"Taking its cue from Matthew 19:6, 'What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,' this book describes humankind's actions in doing just that. A readable selected history of family law, To Put Asunder traverses more than two thousand years of continuing attempts by various societies to inhibit the desires of men and women, kings and commoners, to terminate their unsatisfactory marriages ... Examining court proceedings, the policies of church and state, scholarly literature, and the anger and frustration of unhappy spouses, Lawrence Stotter reports on the path of the domestic relations laws adopted in Western civilization. By clarifying the philosophy and goals behind the development of divorce laws in biblical times and tribal societies, under the influences of early Greek and Roman civilization, during the rule of the Roman Catholic Church, after the impact of the Reformation and Henry VIII's Church of England, and with the modifications brought about by the founders of Colonial America up through the beginning of the twentieth century, Stotter makes clear the reasons for, and the foundations of, our current divorce provisions. Lawrence Stotter provides, in five separate and extensive appendices, more than one hundred pages of bibliographic sources, never previously brought together in this manner"--from Publisher's description.