ranted to kings and
princes; such permissions do not count as evidence of the
Church's rules, for, as the Council of Constantinople prudently
decided in 809, "Divine law can do nothing against Kings" (art.
"Bigamy," _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_). The law of
monogamy was also relaxed in cases of enforced or voluntary
desertion. Thus the Council of Vermerie (752) enacted that if a
wife will not accompany her husband when he is compelled to
follow his lord into another land, he may marry again, provided
he sees no hope of returning. Theodore of Canterbury (688),
again, pronounces that if a wife is carried away by the enemy and
her husband cannot redeem her, he may marry again after an
interval of a year, or, if there is a chance of redeeming her,
after an interval of five years; the wife may do the same. Such
rules, though not general, show, as Meyrick points out (art.
"Marriage," _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_), a willingness
"to meet particular cases as they arise."

As the Canon law grew rigid and the Catholic Church lost its
vital adaptibility, sexual variations ceased to be recognized
within its sphere. We have to wait for the Reformation for any
further movement. Many of the early Protestant Reformers,
especially in Germany, were prepared to admit a considerable
degree of vital flexibility in sexual relationships. Thus Luther
advised married women with impotent husbands, in cases where
there was no wish or opportunity for divorce, to have sexual
relations with another man, by preference the husband's brother;
the children were to be reckoned to the husband ("Die Sexuelle
Frage bei Luther," _Mutterschutz_, Sept., 1908).

In England the Puritan spirit, which so largely occupied itself
with the reform of marriage, could not fail to be concerned with
the question of sexual variations, and from time to time we find
the proposal to legalize polygyny. Thus, in 1658, "A Person of
Quality" published in London a small pamphlet dedicated to the
Lord Protector, entitled _A Remedy for Uncleanness_. It was in
the form of a number of queries, asking why we should not admit
polygamy for the avoidance of adultery and infanticide. The
writer inquires whether it may not "stand with a gracious spirit,
and be every way consistent with the principles of a man fearing
God