When you had obtained a divorce a mensâ et thoro, you had only to obtain a private Act for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii. 

A divorce a vinculo matrimonii, for any cause arising subsequent to marriage, could formerly be obtained in England only by an Act of Parliament, and the ecclesiastical courts must have previously pronounced a divorce a mens� et thoro.

A husband could obtain a divorce a vinculo matrimonii for adultery, but the wife had no such power unless the husband had brought his mistress to the home.

In this negation of a right to divorce a vinculo matrimonii lies the broad difference between the doctrines of the Eastern and Western Churches of Christendom.

At the present day it has become, with regard to divorce a vinculo matrimonii, a rule of greater and of more far-reaching importance.