In the modern urban age, divorce is becoming an increasingly prominent response to difficulties in marriage. Within the fabric of society, divorce rates have risen to almost the fiftieth percentile in several industrialized countries. Similarly, in countries that are in the process of modernization, divorce is increasing at an alarming rate. It is interesting to note some of the historical actions relating to divorce, particularly confining oneself to the pre modern period of European history. This paper will focus on the subject of divorce during the period known as the Protestant Reformation, a direct challenge to the authority and ambiguity present in Catholic Europe of the Medieval Period. Specifically, the paper will overview the Reformation, look at the basic family structures common in that period, and comment on the specific trends and patterns of divorce. England and France will be used as test cases for the paper, primarily because most of the demographic analysis of the family has been done in those countries. Finally, the paper will conclude with an assessment of the way that the process of divorce specifically affected women, and will ponder the question of whether divorce during the Reformation helped to liberate women.
During the period known as the Middle Ages, roughly from the fall of Rome to the thirteenth century, life in Europe was characterized by a formal adherence to religiosity and formal social relations. The average person was inexorably tied to a village or region, often not leaving the area for his or her entire life. Marriage was still arranged by parents, and governed basically by the dogma of the Catholic Church (Dickens, 1982).
The Reformation, however, was a complex process in which some of the formal authority of the Church was transferred to the individual. Protestantism, at least in the case of Martin Luther's rebellion against Catholicism, was concerned with two basic areas of life. ...