] ] As to why anyone bothered getting a divorce, I'm not sure about that either. I assume it's as you say, Barb- to release themselves from the financial obligations to the spouse. And since women almost never got a divorce grated in their favour, it allowed the man to walk away, and the woman was left pretty destitute.

As I understand it, a divorce would be granted, through Act of Parliament, not so much on grounds of the impugned honour of the cuckolded husband, as because he had to ensure his succession. An adulterous wife removed a man's assurance that he would pass his property (and, if appropriate, his title) on to his own children. The marriage would therefore be dissolved in order to allow a man to contract a new marriage and assure his succession to his own children. No question about not remarrying. Given the post-Reformation Church-State relationship, I wouldn't have thought there would be a problem about a man getting a church marriage after his previous marriage had been dissolved by Act of Parliament.