and wife are one flesh,' and from this has always been deduced the inference that the kinship of the wife should be held to be the kinship of the husband."
This became the law of the empire when the empire became Christian. The Theodosian code declared marriage with a deceased wife's sister unlawful. An Address from the Presbyterian Ministers of Scotland to the Non-Conformist Ministers of England in 1871, published by Hamilton and Adams, after an able summary of Scripture doctrine shows that it was universally received by the Christian Church of the East and West from the time of Basil the Great in the middle of the 4th century, was first infringed by a dispensation of Pope Alexander VI. (the infamous Borgia) in 1550, and unanimously upheld by the Reformers, who rejected the authority of the Canon Law.
Dr. Cunninghame says "There was never any doubt among interpreters until early in the last century, when some Jews in Holland desired to form such connections and the three Universities of Holland unanimously affirmed that no Christian Government should tolerate such among their subjects. There was no difference of opinion among the Reformers, they believed the prohibition to be part of the universal law of God for men," and there was no difference of opinion in the Church on this subject till the 17th century, when some petty German princes wished to marry their wives' sisters and asked some professors to undertake the defence of these connections.
CAUTION!
Compare Leviticus xviii. 14, with Matthew v. 17, 18, 19.
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