Whose Authority?

Britain's Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, quixotic wit and author, does not believe that all marriages are made in heaven. In his novel Holy Deadlock, he charged full tilt into Britain's archaic divorce laws; after he got into Parliament, he pushed through the Matrimonial Causes Act in 1937, the first piece of divorce-reform legislation in 81 years. In the fight over that bill, some of Herbert's most strenuous opposition came from a conservative faction in the Church of England. Last week they were at it again, this time on the issue of Anthony Eden's remarriage.

The High Anglican Church Times had criticized "the marriage . . . of the Foreign Secretary, during the lifetime of his [divorced] wife," and chided a "pagan generation" for taking it "as a matter of course" (TIME, Aug. 25). In its next issue, the weekly newspaper noted without surprise that its views had aroused a generally "hostile" reaction.

"To the world," said the Church Times, "the Gospel is always a stumbling block and an offense . . . Marriage means one thing to those who recognize Our Lord's authority. It means something quite different to those who do not."

The long-wed "A.P." snapped back with a peppery article in the Daily Express: "For 38 years I have given practical proof of my respect for 'Christian marriage' . . . Most of us, I am sure, whether we recognize 'Our Lord's authority' or not, have the same 'ideal' of marriage as the editor ... I hate to use the word 'humbug' in any controversy; but let me say that the Voice of the Church has behind it some very loose and inconsistent thinking . . . If a man divorces his first wife after five years' 'incurable insanity,' he would risk the displeasure of the Church Times on his second marriage.

"But if he 'put her away' within a year by the way of 'nullity' [grounds upon which the courts may declare a lawful marriage to be null & void] because she was found to be subject to 'recurrent fits of insanity or epilepsy,' he would be free to marry again at once, with not a word of reproach from Portugal Street [the Church Times's address] . . . But where is 'Our Lord's authority' for this? How dare such loose thinkers lecture decent people . . . on lack of 'principle'?

"It is one thing to regret divorce--I regret them all. It is quite another to say that good men and women, lawfully married a second time, are 'living in sin' . . . Next time a respectable statesman who has had an unhappy life seeks comfort in a second marriage, I hope that Portugal Street will keep quiet about 'Our Lord's authority.' "

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