Sir Alfred Stephen and divorce law reform in New South Wales, 1886-1892

Abstract

The laws governing marriage and divorce have always been of the utmost importance to both the Church and to the State, for the family is the foundation of morality. The Australian Colonies inherited the English marriage laws, but not, after 1856, their divorce laws. The English in turn based their laws on the Christian ideal of marriage and the canon law. Until the Middle Ages, the simple consent of both parties, without any religious ceremony, was deemed sufficient to constitute a valid marriage. In the twelfth century the Church raised marriage to the status of a sacrament, and held it to be absolutely indissoluble. The Council of Trent made its celebration by a priest essential for the validity of the marriage, and, at the same time, reinforced the medieval idea that marriage was a formidable barrier to spiritual purity when it reaffirmed the celibacy of the priesthood and pronounced anathema on anyone who dared to say that "the state of marriage is to be preferred to the state of virginity or celibacy"