other for Isaacke yet it pleased him notwithstanding that these marriages should first be made by the aduise and liking of their parents that Rebecca should be demanded of Bathuel of the mother and of the Vnckle yet so as Abraham the father must giue charge about the message and not the sonne Isaacke thou shalt be discharged from my oath saith Abraham to his seruant if thou goe vnto my country and to my kinsfolke and they shal not giue her vnto thee The Angell of the Lord made way to these mariages but their parents contracted them The other example is of Tertullian in a treatise written to his wife Oh how shall I be able saith he worthily to describe and set foorth the blessed estate of that couple whom the Church hath ioined together praier and thanksgiuing haue confirmed angels in heauen proclaimed and the father in earth approued for euen here in the world children may not marrie without their parents consent and approbation either in respect of due solemnitie or force of law Doubtlesse his meaning hereby was that mariage among Christians had better successe and prosperity when first it was approued by almighty God as hauing in this world the consent of parents and in that other the consent of our father which is in heauen The same opinion was maintained by Soterus liuing vnder the raign of the Emperor Commodus as also auerred by Euaristus and S. Ambrose Proceed we then in Gods name and let vs now discourse of religious vowes not questioning their validitie nor the perfection of the religious or lay life which of them both is better nor any such matters But whether children be at their owne libertie and pleasure to conceiue and make solemne profession of a vow if the father be not acquainted first with it or else if he disclaime it as also whether without him a sonne may enter into the Ecclesiastical vocation and the father must not present him before he be admitted to holy orders Hereof I say we will presume to entreat so far foorth as a meane Ciuilian may haue good leaue either to know or take in hand such secret misteries of your profession And if the whole faculty of Diuines or those seducers of yours haue any thing else in store to giue me satisfaction in my question let me vnderstand of it as soone as may be possible that so for mine owne part I may set downe and rest contented by their resolution But for you sir I would haue you to lurke no longer in corners but make your personall appearance to the summons and be not afraid boldly to chant that high sentence of S. Ierome against them which in a depraued sence they haue perhaps trumpt in thy way Cruelty in such a case is your only piety First then let it be considered how paynim people obserued their vows For though they were far wide of the true worship of God yet in their religion they left out nothing which might any waie make either for the honor maintenance or enlargement of it nay it were hard to say whether therein they surpassed not vs Christians True it is that these paynims were not very scrupulous to offer either themselues or their goods to Idolls nor was it very materiall with them why and wherefore they made such rash vowes Neuerthelesse this was euer a disputable question among them whether the vow were of any validity without the fathers consent and authoritie Most certaine it is that in the matter of sacrificing the children the parents were to offer them to the sacrifice the case is cleare out of Tertullian in his Apologeticus whereas saith he Saturne neuer vsed to spare either his owne children or other mens but indifferently deuoured both thereupon such as were parents offered their sonnes and daughters to be his sacrifices and willingly exposed them to him nay they would fawne and flatter the poore innocents to the intent that they shold not howl crie when they were to be sacrificed which you may likewise read in Plutarch in his booke which he entitles Of Superstition towards the end but say there were no parents liuing to giue vp their childrē to this diuelish abomination what was to be done in such a case It s well inough knowne that the Priest had no such power or authoritie to take whom he pleasde for the sacrifice This was a speciall prerogatiue reserued for the Magistrate and more then this came to hee chose out the virgin by lot which was appointed to be sacrificed that so the Gods might seem to be at their own choice for the oblation and not at the Priests deuotion and on whomsoeuer the lot fell shee was to be offered as you may reade in Homer of Iphigenia Agamemnons daughter in Pansanias of Lyciscus and Aristodemus their daughters in Plutarch of Smincheus his daughter whom the Dolphins safely set a shore with her sweet heart Eualus Hence come those themes vsuall frequent in declamations A virgin sacrificed to the pestilence A sonne that is disinherited to bee offered for sacrifice A sister liuing infamously to be sacrificed Which sort of Rhetoricall exercise partly you may read in Quintilian an Author by me first restored to his integritie partlie in Calphurnius for whome the learned Pitheus did as much but in all these and the like it would be noted that should the sonne or daughter voluntarily offer themselues their parents are euer opposed as meet and able persons in law to except against thē For no man would haue admitted such a bar I promise you I thinke scarce among boyes in the Schoole if children might haue beene permitted to sacrifice themselues And hence it commeth as you may reade it in Philostratus that Meneceus Creons sonne vpon an answere of Tiresias the Prophet sacrificed him selfe without his fathers priuitie which otherwise meant to hinder him from such a purpose But most memorable is that which is written by Plutarch in his booke of Superstition that if a man had not any children of his owne the fashion was to buy them of some poore people but in that case it might not serue the turne to haue him present and consenting that made sale of his childe it was besides requisite that the naturall mother should come forth eyther to testifie her willingnesse that her sonne should die in that manner or to forbid the sacrifice Virgil in the eleuenth of his Aencidos glanceth at such like sacrifices when he brings in Metabus drenching of his daughter Camilla in the riuer Amasenus and thus bespeaking Faire Queen of the springing woods chast Lady Diana Here to thy seruice I do vow Camilla my daughter Vpon which place Seruius his note is good T was well said the father himselfe vowed her for that none but fathers had their children vnder such bonds of obedience And Plutarch in his booke of Isis and Osiris talkes to Clea the Nunne in a Phrase of the like straine Euen since thou wast a childe thy parents dedicated
contained in honour and he that is not bound to obey must neuerthelesse be bound to honor For examples sake if by extremitie and rigour of law you may marry or professe your selfe a monke against my will and that such a vow and mariage is in a sort iustifiable and good yet should you notwithstanding euen by force of that commandement come and aske me first leaue and craue mine aduise in the matter which though it be no obedience in your part yet it is mine honor Lastlie you should haue shewed me what mooued you to this or that course of life whether your owne naturall propension and deliberate inclination or some strange circumuention forraine perswasion But let that dutie and custome be omitted and let the act neuerthelesse be accounted as lawfull as is anie yet where is the honor which God hath prescribed where is that reuerence and dutie which humanitie bindeth you vnto if it be done onelie but for solemnitie why then you must know that solemnity giues the essence to the act Let vs proceed It is storied by Marius Victor that famous orator of Marseiles in his third title of his Commentarie vpon Genesis that God commaunded not Abraham albeit from his youth vp he worshipped the true God with all his soule and abhorred gentilisme to leaue his country and that wicked land and polluted house before that he saw that after his fathers death hee might without offence keepe that commandement which he had giuen him What shall we say thē that the Iesuits haue greater command ouer thee then God had ouer Abraham he was 75. yeere old and his parents were dead before God commanded him that he should leaue his country and goe vp vnto