[Footnote 222: Hooper's teaching caused great excitement: see the letter of JOHN AB ULMIS to BULLINGER, in _Original Letters relating to English Reformation_, 416. Bullinger is said to hold the same views: _ibid._, 422. At his trial one of the charges against Hooper was that he taught that the bond of wedlock may be dissolved for adultery: HOOPER, _Later Writings_, xxiii.] [Footnote 223: HOOPER, _Early Writings_, 382-87, declares, on the authority of Mark 10:12, that the woman as well as the man may divorce for adultery. To those who deny this according to the Mosaic law he says: "I grant the same, but I am sure the poor woman was not compelled to live with her adulterous husband; for the law commanded such a villain to be slain, and so put the honest party to liberty; and so should it be now-a-days, and then the question of divorcement would be ended" (383). Again, to those who say if woman had this right "marriage could never be sure nor constant, for women would change still at their pleasure," he replies, "there is given no such liberty to man or woman by the word of God," meaning, doubtless, separation at pleasure, except for cause established in court. In a letter to Henry Bullinger he defends his doctrine of divorce as to the woman: _Original Letters rel. to English Reformation_, 64.] [Footnote 224: TYNDALE, _Expositions_, 54, 55. A similar illustration of the straits to which the Protestant was brought in his necessity of appealing to authority is afforded by Bucer, in MILTON'S _Prose Works_, III, 309: "Hither may be added, that the Holy Spirit grants desertion to be a cause of divorce, in those answers given to the Corinthians.... But some will say, that this is spoken of a misbeliever departing. But I beseech ye, doth not he reject the faith of Christ in his deeds, who rashly breaks the holy covenant of wedlock instituted by God? And besides this, the Holy Spirit does not make the misbelieving of him who departs, but the departing of him who disbelieves, to be the just cause of freedom to the brother or sister. Since therefore it will be agreed among Christians, that they who depart from wedlock without just cause, do not only deny the faith of matrimony, but of Christ also, whatever they profess with their mouths; it is but reason to conclude, that the party deserted is not bound in case of causeless desertion, but that he may lawfully seek another consort, if it be needful to him, toward a pure and blameless conversation." _Cf_. also the argument of MILTON, "The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce," _Prose Works_, III, 258, 259.]