Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: Restor'd to the Good of Both Sexes, From the Bondage of Canon Law was published by the English poet and polemicist John Milton on 1 August 1643. An expanded second edition was published on 2 February 1644. The editions were published anonymously, and his name was not associated with the text until they were denounced before the Parliament of England in August 1644. Milton's basic scriptural argument is that Jesus did not abrogate the Mosaic permission for divorce found in Deuteronomy 24:1 because in Matthew 19 he was just addressing a specific audience of Pharisees.

The work was the first of Milton's tracts about divorce. Shortly following their marriage in 1642, Milton and his wife Marie Powell started a period of marital separation. Milton could not apply for a divorce under the English law of his era, but he started promoting the lawfulness of divorce in writing. Although he originally sought only a legal separation from his wife, Milton's research on the topic convinced him that he could convince the English government to legalise divorce.