Editing Divorce (section)

===Secularisation in Europe===
[[File:1491 Henry VIII.jpg|thumb|[[Henry VIII]] of England broke with the [[Catholic Church]] in order to obtain an annulment.]]
After the [[Reformation]], marriage came to be considered a [[contract]] in the newly Protestant regions of Europe, and on that basis, [[civil authorities]] gradually asserted their power to decree a "divortium a vinculo matrimonii", or "divorce from all the bonds of marriage".

Since no [[precedents]] existed defining the circumstances under which marriage could be dissolved, civil courts heavily relied on the previous determinations of the [[ecclesiastic]] courts and freely adopted the requirements set down by those courts. As the civil courts assumed the power to dissolve marriages, courts still strictly construed the circumstances under which they would grant a divorce,<ref>Blackstone, ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'', p. 429.</ref> and considered divorce to be contrary to [[public policy (law)|public policy]]. Because divorce was considered to be against the public interest, civil courts refused to grant a divorce if evidence revealed any hint of complicity between the husband and wife to divorce, or if they attempted to manufacture grounds for a divorce. Divorce was granted only because one party to the marriage had violated a sacred [[vow]] to the "innocent spouse". If both husband and wife were guilty, "neither would be allowed to escape the bonds of marriage".<ref>''Kent's Commentaries on American Law'', p. 401.</ref>

Eventually, the idea that a marriage could be dissolved in cases in which one of the parties violated the sacred vow gradually allowed expansion of the grounds upon which divorce could be granted from those grounds which existed at the time of the marriage to grounds which occurred after the marriage, but which exemplified violation of that vow, such as [[Grounds for divorce (United States)#Abandonment or desertion|abandonment]], [[adultery]], or "extreme cruelty".<ref>''Kent's Commentaries on American Law'', p. 147.</ref> An exception to this trend was the [[Anglican Church]], which maintained the doctrine of marital indissolubility.

During the [[English Civil War]], the [[Puritans]] briefly passed a law that divested marriage of all sacrament, leaving it as a secular contract that could be broken. [[John Milton]] wrote [[Milton's divorce tracts|four divorce tracts]] in 1643–1645 that argued for the legitimacy of divorce on grounds of spousal incompatibility. His ideas were ahead of their time; arguing for divorce at all, let alone a version of [[no-fault divorce]], was extremely controversial and religious figures sought to ban his tracts.<ref>{{cite book|author=D. F. McKenzie|chapter=The London Book Trade in 1644|title=Making Meaning: Printers of the Mind and Other Essays|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|year=2002|pages=140–1|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HtUfy7-OC1YC|isbn=978-1558493360}}</ref> In 1670 a precedent was first set with an [[Act of Parliament]] allowing Lord [[John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland|John Manners]] to divorce his wife, [[Anne Manners, Lady Roos|Lady Anne Pierrepont]], and until the passage of the [[Matrimonial Causes Act 1857]], divorce could only be obtained through a specific Act of Parliament.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/history_of_marriage_in_western.html |title=HISTORY OF MARRIAGE IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION |author=Erwin J. Haeberle |publisher=The Continuum Publishing Company |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515233113/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/history_of_marriage_in_western.html |archive-date=2013-05-15 }}</ref>

[[File:Le divorce de l'Impératrice Joséphine 15 décembre 1809 (Henri-Frederic Schopin).jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|left|[[Joséphine de Beauharnais|Joséphine]], first wife of [[Napoleon]], obtained the civil dissolution of her marriage under the [[Napoleonic Code]] of 1804.]]
The move towards secularisation and liberalisation was reinforced by the individualistic and secular ideals of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]. The [[Enlightened absolutism|Enlightened absolutist]], King [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick II]] ("the Great") of [[Prussia]] decreed a new divorce law in 1752, in which marriage was declared to be a purely private concern, allowing divorce to be granted on the basis of mutual consent. This new attitude heavily influenced the law in neighbouring [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] under Emperor [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]], where it was applied to all non-Catholic Imperial subjects.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2548&context=lcp|title=Trends in marriage and divorce law of Western countries|author=Max Rheinstein|author-link=Max Rheinstein|access-date=2013-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203032903/http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2548&context=lcp|archive-date=2013-12-03|url-status=live}}</ref> Divorce was legalised in France after the [[French Revolution]] on a similar basis, although the legal order of the [[ancien regime]] was reinstated at the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon restoration]] of 1816. The trend in Europe throughout the 19th century, was one of increased liberalisation; by the mid-19th century, divorce was generally granted by civil courts in the case of [[adultery]].
[[File:Marilyn Monroe and Jerry Giesler 3.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|[[Marilyn Monroe]] signing divorce papers with celebrity attorney [[Jerry Giesler]].]]

