CHAPTER VI
CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE UNDER MODERN
CONDITIONS OF LIFE
The Reformation broke up the unity of Western Christendom, and made impossible the system of ecclesiastical government which had been built up on the assumption of that unity; but this was by no means all the change it effected. Within the separated states of Europe there was no longer any security for religious agreement, and in point of fact the Reformation inaugurated a long series of domestic conflicts and devastating wars of religion, which, after the interval of more than a century, left the religious divisions, from which they mainly arose, not only existing, but deepened and stereotyped. Under these circumstances it is clear that the national churches which replaced the medieval Church were