the land of Canaan dost thou which art yet but 16. yeers old my selfe and thy mother yet liuing forsake me thy countrie because the Iesuits bid thee if thou dost it for the keeping of anothers vow yet that dutie which both by the law of God and nature thou owest me is greater But Marius of Marseiles for your learning liued in the time of Theodosius and Valence the Emperors and the Iesuits were not heard of there were no such creatures till the raign of Francis the first our King Moreouer why did God command the same Abraham to sacrifice vnto him his owne sonne and to be the Priest himself but because he thought the counsell of the fathers was expedient to be vsed in euerie cause that concerned their children if it had been all one vnto God who had offered vp Isacke vnto him and if the sacrifice should haue been as gratefull and acceptable vnto him being offered by another man as by the hands of his owne father why surelie he would haue commanded this office to some other rather than to his father Abraham For religion is not the holier or the more sanctified because it is ioined with parricide what then God would haue Isaacke offered vp vnto him But because this oblation was to proceed from his father he commanded him to doe it who by reason of his fatherlie authoritie could not offend in slaying him A father is not guilty of parricide saith Aelius Martianus the great counsellor at the Ciuill law If thou wilt say that in Isack Samuel the cause why it was necessarie that their parents should offer them to the Lord was by reason of their minoritie in regard they were yong vnder age why the daughter of Iephthe for certaine was sacrificed by her father as was Praxithea by Erictheus and Calpurnia by her father Marius after the Cimbrian war when she was fit for mariage Moreouer what might be obiected against Eliseus he being called to the office of a Prophet which was a regular and strict kind of life as appeared both by their vnction mantell and abstinence albeit he was an elder in yeers and called thereunto by the Prophet Elias and that by a speciall command from God made this answer I pray thee let me goe kisse my father and my mother and then I will follow thee The kisse was the fathers benediction the leaue was that which he desired so much of the Prophet to take before his departure what said Elias Goe and return for what was my dutie I haue done vnto thee As if he should haue said that which remaineth to be done belongeth to thy parents For although God expreslie commanded me that I should annoint thee to be a Prophet in my roome after me yet how could this be done if these second Gods our parents should haue gaine said it therefore afterwards when the Prophet had cast his mantell on him forthwith Elizeus left his plough and followed Elias But he departed not from his father before he had first taken his leaue of him Certaine it is that in the time of the old law personall vowes were ransomed by monie and the vowes of the Nazarites endured but for a time But in the thirtieth Chapter of Numbers it is so manifestlie set downe what ought to be obserued concerning the daughter that it were shame for a mā to vouch anie thing to the contrarie If a woman saith Moses vowe a vowe and bind her selfe with an oath being in her fathers house her vowe shall stand except she hath done it against her fathers consent But least her youth might be pretended for an excuse the same is written of a wife also whether she as yet remaine in her fathers house or whether she be brought vnto her husbands her vowe should not stand if her husband consented not vnto it Moses excepted none besides a woman diuorced or a widdow whence was this because Gods power was lessened by reason the fathers or husbands consent concurred with his surelie no. But because those very powers which they haue are from God and by establishing theirs he confirmeth his owne But those exceptions of widdowhood or matrimonie vere not necessarie in a sonne For as soone as he was out of his fathers command there was no doubt if he were at mans state but he might lawfullie bind himselfe with any of those vowes which were admitted in the old law For except it were with the vowe of fasting or abstinence from meates they scarce bound themselues with anie other But a woman as at Rome was in perpetuall wardship sometimes of her father sometimes of her husband and sometimes also of her brother if her father died before she was married Wherefore if the woman voweda vowe there the lawgiuer you may see was more cautelous and difficult But of the sonne so long as he remained in his fathers house who euer douted in that case but that he was of the same condition with his sister vowed he the gift of anie peece of monie why it was anothers monie vowed he his owne person vvhy he had no right to it that was subiect vnto another How then could he vvhich vvas not at his owne disposall bind himselfe and vvrong his father vvho had all dominion and
¶ To the most reuerend Father in God TOBIE by diuine prouidence Archbishop of YORKE Primate and Metropolitane of England c. MY Most reuerend good Lord The late experience of some defections and reuolts in children of lewde behauior which haue contemptuously prophaned all obedience to parents together with some desire of mine owne to retaine the wauering dispositions of others which may be in like ieopardie to be abused hereafter haue put me into a businesse would God so helpfull for them as necessarie for the time I meane this English translation of a most excestent Latin Originall It treateth for the honorable maintenance of parents authoritie and was compiled some fiue and twenty yeeres since by the famous French Ciuilian Petrus Aerodius in purpose to reclaime his sonne Renatus who at that time being vnder age and without his fathers leaue had betaken himselfe to the Iesuites company Doubtlesse the good parents griefe for an iniurie of such hainous qualitie if he may be heard speaking out of the tender bowells of his affection is euer within measure though it be excessiue iust though past hope of recouery A sonne nay the eldest son the first fruits of his strength so faire a bud to be stript from his naturall barke perforce and inoculated in a stocke of astrange kind would abate the imputation of being censured passionate without a cause euery man to my thinking vpon the supposall of such a person being apt to acknowledge so much in himselfe and that in the Poets phrase Huic vniforsan poteram succumbere culpae The dignity of the discourse needs no enlargement by a preface for if too much incredulitie ouerweene not my iudgement the most censorious Criticke if he find patience to peruse it in the natiue edition will in meer iustice commend most or allow all The stile is close wrought and full of stuffe the choice of his words apt and frugall the sentences deepe and ponderous the shafts of his arguments drawne by a strong arme vp to the head the nouelty of examples delightfull the authorities venerable yet infinitly various his dealing faire and fatherlike contending rather for truth than conquest Now might I take so much presumption vpon me as to hope of some degree of your Graces good acceptance to whom especiallie for discourse or title it is most properly belonging I would farther alleadge for my selfe that I haue often seene my worthy predecessor M. Doctor Gentilis his Maiesties professor for the Ciuill lawes reading me some Lectures and teaching me how to offend in this kinde whom I euer found of this opinion that his excellent Lucubrations neuer prospered better than when they receiued lustre from your Graces iudicious confirmation to whom as he was very much obliged so was he not sparing rather by preuenting occasion than by taking it thankfully to report the same And lastly because the age wherein we liue is so much visited with an Epidemiall distemper of disobedience the cure would be sought for at their hands who by reason of their eminent place of practice best know out of their great learning to apply soueraigne antidotes against such malignant qualities and if that will not worke then me thinks Lucius Brutus his seuerity well allaied would not come out of season that derobed himselfe of all respects of a father that he might the better act the part of a Consull exuit patrem vt Consulem ageret For such austeritie in parents many times proues pitty