Heading the modern literature is Richter's able _Beiträge zur Geschichte des Ehescheidungsrechts in der evang. Kirche_ (Berlin, 1858), which has the special merit of first classifying the post-Reformation writers on divorce according to their more rigid or more liberal tendencies. The subject is also treated with the usual precision and thoroughness in his _Lehrbuch des kath. und evang. Kirchenrechts_ (8th ed., Leipzig, 1886). Important likewise are Strippelmann, _Das Ehescheidungsrecht_ (Cassel, 1854); Goeschen, "Ehe," in Herzog's _Encyclopaedie_, III, 666-707 (Stuttgart and Hamburg, 1855); Hauber, "Ehescheidung im Reformations-Jahrhundert," in _Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie_ (1857), II; Hubrich, _Das Recht der Ehescheidung_ (Berlin, 1891); Buchka, _Das mecklenburgische Ehescheidungsrecht_ (Wismar, 1885); Gräbner, _Ueber Desertion und Quasidesertion_ (Colberg, 1882); and Friedberg, "Beiträge zur Geschichte des brand.-preuss. Eherechts," in _ZKR._, VIII (Tübingen, 1886-87). Weydmann, _Luther_ (Hamburg and Gotha, 1850), has two chapters on Luther's views and his matrimonial life. The second and third parts of Vol. III of Schulte's _Geschichte der Quellen und Litteratur des can. Rechts_ (Stuttgart, 1880) provide a mass of valuable biographical and bibliographical material for the whole post-Reformation period.
Richter's well-edited and now exceedingly scarce _Kirchenordnungen des sechszehnten Jahrhunderts_ (Weimar, 1846) contains the legislation of the Evangelical churches on marriage and divorce. Especially important for the seventeenth century is the very rare _Des Herzogthums Wirtemberg ernuerte Ehe- und Ehe-Gerichts-Ordnung_ (Stuttgart, 1687), marking the beginning of a more liberal treatment of the divorce problem. The ecclesiastical ordinances are analyzed by Goeschen, _Doctrina de matrimonio_ (Halle, 1848); and by Dietrich, _Evangelisches Ehescheidungsrecht_ (Erlangen, 1892). Original divorce decrees and opinions are collected in Bruckner's _Decisiones juris matrimonialis_, II (Gotha, 1724); and several cases are published by Schleusner, "Anfänge des protest. Eherechts," in _ZKG._, XIII (Gotha, 1892). The best monographs on the evolution of jurisdiction and process in such causes, aside from the work of Dietrich just mentioned, are Geffcken, "Zur ältesten Geschichte und ehegericht. Praxis des Leipzig. Konsist.," in _ZKR._, 3. Folge, IV (Freiburg and Leipzig, 1894); Hinschius, "Beiträge zur Geschichte des Desertionsprocesses," _ibid._, II (Berlin, 1862); and especially Stölzel, _Ueber das landesherrliche Ehescheidungsrecht_ (Berlin, 1891), the first part of which having already appeared in _ZKR._, XVIII (Freiburg and Tübingen, 1883). Stölzel holds that the authority of the chief magistrate to grant divorce is originally a right of episcopal dispensation, and that his authority is not superseded by the imperial law of 1875. On the controversy growing out of this dual question see Meurer, _Das landesherrliche Ehescheidungsrecht_ (Freiburg, 1891); and compare Scheurl, "Die Ablösung des Eherechts von dem Kirchenrecht," in _ZKR._, XIII (Tübingen, 1876); Buchka, "Das Eheschliessungsrecht," _ibid._, XVI; Sicherer, _Personnenstand und Eheschliessung_ (Erlangen, 1879); the two dissertations of Wasserschleben, each entitled _Das Ehescheidungsrecht kraft landesh. Machtvollkommenheit_ (Giessen, 1877; Berlin, 1880); and Hinschius, _Das Reichsgesetz_ (3d ed., 1890). On the rise of the early consistorial courts see especially Mejer, "Anfänge des Wittenberger Consistoriums," in _ZKR._, XIII (Tübingen, 1876); _idem_, "Zur Geschichte des ältesten protest. Eherechts," _ibid._, XVI (Tübingen, 1881); both articles being reprinted with other matter in his _Zum Kirchenrecht des Reformationsjahrhunderts_ (Hanover, 1891).