[Footnote 141: For once at least we can almost pardon Milton for using strong language. SELDEN'S work, _Of the Law of Nature and of Nations_, he holds more useful than anything which "pontifical clerks have doted on, ever since that unfortunate mother famously sinned thrice, and died impenitent of her bringing into the world those two misbegotten infants, and for ever infants, Lombard and Gratian, him the compiler of canon iniquity, the other the Tubalcain of scholastic sophistry, whose over-spreading barbarism hath not only infused their own bastardy upon the fruitfullest part of human learning, not only dissipated and dejected the clear light of nature in us, and of nations, but hath tainted also the fountains of divine doctrine, and rendered the pure and solid law of God unbeneficial to us by their calumnious dunceries."--"Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce," _Prose Works_, III, 269.] [Footnote 142: _Cf._ especially _Decretum Gratiani_, cc. 1-24, _causa_ xxxii, qu. 7: RICHTER-FRIEDBERG, _Corpus Juris Can._, I; PETER LOMBARD, _Sententiae_, IV, D. xxvii ff.] [Footnote 143: ESMEIN, _op. cit._, II, 79, 80. The early canonists are discussed by GEFFCKEN, _op. cit._, 58-62, 75-82; CIGOI, _Unauflösbarkeit_, 93 ff.; but for the most minute examination of them all see FREISEN, _op. cit._, 793-847; also the very clear account of ESMEIN, _op. cit._, II, 71 ff. On the formation of the canon law see TISSOT, _Le mariage_, 111 ff.] Theoretically, as commonly stated, divorce proper is entirely eliminated from the mature law of the western church; but inconsistently the name "divorce" is retained as a rubric in the collections of canons; and it is used in two senses, neither of which corresponds with its ancient and proper meaning as a complete dissolution of the bond of true wedlock. First, the term _divortium a vinculo matrimonii_ is commonly employed to designate, not the dissolution of a lawful union, but the judicial declaration of nullity of a spurious marriage which on account of some impediment is void, or at least voidable, from the beginning. Secondly, the term _divortium a mensa et thoro_ means a judicial separation of husband and wife which does not touch the marriage tie. In each case, therefore, the use of the word "divorce" is loose and very misleading.[144] [Footnote 144: ESMEIN, _op. cit._, II, 73, 85-89, who gives a brief account of the evolution of the uses of the term _divortium_. Originally, among the canonists, there was but one kind of _divorce_, _i. e._, any judicial separation between man and wife, whether or not with the right to remarry. This led to confusion; and so the distinction between divorce _a vinculo_ or _quoad vinculum_ and _a mensa et toro_ or _quoad mensam et torum_ was differentiated. Beginning with Bernard of Pavia, the first compiler of the Decretals, the term _divortium_ appears regularly as a rubric in the later collections of the canon law.]