In Britain, before 1857 wives were regarded as under the economic and legal protection of their husbands, and divorce was almost impossible. It required a very expensive private Act of Parliament costing perhaps £200, of the sort only the richest could possibly afford. It was very difficult to secure divorce on the grounds of adultery, desertion, or cruelty. The first key legislative victory came with the [[Matrimonial Causes Act 1857]], which passed over the strenuous opposition of the highly traditional Church of England. The new law made divorce a civil affair of the courts, rather than a Church matter, with a new civil court in London handling all cases. The process was still quite expensive, at about £40, but now became feasible for the middle class. A woman who obtained a judicial separation took the status of a ''feme sole'', with full control of her own civil rights. Additional amendments came in 1878, which allowed for separations handled by local justices of the peace. The Church of England blocked further reforms until the final breakthrough came with the [[Matrimonial Causes Act 1973]].<ref>Lawrence Stone. ''Road to Divorce: England 1530–1987'' (1990)</ref><ref>Elie Halevy, ''History of the English People: The Rule of Democracy (1905–1914)'' (1932) pp</ref>

In [[Spain]], the 1931 Constitution of the [[Second Spanish Republic]] for the first time recognised a right to divorce. The first law to regulate divorce was the ''Divorce Act of 1932'', which passed the Republican Parliament despite the opposition of the Catholic Church and a coalition of the Agrarian Minority and Minority Basque-Navarre Catholic parties. The dictatorship of General Franco abolished the law. After the restoration of democracy, a new divorce law was passed in 1981, again over the opposition of the Catholic Church and part of the Christian Democrat party, then a part of the ruling Union of Democratic Center. During the first socialist government of [[Felipe González Márquez]], the 1981 law was amended to expedite the process of separation and divorce of marriages, which was again opposed by the Church, which called it "express divorce".

In [[Italy]], the first divorce law was introduced on 1 December 1970, despite the opposition of the [[Christian Democrats]],<ref>Law n. 898/70 (1 December 1970) – "Discipline of the cases of dissolution of marriage".</ref> and entered into force on 18 December 1970. In the following years, the Christian Democrats, supported also by parties opposed to the law, promoted a recall referendum. In 1974, in a referendum, the majority of the population voted against a repeal of the divorce law. A feature of the 1970 divorce law was the long period of marital separation of five years required. This period was reduced to three in 1987 and to a year in 2015, in the case of judicial separation, and six months in the case of separation by mutual agreement.

[[Ireland]] and [[Malta]] approved divorce at referendums in 1995 and 2011 respectively.

Divorce rates increased markedly during the 20th century in developed countries, as social attitudes towards family and sex changed dramatically.<ref>{{cite web|title=Divorce|url=http://www.oocities.org/totojunmar/divorce.html|website=Oocities.org|access-date=3 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203002256/http://www.oocities.org/totojunmar/divorce.html|archive-date=3 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> Divorce has become commonplace in some countries, including the [[United States]],<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/05/19/15-ways-to-predict-divorce.html |title=15 Ways to Predict Divorce |website=[[The Daily Beast]] |date=19 May 2010 |access-date=2012-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920052827/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/05/19/15-ways-to-predict-divorce.html |archive-date=2012-09-20 |url-status=live |last1=Rufus |first1=Anneli }}</ref> [[Canada]], [[Australia]], [[Germany]], [[New Zealand]], [[Scandinavia]], and the [[United Kingdom]].<ref name="Haines">{{cite web|last1=Haines|first1=Nicola|title=Divorces in England and Wales: 2015|url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/divorce/bulletins/divorcesinenglandandwales/2015|website=Office for National Statistics UK|access-date=16 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217082644/https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/divorce/bulletins/divorcesinenglandandwales/2015|archive-date=17 February 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>