and unjust laws of men, that he may cleave to his wife? If the Pope, or any bishop or official, dissolves any marriage, because it has been contracted contrary to the papal laws, he is guilty of treason against God, because this sentence stands: 'Whom God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.'"
He effectively demolishes the ecclesiastical doctrine as to "fanciful spiritual affinities," and asks unanswerably whether the Christian man is not the "brother" of the Christian woman, so that on the principle that spiritual relationship is to determine lawfulness of marriage, no marriage between Christians could ever be permissible. Throughout Luther writes in a spirit of practical good sense which makes short work of the artificial teaching which had been elaborated by the canonists, and brings the whole subject on to the plane of average everyday life.
It is to be noted that the Saxon reformer did not stand alone in taking up this ground against the papal system. The mediaval Church did not appear to those who revolted against it as the champion of marriage, but as precisely