and is powerfull to make obedience where it finds none A reformation of so generall importance that euery man may be said to haue a part in it though he can challenge no propertie because quod commune est meum est and without peraduenture an vndutifull sonne so reclaimed to his naturall obedience is that commune bonum Your Graces in all humble seruice to be commanded IOHN BVDDEN ¶ The Author to the Reader HAuing for three whole yeeres together made continuall enquirie after my eldest sonne and that to small purpose for hee is among the Iesuits I am now determined to present that to publique view which otherwise I should haue sequestred to priuate vse I treat with him as with an offender that contemptuouslie refuseth to make his appearance and as a man should doe wth a runaway that is by writ of outlarie and proclamation of rebellion Therefore I beseech thee good Reader if this expostulation and complaint of mine appeare vnto thee altogether causelesse and if it happilie so fall out that thou meet with this poor youth thus esloigned and seduced from me be ameanes that he may sometimes peruse this small treatise then if he find himselfe resolued to bee at his owne reines and disposing I passe not father or not father whether he so take me or so refuse me From Angiers 1589 in October A DISCOVRSE for Parents honour and Authority ouer their Children WHat is the reason that the famous Doctor Gregory Nazianzene in his oration Apologeticall which hee made to the people saith that there is a great deale more in the authority apertaining to parents which is giuen thē from almighty God than in that which hath bin established by men either in their written lawes or long continued customs Is it so that this one commandement Honour thy Father and thy Mother commaunds more with children than that hideous thunderclap of disinheriting them inuented by the Grecians or then the commission of life and death which though it be detestable in nature yet was it our owne French law and in vse likewise with many other nations beside or then those three solemne alienations whereby children were freede from their parents subiection and so many countersales which made them bond againe deuises as it is well knowne of the Romane policy Should the sonne beene found disobedient to his Father by these lawes the father did right himselfe and was both accuser witnesse and iudge Moreouer the execution of punishments whereunto he might sentence them were of such nature as the very representation of them to their memories they were so bloudy cruell might presently deterre from attempting or entertaining the least breach of their bounden duety but on Gods part a bare commandement onely is sufficient be the childe dutifull there 's a reward for him be he obstinate there 's no punishment inflicted And yet wee say that lawes preuaile more when they bee penall then when they simply doe but will and require and that authority is more awful which is properly our owne and exercised in our owne name and right then that forsooth which is indented with couenants and taken vpon curtesie from an other Now sir how wrought that same soueraigne fatherly authority I meane that which issued from the prouision of man and not from the sacred constitution of God why it wrought thus much that this priuate discipline did sometimes farre exceede the publick insomuch that wherein the Magistrates immediate authority seemed feeble and in a manner maymed there the domestique
discipline being appealed vnto as to an higher iurisdiction gaue present help and assistance that is to say parents were able to doe more with their children then law or legion or Dictator himselfe Cn. Martius Coriolanus marched forth with a dangerous army against his country breathing forth nothing but ruine and vastation whomade him to disarme himself forsake his ensignes leaue the commaund of the field but Veturia only He that neither yeelded to Senators sent vnto him nor Magistrates nor priests yeelded to his mother He that neither the Maiesty of the Empire nor any touch of religion could cause once to retire did soone relent at the name of his mother Cn. Seruilius L. Sergius M. Papirius being Tribunes together and in like authority which was also Consular were vehement competitors which of them should be generall in the war against the Lucani euery one was for himselfe and thereupon despised the charge of the City as an office altogether thanklesse and base the Senators beheld the contention with astonishment Dictator was there none that by strong hand might order these factious Tribunes saith Q. Seruilius nay sith there is no respect hereby carried to your owne ranke and quality nor duty to the estate of this common wealth my fathlery authority shal soone dispatch this controuersie I tell you my sonne without drawing of any lots for the matter shal bide at home and gouerne the City And what did the Father of C. Flaminius tribune of the common people which enacted the law about the partage of some french grounds by the poll the Senate was against it his colleagues mainly opposed him which he set light by an army was mustred against him in case he should persist in that opinion but that danted him nothing his father euen as he was in the place to haue proclaimed his new made Law seizes vpon him how was it now with my yong master downe comes he from his chaire of estate and this braue gallant that before set at nought all the maiesty authority and prerogatiue of his country is now subdued at a poore priuate mans check and as M. Valerius storieth it in his fift booke was not so much as once blamed for it by the least muttering of the sessions so disappointed and broken vp How then is it possible but that in the point of parents authority there should be more force in mans law than in the bare and simple precept as it was deliuered from God by Moses especially if that be true which Halicarnassus reporteth that contempt impiety murdering of parents were therefore ordinary monsters among the Greekes but exceeding scarce and seldome to be found in Rome because the authority which those ancient Law makers Charondas Pittacus and Solon assigned to parents was a mild and feeble regiment contrariwise that which Romulus gaue was absolute full and without limitation whence it came to passe that in all the large territory of the Romane Empire hardly will you meete with one Malleolus that is such a desperate ruffian as butchered his own mother What then may we say of this diuine commandement established as we see neither by threat of abdication nor losse of life here is only commanded that which honesty and good conscience perswades vnto Nor let any man thinke that it is a good answer to the obiection to say that Moses Law aswell as any other law did not only sharply censure parricide but euen euery dishonest and idle speech vttered by a sonne for we intreat not what authority a publique magistrate hath neither of a iudiciall proceeding held in consistories and common Assises we talke of that which may be exercised at our home dwellings in our owne priuate housholds which fathers not officers by vertue of their office challenge ouer their children that is to say without appeale to any higher bēch without assistance of any other Iudges office For so it is he that punisheth by the helpe of another doth in deed not punish but complaine But yet ouer and aboue al that which we haue already obiected against S. Gregory it falls so short that parents by this heauenly oracle haue any more dominion ouer their children than either by these or other humane lawes that in truth they cannot be said to haue receiued thence any one iot of power or authority For let a sonne be negligent in performing of that one command honour thy father what may the father doe in such a case It is true it allures him with reward that is with a prosperous and a long life but it puts ouer no punishment into the fathers hands no none at all As though in so doing somewhat would be found which nature of her self could not well abide Did Moses then mistake and when he deliuered Gods lawes was he somewhat more carelesse in this point which concernes Fathers A sinne it is so to say for this authority of parents which wee seeke after was for precedency of time farre more ancient than the commandement it selfe which is demōstratiuely proued by this very instāce that