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- Lucifer, vol. 3, no. 15, November 1888, pp. 256-257
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Title for references: Blake C.C. - Casting Off
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256
If King Henry VIII., the much-married King of England, stopped in some of his proceedings for divorce, or at least was stopped by the ecclesiastical authorities at the first of his acts, and was warned by them that his divorce with Catherine of Aragon was contrary to the laws of God, and could hardly be made by any sort of modus vivendi to fit in with the laws of men, King Milan of Servia has certainly sent in a greater amount of tickets to entitle him to a final “distribution of gifts.”
I wish that some authority from the Editorial chair of Lucifer would tell me whether the recent action of King Milan of Servia will not entail upon him a Karma, a never-ending penalty of remorse, shame, and future sorrow, for the cruel and unjustifiable act which he has committed by the divorce of his Queen Nathalie.[1]
I would like to know whether the Russian Christian Church, as well as the West, considers marriage as a thing which may not be cast aside by the decision of a civil tribunal. Your own creed of the Russian Church appears to my unassisted intellect to be emphatic, pronounced, and unchanging.
I quote from the creed of the Russian Church: –
“εφ’ ορον ζωης αυτων εις καθα κινδυνον, δεν εξαφινωται ο ενας τον αλλον, υστερον δε βεβαιωνεται.”
“Ad finem usque vitae, quocunque rerum discrimine, constanter servaturus, nec alter alterum deserturus sit.” (Orthodox Confession of the Eastern Church. a.d. 1643. Schaff. Creeds of the Greek Churches, 8vo. Lond. 1877, vol. ii., p. 393.
I may also state that there is not a single Latin priest who would dare to contravene the commands of his church by pronouncing a divorce a vinculo matrimonii in a case like that of King Milan. They are much too careful of the words “Whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Surely the Russian Church has the same pure tradition. If the old Patriarchs of Constantinople could speak, their voices would be emphatic to declare that the sacramental ties of marriage are eternal and indissoluble, and that their authority has been decreed by the oracular and changeless fiat of everlasting veracity.
Some of the inferior Jew papers in London have recently had letters on the subject “Is Marriage a Failure?” But they have in this respect often confused the civil and religious ties. In the marriage of King Milan we have both. He may be civilly allowed to emulate King Solomon, but religiously he has only one wife, from whom he is now divorced.
Let us now consider the matter. The world, at the end of the present century, and approaching its descending cycle, gradually becomes worse and worse as artificial civilisation progresses, and moral improvement diminishes. We see this in the tendency for facilitating divorce, either in Servia or in England, the less attention paid to individual aspirations after holiness, and the probability that the next generation will be a great deal worse than the present. We live in a time when the words of Horace,
Ætas parentium, pejor avis, tulit |
are deeply applicable to us, and those who are born of us, and then the action of men like King Milan is only a forecast of the future, when the coming race “Sans Dieu, sans foi, sans loi” shall preach “the principles of 1789,” “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” Liberty, each to select his own punishment; Equality, before the throne of some self-invoked infernal power; Fraternity, such as was that of Cain towards Abel.
257
Still, for those who do not contemplate decay on a large scale, it is hard to perceive individual instances of blasphemy and immorality, and harder that they should have the sanction of any religious body.
The old feeling of chivalry in the West makes me inclined to break a lance for the divorced Queen of Servia, and by advocating her strive
“For the cause that lacks assistance, |
Footnotes
- ↑ See the editor’s note, printed on p. 257 of this issue.