has lost validity, where alone it could be valid, in foro conscientiœ. It seems to follow that no Christian can rightly condone adultery, for that would be to acquiesce in a monstrous association of the nature of polygamy.
In the case of adultery, discovered, repented of and forgiven, it must be assumed that a new marriage has really taken place, though of course no fresh legal ceremony is requisite, since the original contract has not been cancelled by divorce. The essence of marriage is free consent of the parties: that consent is abrogated when an adulterous union is formed: but the act of renouncing the sinful connection on the one side, and of forgiving the injury on the other, amounts on both sides to a fresh act of consent, that is, to a fresh marriage.
The reason why an adulterer should be refused the permission legally to marry, which is rightly allowed to the innocent party, lies, presumably, not in the region of Christian morality so much as in that of legal principle.
