she first proclaimed in the face of Pagan
Emperors and people and which she has ever upheld, in spite of the
passions and voluptuousness of her own rebellious children.

Henry VIII., once an obedient son and defender of the Church, conceived in
an evil hour, a criminal attachment for Anne Boleyn, a lady of the queen's
household, whom he desired to marry after being divorced from his lawful
consort, Catherine of Arragon. But Pope Clement VII., whose sanction he
solicited, sternly refused to ratify the separation, though the Pontiff
could have easily forseen that his determined action would involve the
Church in persecution, and a whole nation in the unhappy schism of its
ruler. Had the Pope acquiesced in the repudiation of Catherine, and in the
marriage of Anne Boleyn, England would, indeed, have been spared to the
Church, but the Church herself would have surrendered her peerless title
of Mistress of Truth.

When Napoleon I. repudiated his devoted wife, Josephine, and married Marie
Louise, of Austria, so well assured was he of the fruitlessness of his
attempt to obtain from the Holy See the sanction of his divorce and
subsequent marriage that he did not even consult the Holy Father on the
subject.

A few years previously Napoleon appealed to Pius VII. to annul the
marriage which his brother Jerome had contracted with Miss Patterson of
Baltimore. The Pope sent the following reply to the Emperor: "Your majesty
will understand that upon the information thus far received by us it is
not in our power to pronounce a sentence of nullity. We cannot utter a
judgment in opposition to the rules of the Church, and we could not,
without laying aside those rules, decree the invalidity of a union which,
according to the Word of God, no human power can sunder."

Christian wives and mothers, what gratitude you owe to the Catholic Church
for the honorable position you now hold in society! If you are no longer
regarded as the slave, but the equal of your husband; if you are no longer
the toy of his caprice and liable to be discard