Ann Sumner Holmes successfully records the complexities of English law on divorce and remarriage, and, what is more, the subtleties of the Church of England's cultural and legal attitudes. She traces the history from the protests that accompanied an early remarriage in a London church in 1895 up to the present continuation of the responsibility laid on parish clergy by the 1857 Divorce Act for deciding whether or not to conduct marriages that follow divorce. The challenge for the Church has been to reconcile the apparent prohibition of divorce in Mark 10:9 with the increasing secularisation of English society throughout the twentieth century. The 1910 Royal Commission gave considerable time to New Testament theology, although the inclusion of Church of England representatives ‘impeded the cause of divorce reform’ (p 22).

Nevertheless, the Church, as Holmes testifies, continued to extend considerable influence throughout the century. Central to shifts in the Church's attitude was a growing distinction between the Christian ideal and the practical and legislative needs of human nature. However, the Church of England was handicapped by a lack of mechanisms for formulating and enforcing policy, as well as an ambivalent relationship with the State as the legal parameters shifted. So what follows is Holmes's fascinating account of the several parliamentary attempts at divorce law reform following the publication in 1912 of the Royal Commission's report, the parliamentary wrangles in which the Church of England engaged, and various deliberations of Lambeth Conferences, the Church Assembly and the Convocations. It was not until 1937 that, despite a divided Bishops’ Bench in the Lords, parliamentary progress was made,  with the grounds for civil divorce being extended to include other justifications in addition to adultery. But the Church then reinforced the distinction between English secular law and Christian principles, by forbidding the Prayer Book marriage service for divorced people.

As the divorce rate increased in the post-war years, the issue of indissolubility became prominent for the Church, with resolutions of the Convocations recognising the importance of pastoral practicality while retaining the gospel ideal. At the 1948 Lambeth Conference, the bishops reaffirmed the bar against divorced persons being married in church, but with the bishops making decisions on the admission of individual divorced and remarried people to Holy Communion. A second Royal Commission was appointed in 1951, this time without clerical membership, and, despite numerous clerical and other church witnesses, gave ‘minimal attention to Church doctrine’ (p 72). The result was inconclusive and no legislation resulted. Tensions between parliamentary statutes and Church discipline became pronounced in 1957, when the Convocation of Canterbury reiterated the Church's opposition not only to remarriage in church but also to blessing civil marriages after divorce, and reiterated the need for questions of admission to Holy Communion to be referred to the bishops. As Archbishop Fisher acknowledged at the time, this was at odds with the statutory 1857 provision for clergy to conduct marriages after divorce.

The 1960s brought the well-known liberalisation of much moral teaching, and the Church of England was not exempt from the debate. The 1963 Matrimonial Causes Act was intended to encourage reconciliation, but united opposition from the main Christian churches defeated the proposed extension of the grounds for divorce to include seven-year separation. However, the Church's of England's contribution was more positive, with the formation of a working group that published Putting Asunder in 1966 as a contribution from the Church about secular laws of marriage and divorce. Putting Asunder moved away from concepts of innocence and guilt to a focus on the condition of a marriage relationship. Holmes describes in detail the progress of the report with the Law Commission, the Church Assembly and Parliament. The resulting Divorce Act 1969 was a compromise, with matrimonial offences as ‘rebuttable evidence’ of breakdown. However, as Holmes describes, the Church had provided a basis for positive reform.

The question of remarriage in church remained. Successive church commissions recommended in 1971 and 1978 that, with stated safeguards, it should be allowed, but majorities in the General Synod felt otherwise. The debate continued into the 1980s, with 1985 approval that the decisions should rest with parish priests in consultation with their bishops, and legitimisation of blessing services for those married in civil ceremonies. So the century turned with the Church holding to its doctrine of marriage as a permanent union, but at the same time rescinding in 2002 the 1957 prohibition in favour of the 1857 parliamentary permission for remarriage in church.

In the course of her excellent and lucid summary, Holmes interposes the challenges presented by members of the Royal Family. That posed in the 1930s by Edward VIII's marriage intentions recurred in the 1950s with Princess Margaret's desire to marry the divorced equerry Peter Townsend. The outcome was different, in that the princess abandoned her marriage hope. The period of this book ended with the 2005 remarriage of the Prince of Wales in a civil ceremony, but, unlike Edward VIII's marriage, with an approved service of blessing following.

The occasional Americanisms that occur can be accepted as from an accomplished American author and a publisher whose first given address is New York. The anachronistic reference to the Guardian (p 48) probably reflects usage in Holmes's source. However, the italicisation of ‘a’ before ‘vinculum’ (p 15) is incorrect. Issues that Holmes has not tackled are the ordination of those who remarried after divorce or married divorced spouses, and the position of existing clergy who divorce and remarry – all of which were allowed, with safeguards, by the end of the century. An issue that she was spared is, of course, that of same-sex marriages, still unresolved within the Church, including those contracted by clergy. Perhaps this will figure in a second volume.

All in all, Holmes provides a comprehensive and eminently readable account of her topic and of the tensions, as identified in her subtitle, between legalism and grace over the course of the last century. It will constitute a useful background resource of fact and commentary.