BISHOP PERRY ON MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE’S SISTER.

Evening Star, Issue 3286, 1 September 1873, Page 3

BISHOP PERRY ON MARRIAGE WITH A DECEASED WIFE’S SISTER.

The Bishop of Melbourne writes a very sensible letter on this subject:— Bishopscourt, 23rd July, 1873.—My dear , —lf I thought that the act of our Colonial Legislature, authorising marriage with the sister of a deO O ceased wife, “set aside” a restriction which God had by the Scriptures imposed upon us, or that it “ ignored a positive declaration of our great King,” I should unhesitatingly say that we must obey God rather than man ; or if there were any law of our Church binding upon us in Victoria which forbade the solemnisation of such marriages, I should say that, as clergymen, we must obey that law, and not use the liberty granted to us by the recent Act. But, even if the prohibition in Leviticus be understood to refer to the sister of a deceased wife—which is very doubtful (see note on Leviticus xviii., 18, in the Speaker’s Bible) —I do not consider it as obligatory upon the Church of Christ any more than others of the Mosaic code. Nor do I regard the declaration that “ a man and his wife are one flesh” as placing a sister-in-law in the same relationship as a sister in blood. Again, so far as I know, the prohibition by our Church of marriage with a deceased wife’s sister is contained only in the canons of 1603 (99) —which are certainly not binding upon the Church here—and in the table of degrees “ set forth by authority” in 1563. I have not been able to ascertain by what authority this table was set forth ; but I conceive that the “ admonition ” contained in it never possessed any legal power, except from 32 Henry VIII., c. 38, and now it is no way obligatory upon the conscience, unless we consider it (which I do not) as a declaration of the law of God. Such being my opinion upon this vexed question, I do not regard a clergyman in Victoria as guilty of any offence against the law of God or of the Church in solemnising such a marriage, which the law of the land now authorises ; but as I know that some of my brethren think differently, and feel very strongly upon the subject, I consider that they are justified in refusing—indeed, bound in conscience to refuse—to do so. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, and let not one judge another.—Your brother in Christ, C. Melbourne.