God almighty would neuer haue commanded Abraham to haue sacrificed his sonne Isaacke if hee had had no commission of life and death ouer him Would God haue enioyned it would the father haue executed it would neighbours and strangers haue endured it which in no case at no time by no law a father might bee able to iustifie besides they that liued long before Moses would neuer haue busied themselus so much in matching of their children in wedlock for that was a matter resting in their choyce not in the choice of the parties contracting mariage which sinne of theirs was cause of the vniuersal deluge nor wold the children bin so eager in pursuit of their parents blessing and what shall we say more surely the bare enditement brought in by the father to the Magistrate would neuer haue serued for a sufficient euidence against an vndutiful child if euen in those dayes the power of a father and his domestique discipline had not beene very transcendent What shall wee say then Did God by his latter law repeale the former and confine this duety to an inhibition of wordes alone If the case were so what then might wee say for Nazianzene Without doubt something might bee spoken for him and very much were it not that the very selfe same Christian Religion which in a manner we receiued from him did in some sort now crosse the good Christian Bishops assertion For this authority of parents if there be any such thing extant is so far reuolted from that which was ordained and established by God by nature by the Law of nations and Law positiue and that forsooth vpon no othet occasion but that wee I cannot tell how seuer this filiall duetie from religion that among Christians now a dayes to be a Father is nothing else but so to bee tearmed the dutie is gone though the name continue Can Christian religion then and Gods heauenlie commandement wich Saint Gregory
thee to the seruice of the Goddesse Osiris And thus much in briefe for the Grecians Now to come to our Ancestors among the Gawles as it is yet with vs there were three estates and orders among them the Druidet were the men of most principall marke and esteeme and were so highly reputed of and had such large priuiledges by reason of their sacred Ministeries and their interpretations of doubtfull questions in religion that well was hee that could bee of their company to be enrowled and profest in their rule What but might children so doe without their paparents liking No forsooth as you may well vnderstand by Caesar his owne relation some saith he be allured with great rewards some out of a voluntarie disposition enfrock themselues into the Religion some their parents send thither and some their kinsfolke Such were Voluntaries as were at their owne disposing such as were sent thither liued vnder awe and charge of parents or guardian The Romanes haue a title in their booke of Digests De Pollicitationibus of Promises in them there is special mention made of such promises as either we make solemnely to God or to our Countrie but if a sonne liuing in subiection to his Father should make any such promise it were nothing worth and this Vlpian out of his learning deliuers vnto vs for law Men that be Masters of families after they come to bee of full age are bound by their vowe and solemne promise but as for a son during his minormity or a bondslaue whilst he is a villain neither of them can bind themselues by their vowe without the fathers or Lords authority Indeed he that is a master of a family after the death of the auncestor must necessarilie be of full age to make his vowe good but let the sonne be neuer so old and make a vow be it not ratified first by the fathers approbation it is vtterlie voide and of no effect in lawe and the case is the same though he haue a stocke of monie or anie patrimonie of his owne to imploy and occupie for his preferment the vow notwithstanding al this is of no force or obligatiō in law And what may the reason hereof be because he that is not his owne man can neither come in bond himselfe nor statute out anie thing that he hath Moreouer he that hath right and interest to any thing cannot loose it but by some fact of his owne And therefore a sonne liuing in subiection vnder his father howbeit he might be termed to doe a godlie and religious act by vowing and promising that which is none of his owne yet were the act though to neuer so religious vse no better than plaine theft and pillage first in vowing his patrimonie and substance because the father hath a propertie in it then in vowing his person which is a matter in deed of greater consequence because he is no free man to this intent absolutelie to dispose of himselfe and the parents by such a consecration should wrongfully be depriued of the heire of the house the hope of their linage and the propagation both of their name and familie and lastlie of all such goods and chattels which being purchased by the child were after him to reuert vnto the fathers possession so that for iustifying of the sonnes vowe the consent and allowance of the father was essentiallie necessarie Very fauourable is that interpretation which makes for religion we doubt not yet withall not to be rackt to so high a straine as thereby to neglect all due and laudable solemnities for that were the next way rather to prophane religion than to aduance it Our father and our country haue each one as much authoritie as the other let that be grāted yet as Liuy storieth it when P. Cornelius Scipio was Pretor in Spaine and had vpon the great ieopardie of a battell promised solemne plaies and shewes after the victorie was obtained made afterwards suit to the Senate for some alotment of monie out of the treasurie to that vse their answer was that his vowe bound not the Senate of Rome and therefore he should make plaies and shewes in Gods name at his owne charge and vpon his owne purse or with such spoiles and booties as he had taken in the war Now may a sonne doe that with his fathers goods and that without asking him any leaue which the greatest officer in Rome could not doe without the Senates warrant if you tell me that thevestall virgins might bestow themselues against their fathers will because they were said to bee taken not to bee chosen and that therefore the high Priest did not receiue them as presented by their parents but tooke them away perforce such kind of reasoning from the nature of the word will stand them in small stead for this solemnitie or phrase of speech which the Bishop vsed I take thee Amy is so far from implying that there was any vnwillingnesse or violence in the action that it makes most especially for that purpose which we maintaine Surely there was no taking without some giuing and in this sence the high priest tooke her that was dedicated to Vesta but by your leaue she was first giuen and presented by her father Whence Metabus in Virgil infers Take here thy seruant Goddesse chast but Gellius cleares the point in his first booke therefore it seemes to be said that the maiden is taken because saith he the high Priest taking her by the hand lead her away as a captiue from her father vnder whose obedience she liued and some few words before that hauing recited the ancient solemnitie of the Papian law which enacted choice and lot as fittest meanes to be vsed in the admission of any person vnto religion At this time saith he if any man of credit or worship come to the high Priest and offer his daughter to be a Nunne the profession is as lawful as if all the ceremonies had been performed which the Papian law requires And it was a matter of such necessity that the daughter should be offered by the parents that if she were an orphan fatherlesse and motherlesse she was reputed vneligible for that religion The same may be said if either she her selfe were emancipated and set at libertie by her father and in the life time of the father became subiect to the power of her grandfather she was to be refused and put by as a person vneligible and why so might not her grandfather present her might not her guardian might not her ouerseer if she were at her owne disposing might she not vowe and offer vp her selfe Labeo Antistius wil tel you she might not because a girle vnder six or aboue ten could not be receiued into the order Why but might not any other present her no there was none so fit and without all exception for the purpose as her owne father If any else had done it there must haue beene some ordinary hearing and debating of the matter but had
