court of divorce should
follow, or which specified whether the divorces granted should be from
bed and board only, or from the bond of matrimony; though, as a fact,
most, if not all, of the divorces granted under the first charter were
from the bond of matrimony.

Thus the general principles which governed the Ecclesiastical Courts and
the High Court of Parliament, in relation to divorce proceedings, became
and formed a part of the common or unwritten law of Massachusetts at the
commencement of her history; and they have never ceased to form a part
of her common law. They have been reaffirmed again and again. Thus in
1692-3, after the abrogation of the colonial charter, and the
establishment of a provincial government, under the second charter, it
was enacted "that all controversies concerning marriage and divorce
should be heard and determined by the governor and council," which had
taken the place of the Court of Assistants. Again, in 1784-5, when the
province had become a commonwealth, when the divorce jurisdiction was
transferred to the Supreme Judicial Court, when the causes were defined
for which that court might grant divorces from bed and board, and
divorces from the bond of matrimony, respectively, it was enacted that
the court should hear and determine all causes of divorce and alimony,
"according to the course of proceeding in Ecclesiastical Courts and in
Courts of Equity;" and this provision has been reenacted at every
revision of our statutes, in 1836, 1860, and 1882. By force of this
statute the general principles which governed the Ecclesiastical Courts
are a part of the law of Massachusetts to-day. One short chapter of the
Public Statutes contains all her statutory law touching not only divorce
but several other incidental subjects. It is a chapter of fragments.
Connivance, collusion, condonation, recrimination, and other defences
are not even mentioned therein.

In the case of Commonwealth _v._ Munson, 127 Mass., 459, Chief-Justice
Gray, referring to the requisites of a valid marriage ceremony, said
"the Canon Law was never adopted" in Massachusetts; and this is true in
respect to the particular subject which that learned judge had under
consideration. He never meant it as an unqualified statement, for as
such it would not be true. In 1691 the marriage between Hannah Owen and
Josiah Owen was declared null and void by the Court of Assistants,
because Hannah was the widow of Josiah's brother, and because