The Church orders Wives to Submit to their Husbands

[Thorne]

Its also just as easy to say that more people stayed married longer before becuase more people were religious before the advent of feminism and hippe free love and the genral loss of dedication to something and someone other than oneself, which more directly cuased the divorce rate to go through the ceiling.

No, most people stayed married longer because divorce was illegal, as determined by the Catholic (primarily) Church. Once divorce became legalized, or at least simplified, far more people took that way out.

But that doesn't account for the fact that the divorce rate among highly religious couples is so much higher than that of less religious, or non religious couples.

[thir]

No, most people stayed married longer because divorce was illegal, as determined by the Catholic (primarily) Church. Once divorce became legalized, or at least simplified, far more people took that way out.

It is also a question of how well or not people can manage outside of a marriage, if they have an educantion, children to take care of, or was always raised simply for marriage without ever having been in on the working market outside the home.

The longer you go back in history, the harder it was.