he is able For it is not the Ecclesiasticall dignity that makes a Christian sayth Ierome One man in the Church is an eye another the tongue another the hand and another the foote or the eare In whatsoeuer vocation a man be if therein hee serue God as he is able hee pleaseth God exceeding well For God exacteth not the same obedience of all But in man it is farre otherwise except his sonne be obedient and dutifull at his beeke and at his seruice when hee shall thinke fitte he is by no meanes contented Neither is it much materiall of what condition both of them are for whosoeuer is a father is a father in the same proportion and whosoeuer is a sonne is a sonne in the same degree Therefore that we may honour our parents without exception and beyonde that voluntarie obedience which wee ought to shew them the Lord saith this I will this I commaund and for this duety I prolong thy yeares that thou mayest performe it alwayes What then if Christ did iustly and deseruedly reprehend those Iewish Priestes doest thou thinke especially seeing both of vs professe one Religion that thou being my sonne shouldest addict thy selfe to some certaine Colledge Rule or Societie which say it bee lawfull and holy yet is it but the inuention of men and thereupon contemne and despise mee thy father a sinne which God and Nature hath forbidden thee Excepting that worshippe which wee owe vnto our God such as is adoration and inuocation What is there in religion it selfe more religious and more diuine than to honour and reuerence our parents Sacrifice is a holy worke yet Christ as you may see lesse esteemeth it than the duety and obedience of children It is a holy and religious work for a man to deuote himselfe vnto the Church Ministery and seruice of the brethren Neuerthelesse S Paul commaunds in his first Epistle to Timothy 5. Chapter and 4. verse If widdowes haue children or nephewes let them learne first to shew godlinesse to their owne house and to recompence their parents for that is honest and acceptable before God Certainely if wee ought to choose any to that Ministery hee or shee ought to be chosen who are well reported of for their good works and they are of this kinde if shse hath nourished her children c. Would Paul haue prescribed this so earnestly except hee himselfe being the author had well perceiued that there were some priuate and domesticall duties which of necessity were to bee preferred before all other though sacred and publique the truth is that these latter proceed from those former For when the question is of morall and naturall institution Christians differ in nothing from Pagans He that liues contrary to Nature keepes not Gods commandements as Nilus saith in his institution to certaine Monks And as Athenagoras in his Apologie for Christians obserues that God mooues not man to those things which are against Nature And therefore Saint Paul spake nothing but that which Socrates had spoke before him in Zenophon which the Atheniās had long before thoght vpon and prouided for in their lawes If any one be disobedient to his parents sayth he in his 2. booke de fact dict Socrat. let him be vncapable of all Magistracy For how can he offer pure Sacrifice or sit well at rhe sterne of the common-wealth if hee be a bad liuer at home and if he be vnkind vnnatural and iniurious to the people of his own house As for the lawes of the Athenians you shall finde them in Aeschines against Timarchus in Plutarch in the life of Aeschines but what saith Saint Paul hee as if hee were in some emulation with Socrates sayth If there be any of you that prouideth not for his owne namely for them of his owne houshold hee denieth the faith and is worse than an Infidell Now see what coniecture may be gathered of thee to the contrary Certainely say they he cannot chuse but of necessitie bee most obedient to the generall Prouinciall Presbyters who so resolutely contemnes his Father and so coragiously renounceth him for a stranger and a Publican See my good sonne how far thou art diuerted from the way of the Lorde how exceedingly thou art estranged from his commandements although thou arrogantly thinkest that thou doest know and vnderstand them better than all thy fathers and thy forefathers did yea better than Christ himselfe Without doubt a father and a mother are not to be compared with God yet are they to be beloued with God saith Tertullian against the Gnostickes And in his book of Chastitie he saith you may know by the placing of euery commandement the manner by the order the state and by the end the reward therefore hee which honoureth not his father and mother is worse then an adulterer worse than a murtherer and worse than a theefe But I had rather cōpare vertues with vertues than vices vvith vices vvhat is so good a work in the Church as to giue legacies to charitable vses And yet saith S. Augustine whosoeuer will disinherit his sonne and make the Church his heire let him seeke one that will accept it truly he shall not find that Austin will be his heire and by Gods grace he shall find no man will be And in his 119. Epistle vnto Ecdicias doth he not reprehend her because she vowed continencie not acquainting her husband first with it and when he had afterward consented vnto her vowe doth he not blame her because she tooke vpon her the habite of a Nunne against his will and did he not reproue her because she gaue her goods to two poore Monkes when she had a sonne liuing on whom she might haue bestowed them which I speake not saith he as though I thought that if any of vs should be ill spoken of and scandalized for our good works therefore we should desist from doing them but because in euerie societie the respect we beare to our kindred ought to be one and the respect we shew to strangers another the condition of a christian is one and the condition of an infidel another the duty of parents to their children one and the dutie of children to their parents another Write therefore vnto him a letter of satisfaction and aske him pardon saith he to Eridicea because thou hast sinned against him and disposed of thy goods after thy pleasure without his aduise and contrary to his will not that it repenteth thee that thou didst bestow thy goods on the poor but because thou wert vnwilling that he shold haue any share or part in so charitable a worke Is not the fact memorable which is recorded of Aurelius Bishop of Carthage who restored a deed of gift he had receiued of a father that then had no children vnto him againe when afterwards hee had children For it is not likelie nor to be presumed in any case that he had rather haue another man to be his heire than his owne sonne See here a
far better iudgement of filiall duety than that which those vpstart Pharisies put vpon thee viz. That there is neither sacrifice nor vow nor any oblation that is to be preferred before the obedience which God commands vnto children But let vs proceed and try by examples borrowed from him that is both God and man whether it be true that a man which is desirous to take the ministery or to lead a monastricall life may renounce all kind of obedience and that it is to no purpose for him to aske his fathers consent and iudgement in taking those orders vpon him or no I pray thee whom did Christ call to be his Apostles called he such a one as thou art a yong boy and tell me if they left their ships their nets and all their tackling to follow Christ did they for all that leaue their parents or if they left them did they leaue them without leaue yea which is more did they that were husbands put away their wiues or did they which were fathers for that cause forsake their children Certaine it is that Iames and Iohn were aboue 25. yeers old when they departed from their father But did they further to shew their more impudencie in departing leaue Iudea and trauaile into Italie Lorraine or Spaine or else because themselues were Christians could they not endure to looke vpon their fathers or was his presence speech or conuersation irksome vnto them Had they done so they should haue done otherwise than their Lord and Master had done before who as I said neuer went from Mary and Ioseph But that I may demonstrate vnto thee that they went not out of their country or fathers houses vntill such time