Bishop Potter does not agree with the Cardinal, yet they both study
substantially the same bible--both have been set apart for the purpose
of revealing the revelation. They are the persons whose duty it is to
enlighten the common people. Cardinal Gibbons knows that he represents
the only true church, and Bishop Potter is just as sure that he occupies
that position. What is the ordinary man to do?
The Cardinal states, without the slightest hesitation, that "Christ made
marriage a sacrament--made it the type of his own never-ending union
with his one sinless spouse, the church." The Bishop does not agree
with the Cardinal. He says: "Christ's words about divorce are not to be
construed as a positive law, but as expressing the ideal of marriage,
and corresponding to his words about eunuchs, which not everybody can
receive." Ought not the augurs to agree among themselves? What is a man
who has only been born once, to do?
The Cardinal says explicitly that marriage is a sacrament, and the
Bishop cites Article xxv., that "matrimony is not to be accounted for
a sacrament of the gospel," and then admits that "this might seem to
reduce matrimony to a civil contract." For the purpose of bolstering up
that view, he says, "The first rubric in the Form of Solemnization of
Matrimony declares that the minister is left to the direction of those
laws in every thing that regards a civil contract between the parties.'"
He admits that "no minister is allowed, _as a rule_, to solemnize the
marriage of any man or woman who has a divorced husband or wife still
living." As a matter of fact, we know that hundreds of Episcopalians do
marry where a wife or a husband is still living, and they are not turned
out of the Episcopal Church for this offence. The Bishop admits that the
church can do very little on the subject, but seems to gather a little
consolation from the fact, that "the penalty for breach of this law
might involve, for the officiating clergyman, deposition from the
ministry--for the offending man or woman exclusion from the sacraments,
which, in the judgment of a very large number of the clergy, involves
everlasting damnation."
The Cardinal is perfectly satisfied that the prohibition of divorce is
the foundation of morality, and the Bishop is equally certain that "the
prohibition of divorce never prevents illicit sexual connections."
The Bishop also gives us the report of a committee of the last General
Convention, forming Appendix xiii of the Journal. This report, according
to the Bishop, is to the effect "that the Mosaic law of marriage is
still binding upon the church unless directly abrogated by Christ
himself, that it-was abrogated by him only so far that all divorce was
forbidden by him excepting for the cause of fornication; that a woman
might not claim divorce for any reason whatever; that the marriage of a
divorced person until the death of the other party, is wholly forbidden;
that marriage is not merely a civil contract but a spiritual and
supernatural union, requiring for its mutual obligations a supernatural
divine grace, and that such grace is only imparted in the sacrament of
matrimony."
The most beautiful thing about this report is, that a woman might not
claim divorce for any reason whatever. I must admit that the report is
in exact accordance with the words of Jesus Christ. On the other hand,
the Bishop, not to leave us entirely without hope, says that "there is
in his church another school, equally earnest and sincere in its zeal
for the integrity of the family, which would nevertheless repudiate the
greater part of the above report."
There is one thing, however, that I was exceedingly glad to see, and
that is, that according to the Bishop the ideas of the early church are
closely connected with theories about matter, and about the inferiority
of woman, and about married life, which are no longer believed. The
Bishop has, with great clearness, stated several sides of this question;
but I must say, that after reading the Cardinal and the Bishop, the
earnest theological seeker after truth would find himself, to say the
least of it, in some doubt.
As a matter of fact, who cares what the Old Testament says upon this
subject? Are we to be bound forever by the ancient barbarians?
Mr. Gladstone takes the ground, first, "that marriage is essentially a
contract for life, and only expires when life itself expires"; second,
"that Christian marriage involves a vow before God"; third, "that no
authority has been given to the Christian Church to cancel such a vow";
fourth, "that it lies beyond the province of tie civil legislature,
which, from the necessity of things, has a veto within the limits of
reason, upon the making of it, but has no competency to annul it when
once made"; fifth, "that according to the laws of just interpretation,
remarriage is forbidden by the text of Holy Scripture"; and sixth, "that
while divorce of any kind impairs the integrity of the family, divorce
with remarriage destroys it root and branch; that the parental and the
conjugal relations are joined together by the hand of the Almighty
no less than the persons united by the marriage tie, to one another."
_First_. Undoubtedly, a real marriage was never entered into unless the
parties expected to live together as long as they lived. It does not
enter into the imagination of the real lover that the time is coming
when he is to desert the being he adores, neither does it enter into the
imagination of his wife, or of the girl about to become a wife. But how
and in what way, does a Christian marriage involve a vow before God?
Is God a party to the contract? If yes, he ought to see to it that the
contract is carried out. If there are three parties--the man, the woman,
and God--each one should be bound to do something, and what is God
bound to do? Is he to hold the man to his contract, when the woman has
violated hers? Is it his business to hold the woman to the contract,
when the man has violated his? And what right has he to have anything
to say on the subject, unless he has agreed to do something by reason of
this vow? Otherwise, it would be simply a _nudum pactum_--a vow without
consideration.
Mr. Gladstone informs us that no authority has been given to the
Christian Church to cancel such a vow. If he means by that, that God has
not given any such authority to the Christian Church, I most cheerfully
admit it.*
* Note.--This abrupt termination, together with the
unfinished replies to Justice Bradley and Senator Dolph,
which follow, shows that the author must have been
interrupted in his work, and on next taking it up concluded
that the colloquial and concrete form would better serve his
turn than the more formal and didactic style above employed.
He thereupon dictated his reply to the Gibbon and Gladstone
arguments in the following form which will be regarded as a
most interesting instance of the author's wonderful
versatility of style.
This unfinished matter was found among Col. Ingersoll's
manuscripts, and is given as transcribed from the
stenographic notes of Mr. I. N. Baker, his secretary,
without revision by the author.