Final answer:
Protestants allow the dissolution of marriages through divorce due to theological shifts during the Protestant Reformation and Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church, which influenced marriage laws to view marriage as a civil contract overseen by civil authorities.
Step-by-step explanation:
Protestants allow the dissolution of marriages in the form of divorce due to various theological and historical reasons. The Protestant Reformation led by figures such as Martin Luther and John Calvin questioned many Catholic doctrines, including the indissolubility of marriage. Henry VIII's efforts to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon because she could not bear him a son resulted in England's break from the Catholic Church and the establishment of the Church of England, which allowed for divorce under certain circumstances.
The influence of Protestant beliefs led to changes in marriage laws, where the idea of marriage as a civil contract rather than a sacred and unbreakable bond became more widely accepted. Furthermore, as civil authorities began to oversee divorce proceedings instead of religious ones, and after campaigns by feminists in the nineteenth century, the access to divorce gradually became easier, though it remained difficult and expensive for a time.