as after Christs passion they were to goe into the whole world and that albeit after their calling they accompanied Christ yet neuertheles they were conuersant at home dwelt with their parents It is written that Iesus came to the house of Peter and Andrew where when he saw their mother in law sicke of an ague hee cured her and forthwith she ministred to him and to his disciples Therfore to follow Christ was not to forsake ones friends his parents his wife his children or his household yea which is more Iames and Iohn albeit they were growen in yeeres would not haue followed Christ if Zebedeus their father had not consented thereunto For seeing they were together with their father whē Christ bad them follow him it cannot be but that either Zebedeus did expresse his consent in words or imply it by holding his peace But tell mee whether thou thinkest all vocations be of one kind as well they that proceede expreslie from Gods immediate will as they whereunto the Church calleth vs God knoweth directlie and changeth the hearts of men therefore he is not deceiued But men in their elections doe onlie coniecture and ghesse wherefore they oftentimes exceedinglie erre for to be a man and subiect to error be termes conuertible as to be God and not to be subiect to error what then why we had need vse all diligence and be verie warie in these vocations so that no solemnitie be passed ouer especially the consent good leaue of our parents If I should alleadge that place vnto thee where Christ said vnto his Apostles Suffer little ones to come vnto me thou wouldst say that there he speaketh of such as are yong in age And in very deed you shall find in the Gospell that these little ones were brought vnto Christ and that they came not of their owne accord vnto him therefore he said not Come vnto me but suffer them to come and againe forbid them not to teach that the calling of little ones as well as their Baptisme did depend both vpon their fathers tutors and curators suit and promise made for them But whereas it was said ouer and aboue forbid them not that was not spoken to their parents but to the disciples that found fault with such as brought them vnto Christ and this without doubt is spoken of such as are in their minoritie But that which was before alleadged makes no distinction at all of anie age It is written to all in generall tearmes Honour your parents I know when the sonne is once come to fiue and twenty that then his fathers approbation yea his dissimulation and which is more his very silence such as was that of Zebedeus goeth for his consent But yet that such as it is is verie requisite Neither canst thou depart from thy father or mother if they be vnwilling What said I from thy parents I say thou canst not goe from thy brethren or thy kindred for S. Paul speakes generallie of the whole familie but thou must perforce sinne against God and be guiltie of a cruell and faithlesse conscience But I suppose there is a text alleadged thee to the contrarie that when one of Christs disciples desired him that he would permit him to goe and burie his father before that he followed him Iesus replied vnto him Follow me and suffer the dead to burie their dead whereupon they dispute thus Buriall is a very religious and holie dutie especiallie if it be done to a mans father But Christ neuerthelesse willeth vs rather to attend him than the buriall of our parents Againe lay-men are accounted as dead men for they which are so hampered and entangled in the pleasures of this world that they cannot swim out of them may iustly be esteemed for drowned and dead men Hence saith S. Paul The widdow that liueth in pleasure is dead while she liueth 1. Timoth. 5.6 The cleargie men on the contrarie may properlie be said to liue For they are the part and portion of the liuing God therefore well may he be said to abstaine from the dead who hath left his father and his mother to follow Christ that is as they make it to be a Iesuit Verie acutelie collected Sir but we haue our answer in a readinesse for you First it followeth not that whatsoeuer was pronounced of Christ must forthwith necessarilie be applied to the Clergie and all such at haue betaken themselues to a regular course of life Indeed all his doctrine was deliuered ouer vnto them but not all power saith Tertullian in his book of Chastitie And verilie it is one thing to embrace Christ and another thing to follow so manie orders of monks as be now adaies yea though there were small ods between them and those of whom Dorotheus spake of old Secondlie when the father of that disciple was once dead that exact reuerence which perhaps he pretended to Christ ceased and was no longer to be performed For it was certaine that he was then no longer a sonne Lastlie the Lord commanded not that the burial should be whollie omitted but that it should be procured to be done by some other and whosouer that was he was said to celebrate his fathers funerall in regard that we commonly call all those which are departed out of this life before
thee I pray thee tell me if there were two waies to follow Christ in and the one were so faire and plaine that thou mightst loue me and thy sauiour Christ also the other so stonie and craggie that vnlesse thou didst perfectly hate me it were impossible for thee to loue him which of these waies wouldst thou rather chuse but O sonne S. Matthew and S. Luke are so cleer in this point that there is not so much as the least letter which may cast thee into any such labyrinth or intricate maze Read these Euangelists and read them from the beginning to the end thou shalt find it deliuered that if question be of vndergoing martyrdome for Christ which they call to carrie the crosse and follow him and these two should be in tearmes of opposition To denie God before men or to honor and loue ones father it is farre better to hate father yea to hate himselfe and his owne foule than once to distrust the promises of his sweet Sauior Christ So then if I should haue perswaded thee to abiure the Christian baptisme wherunto I first brought thee and might well enough haue beene thy Bishop in it had I aduised thee to cast away that most pretious pearle which S. Iohn the Apostle gaue him that told him where hee might find the woluish God that had yeere by yeere had 12. young children offered vp vnto him for sacrifice had I requested thee to renege Christianitie to entertaine Mahometisme Atheisme or heresie I may not haue thee tell me now with Saluianus that such a time may happen wherein some thing that is not God ought to be preferred before God then mightst thou by vertue of this scripture in these cases haue lawfully refused to do me such duty and reuerence as appertaineth to a father and Saturus or the worthy Lady Victoria would haue been good precedents for thy imitation of whom Victor the Bishop reporteth in his first booke De persecutione Vandalica that they had rather be held from their children parted from their husbands depriued of all their worldly wealth than by any seducements whatsoeuer become Arrians In such a case it would haue been good for thee to haue been without father or mother like Melchisedech who was therefore said to be without both because he was a deuout holy man though his parents were wicked and cruell Canaanites Heathen people loue their natiue country exceedingly and none can haue any part in their loue but their parents Now we saith Pontius S. Cyprians Deacon we detest and abhor our very parents when once they goe about to perswade vs for anie thing against our God But sith we are both good christians and Catholiks who should preuaile more with thee than my selfe that haue done more for thee than all the world besides if any father might be iustlie despised of his childe abused and wronged by him choaked with that text in Leuiticus I am ignorant I know you not certainlie it were such a father as shold dedicate his childrē to strange Gods or aduow them to the worship of the molten Calfe according to that of Moses let thy hand be vpon them and powr foorth their blood which would seduce thee from the truth in which place notwithstanstāding maybe obserued as also out of the 32. of Exodus that although Moses in this case allowes of parricide yet he exemplifieth it in the wife in the sonne in the brother in the sister in the kinsman and friend he makes no mention at all of the father So sacred venerable and inuiolable is that name of a father nothing may lawfullie be attempted against a father Read the Epistle of Moses Maximus Nicostratus Rufinus and other Confessors it is the 77 to Cyprian thou shalt find these words vnderstood in this sence peruse likewise Chrisostome in his 65. homilie vpon S. Matthew where he expounds them These words saith he to my vnderstanding closelie do betoken persecutions For many sonnes haue been drawn to wicked courses by their parents manie husbands by their wiues which whensoeuer they attempt let them neither be respected for wiues nor parents And the author which wrote on the same Euangelist in his 27 homilie It is not to be beleeued saith he that God which commanded thee to honor thy father and mother would bid thee forsake father and mother if therefore thou hast an vnbeleeuing father continue thy obedience to him for in so doing thou shalt receiue the reward of thy dutie and contrariwise he shall find the condemnation of his infidelitie And therefore our Sauior said not he that loueth his father is not worthy of me but he that loueth his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me For as to loue our parents after God it is dutie so to honor them more than God is plaine impietie If therefore he repeats it againe thou hast an vnbelieuing father still obey him but if hee would haue thee swallowed into the gulfe of infidelitie loue God more than thy father for he is the father not of the soule but of thy bodie onlie Howsoeuer yet he doth not require that the sonne vpon any such occasion should desert him by his bodily presence but by dissenting from him in point of religion Marke how these words of the olde law these men saith the Lord haue kept my commaundementes which haue saide vnto father and mother we know you not are expounded by Philostratus sometimes Bishop of Brixia and S. Austins ancient in his booke of heresies You are not to vnderstand hereby to condemne your father for begetting you but to condemne the grosse impietie of your father that would mislead you And this was the opinion of Salonius Bishop of Vienna writing vpon Ecclesiastes For the profession of our faith in Christ wee must contemne yea and hate father and mother and all our kindred when they be anie stops or impediments vnto vs in the way of the Lord as vve read that the holy Martyrs manie times did whence it is that S. Austin in his sermons saith these words seeme to encourage men to martyrdome Finallie Christ Iesus himselfe being readie to giue vp the ghost to speake in the words of Arnold the Abbot that he might superlatiuelie commend this noble and great article of the second table Honour thy father and thy mother and that by al the bonds and leagues of pietie doth giue bequeath it to his mother the blessed virgin woman behold thy sonne and to his best beloued disciple S. Iohn behold thy mother And that S. Iohn was likewise of his masters mind Prochirus relateth Chap. 21. for hauing baptized Chrysippa in the Iland Pathmos and she would thereupon in all speed leaue hir vnbeleeuing husband S. Iohn told her no that is by no meanes to be permitted for God hath not sent me to separate man wife I haue no such commission therfore returne in peace to your owne house For if it were lawfull that a woman might separate her selfe
point of violence forced to paganisme and Idolatry But sure it is that the Councells meaning neuer was that Children should forsake their parents because they were Christians for it saith in expresse words Let children reuerence their parents if for no other ende yet for this because they are Christians a reason as I conceiue that will euer holde for Christians for Vigoreus a writer of our time cites the same Synode to this very purpose But it will not bee amisse in my opinion to set downe the cause and occasion of the summoning of this Synode It was not because Pagan parents did make it their complaint of grieuance that their children did abandon and forsake them the cause was clean contrarie which was that they which were Christians left them which were of their owne profession and religion malapert and sawcie sonnes and trespasse so against their parents as thou hast lately done against mee marry the difference if any bee is this that they in former time affected a true monasticall retired life and thou according to the fashion of the time dost affect a professiō barelie consisting in an habit of apparell and formalitie of words they crucified the worlde to the flesh and the flesh to the vvorlde but men of your coate saue halfe the labour and crucifie the world onlie From whence then comes such a corruption in this discipline I will tell you About the time that some newe fangled fellowes sprung vp in the Church and termed themselues Anchorites Eremites or Monkes there steps me vp one Eustatius who led by an inconsiderate zeale began wheresoeuer hee came to thunder out those glorious magnificent words written in the Gospell that they were vnworthy of Christ that loued Father or mother more than Christ and thereupon to inferre that all things in the world are to bee contemned and set at naught as house posisessions parents children brethren yea and to make short worke all the vniuersal world the better to liue in some solitary hermitage vnder some rule and in some company seuered and shut from all men And why so thinke you because it was nothing worth to bee a Christian except you had bene also of the order of Eustatius But what was the issue of this Doctrine Sir this that the wife wold leaue her husband and be his wife the seruant his master and he his seruant the parents their children and they their parents that Christians set light by marriage and all duty else which euery man owes vnto his countrie that religion which was wont to keepe all in good order was now become ringleader to all confusion and disorder Lastly that the Gentiles might well say and Zozimus by name The Christians be barren unfruitfull in all affairs of dutie which is a speech that Tertullian in his apologeticus holds to be the most disgracefull scandalous that ouer yet was vttered against Christians But the sectaries of Eustatius reioynde why but this desertion is because wee would bee the freer for the seruice of God But the Fathers assembled in Councell condemne this faire occasion and prooued full whole that it was an act far more Christianlike and Religious to worship and loue our parents for that is the commandement of God than so to serue God as thereby to despise the parents a thing which he vtterly forbids For God and parents may well bee honoured together but no man liuing can truely worship God without he honor his parents also Therupon this new founder Eustatius shortly after changed his copy and came to be a Bishop in the Church and not a cloisterer And that this was the true occasion of assembling that Councell the very letter of that Councell as also Socrates Sozomen Isidor and Gratian in his 16. and 30. Distinct doe apparantly testifie How now sir Will so many and so waighty authorities do no good with you for I thank you you haue beene bold to set my authority at naught or are you eftsoones perswaded that should I affoord my consent neuer so much you could not yet bee a true and absolute Iesuite peraduenture you are yet some what grauelled in this doubt so then let vs take some view of that which they alleadge vnto you out of S. Hierome and withall consider whether there be any cloyster Diuinity or new found Gospel lately sprung vp among them to repeale these auncient Canons and decrees of the Church which you in your braue ruffe doe so lightly esteeme of It may not be denied but that S. Hierome writing to Heliodorus in commendation of a solitary life vseth these words should thy little nephewe hang fast clasping about thy neck thy mother with her tresses disheueled about her ears renting tearing her garmēts discouer those paps which gaue thee sucke should thy father that begate thee lie downe before thee in the way passe ouer thy father and trample him vnder thy feete shed not a teare but with an heroicall resolution flye towring vp in high speed to the standard of thy Sauiours crosse Sauage cruelty in such a case is your onely pitie Doubtlesse heere is a right noble sentence and well becomming the high spirit of so excellent a Father in the Church but before I cleare the point shew in what meaning this was spoken wherein S. Hierome as it should seeme by this makes such cheape reputation of parents authority and in so dooing dishonours the chastity of all naturall kindnes I would faine see that passage in him concerning parents obedience it is in his Epistle de vitando suspecto contubernio reconciled to this There you shall reade him thus Father and Mother saith he are names of dutie wordes of respect bonds of nature and vnder God the second truce and league of our loue It is none of your commendation to say you loue them not it is a notorious sinne in you if you hate them Our Lord and Sauior Iesus Christ was subiect to his parents He reuerenced that mother to whom hee was father loued that nurce whom he fostered and forgot not that wombe where hee was conceiued nor those armes that so oft bore him You will perhaps replie and say but heere lies the exception when a sonne liuing vnder the gouernment of his Father is once resolutely determined to goe into a monasterie why then hee may bee bolde to forbeare all shew of dutie and passe neither for good nature nor good manners Then crueltie in that case may be interpreted mercie incluilitie good conditions contempt obedience But thinke not good son though S. Hierome vsed such a faire colourable speech to Heliodorus that if hee should haue dealt in earnest with him he would haue aduised him to ben so behaued as his words doe implye God forbid that S. Hierome should euer be taken for principall or accessory in parricide that for the same verie cause that Aeneas was surnamed the pious as Virgil in all places stiles him Amids the scorching flames and thousand shot of darts I
rescued mine aged Syre and made these shoulders bowe To garde him from the enemies troope For an action directly contrarie a Christian man should goe about to merit the same surname appellation or that S. Hierome by any meanes should rather propose wicked Tullia for an instance of pietie that roade in her coach ouer her fathers coarse than deuout Aeneas for an imitation to Heliodorus Yea though hee might purchase thereby all the kingdomes and seignories of the world or all the vast territories of hell where ghostes Lorde it as Painims suppose or lastly that who so profest himselfe a Monke in such a scornefull fashion to his parents should bee better thought of than Cleobis and Piton that drewe their aged mother in a litter to a place where she was to sacrifice in stead of a payre of coâ—tch-horses Or those brethren which for they rescued their impotent parents from the rage of a tempestuos fire the people of Catanna in a reuerence of their deuotion called by no other name than the godlie-children Certainely it is so far from S. Hieromes meaning to haue his words peruerted drawn to the maintenance of such a barbarous crucity and impity as that when hee spake this to Heliodorus neither his Father or mother were then liuing so that the inference is impossible that had his Father mother forbad him to haue beene an Eremite in the wildernes of Syria he would haue gone ouer them and stamped them vnder his feete What then may S. Hieromes meaning be why this After Heliodorus had long time beene a souldier in the wars and dealt much in negotiating of state matters growing into some years and hauing no issue as we tolde you before he bad farewell to the world and in S. Hieromes company which was his puysne vowed a solitary and retyred life and to that end they both entred into a monastery liued there long time together at last Heliâ—dorus had a great longing to see how his onely sister and hir young sonne did and there lo did he alter his former resolution for there he betakes himselfe to the Church and in stead of being a Monke becomes a Cleargy man This was the time without all peraduenture when S. Hierome wrought these matters in commendation of the monasticall life beeing for yeares but a stripling and almost a very boy as he speaks of himselfe in another place and comming fresh from the vniuersity then he vseth these flourishing speeches vnto him alluding from his secular to the heauenly warfare interlacing withall such strong motiues and perswasions as friends vse often to their friends all to this purpose in effect that wheras we are commanded to be Eunuches for Christs sake to put the verie eies out of our head if they offend to leaue and forsake all that we haue in this present worlde as if the case were desperate for a rich man euer to come to heauen a point whereof S. Austen discourses excellently in his 89. epistle to Hilarius not to be carefull for to morrow to turne thy left cheeke to him that smites thee on the right and many moe sayings of the like nature which were they literally vnderstood and not spiritually without question would fill the Church full with heresies and yet concerning worldlie vvealth doth not S. Austen in an Epistle to Bonifacius tell vs a valiant Christian minded man should not be puft vp if he haue it nor be deiected if he loose it vvas not Leontius a Bishop of Laodicea condemned of the Church for dismembring himselfe vvhereupon Anastasius a Bishop of Nice in his 73. and 79 question saith vvhat is meant by this Gospell if thy right eie offend thee or thy right hand cut it off from thee Christ meant it not of our bodilie parts and members God forbid but of our friends and kinsfolke for hee slanders Gods workmanship that dismembers himselfe And euen S. Hierome himselfe hath he not vvritten so manie things in that strain of vehemencie for commendation of virginitie and single life that he seems in a manner to disallow and condemne all mariage yet questionles he neuer meant it For were it so that he spake as he thought and perswaded Heliodorus rather to make his way ouer his fathers body than to forsake that blissefull estate which as it seems in your conceipt the cloister affoords why then would he prefer Priesthood before it indeed he confesseth that Heliodorus answer may serue any other mans turne else but cannot serue his owne who hauing profest in precise tearmes the actiue life might not without blame renouÌ„ce his former profession and betake himselfe to an order of higher perfection as namely Priesthood Indead he describes the good and happie estate of them that liue in monasteries and likewise how perilous and subiect to all manner of temptations their condition is that liue at large in the world and saith he was a glad man to see him come vp so high but very fearefull to thinke of his fall So that he blames not Heliodorus for leauing his cloister nor his entrings into Priesthood nay he perswades him not directly to forsake the one and returne to the other But because first he reuolted from being a souldier to become a Monke and afterwards grew wearie of his cowle abjuring the profession which he vndertook in S. Ieromes company his endeauour is now by these forceable reasons or rather rhetorique schemes and colours to draw him backe againe into his monasterie And as for these words of the Gospell he that loueth father or mother more than me I pray marke whether Heliodorus answered S. Hierom well that they were to be vnderstood in case of martyrdome or whether S. Hieromes reply to this answer be sufficient But be it as it may be that no man should stand to too stiffelie vpon the authoritie of that speech which is not altogether so true as neat and elegant obseruing more his words than his meaning for an vpshopt of all when he came to riper yeeres he recants that opinion in an epistle written to Nepotian who by this time also was both in yeers and discretion grown to be a man And as concerning such arguments as he had proposed to Heliodorus he saith he did it as a yong man after the fashion of the schooles when the fire of his study and learning in Rhetorique was not clean beat out of him for verily at that time a man might freely enter into a monasterie and when him list leaue him And then the question was idle whether a man might follow this course of life without his parents liking because then there was no such obligation by vowes as now a daies there is and had a man misliked of his profession his punishment was none other but the imputation of lightnesse and inconstancie which is euident out of S. Austins epistle to his friend Boniface The profession of being a Monke in those daies was nothing else but the meditation and exercise of the ancient