World lived together in a common Retirement so far from forsaking the Duties of Marriage that in that state they gave Education to a numerous Off-spring of Children That Prosper commonly reputed Bishop of Rhegium was married is manifest from his Poem dedicated to his Wife Sidonius Apollinaris Bishop of Clermont had married while a Lay-man Papianilla Daughter of Avitus the Emperour and that she lived with him after his Ordination appears from an Epistle written to her when absent about the common affairs of their Family under the Reign of Nepos who was made Emperour in the year 474. two years after Sidonius his Consecration and from the authority of Gregory Turonensis who relates that Sidonius when Bishop used to take his Plate out of the house by stealth and give it to the Poor which his Wife was wont to redeem with Money His Predecessour in that See Namatius built the Cathedral Church of Clermont and at the same time his Wife built the Church of St. Stephen in the Suburbs But a more eminent Example of the Practice of the Gallican Church at that time is the Election of Simplicius Bishop of Bourges The Bishops of the Province not agreeing in the choice of a Bishop committed the disposition of the whole matter to Sidonius giving him a power of Nomination Sidonius then going to Bourges nominated Simplicius a married man whom in a Speech he thus recommended to the People His Wife is descended from the Family of the Palladii who have possessed the Chairs either of Professours or Bishops with great Commendation of their Order In truth because the person of a Matron requires a modest and brief mention I dare constantly â—…verr that woman is not unworthy of her Relation to the Clergy of both Families he had before said that Simplicius also descended of the Race of Priests either that wherein she was born and brought up or that whither she was removed by Marriage They both educate their Children prudently and vertuously In the name therefore of thâ—… Father Son and Holy Ghost Simplicius is he whom I pronounce shall be your Bishop To what purpose was all this Commendation of Simplicius his Wife or what did it concern the People what manner of woman she was if immediately upon his Ordination she must have retired from his Family and cease to be his Wife And then which is most observable Sidonius pronounced him Bishop without giving him any previous notice of it when neither his nor his Wifes resolutions of a total future absâ—…inence from the use of their Marriage could be supposed to be known and therefore must be supposed not to have been required of them As for his willingness to accept the Bishoprick they enquired not after that since in that Age they thought it lawful to force men to take upon them the Pastoral charge but never thought it lawful to force them to put away their Wives and abjure the Duties of Marriage In the next Age Venantius Fortunatus mentions the Posterity of Emelius Bishop of Burdeaux and in one almost whole Book celebrates the Praises of Leontius his Successour and Placidina his Wife descended from Siâ—…onius of Clermont who adorned with Hangings the Churches which her Husband built Some few years before Sidonius Apollinaris Son of the same Sidonius had obtained his Fathers Bishoprick by the Intrigues of his Wife Placidina In the same Age or towards the end of the former Gerhardus or Genebaldus the first Bishop of Laon having at his Ordination separated himself from his Wife the Niece of St. Remigius afterwards changed his Resolutions and resuming her society begat St. Latro of her who succeeded him in his Bishoprick Many other married Bishops of these and the succeeding Ages might be reckoned but these are sufficient to shew that neither the Constitutions of Popes nor Canons of Councils ever gained universal Reception in any part of the Western Church the use of Marriage being still retained by many Bishops eminent both for Piety and Learning So true is it what Polydore Virgil confesseth that notwithstanding the frequent repetition of the Law of Celibacy Marriage could never be wrested from the Western Clergy before the Popedom of Gregory VII Many other Arguments might be produced to demonstrate that the use of Marriage was retained by the Clergy of the antient Church which however they be less direct than those already mentioned yet are they no less conclusive Of this kind is the Practice of all those Hereticks and Schismaticks who departing from the Western Church before Celibacy was introduced retained the use of Marriage to their Clergy It being the custom of all Hereticks whose Errours were meerly speculative to preserve that Ecclesiastical Discipline which the Church then used when they departed from her but not think themselves obliged by any subsequent Decrees of it Thus the Goths and Vandals being infected with Aâ—…ianism under the Reign of Valens before any imposition of Celibacy was attempted in the Church and afterwards seating themselves in Spain took no notice of the Decrees of the Catholick Councils against the Marriage of the Clergy Hence it was that when towards the end of the sixth Age they began to be converted apace to the Orthodox Faith most of their Clergy were found to be married which forced the third Council of Toledo in the year 589. in a manner to dispense with them in this Canon It is observed by the H. Synod that the Bishops Priests and Deacons returning to the Church from Heresie do yet retain the use of their Wives That it may not therefore be done for the future it is ordered that they be separated from their Wives But if any will not condescend to that let him be reduced to the Order of Readers the fifth Order of the Clergy As for those who have all along been subject to the Canons of the Church if any of them accompany with their Wives let them be more severely punished Here the Council teacheth us what was the general Practice of the Arian Clergy at that time and acknowledgeth that they were not obliged by any precedent Ecclesiastical Canons about Celibacy whereas the Arians always confessed they were obliged by all Constitutions of the Catholick Church made before their departure from it The second Council of Caesarangusta or Caragosa in the year 592. made a not-unlike Canon although somewhat more severe For they commanded the converted Arian Clergy who would not part with their Wives to be reduced to Lay-Communion The Rules prescribed by many Councils to the Clergy for the government of their Wives are a no less certain Argument of their cohabitation with them The Council of Eliberis Neocaesarea and some others commands that if any Clergy-mans Wife commits Adultery after the Ordination of her Husband and he knows of it he shall be bound to put her away But if he will continue to cohabit with her he shall be incapable of executing
his Office saith the Canon of Ancyra he shall be excommunicated saith that of Eliberis This Canon doth not only prove beyond all contradiction the cohabitation of the Clergy with their Wives after Ordination but also it is most manifest that they abstain not from the company of their Wives by that proviso if her Husband knows that she commit Adultery which otherwise would have been impertinent For it cannot well be imagined that the Adultery of any mans Wife with whom he accompanieth not himself should escape his knowledge A Synod held in Ireland by St. Patrick in the year 450. or 456. decreed That if any Clergy-man from a Sexton to a Priest should be seen without his Coat or if his Wife walked abroad without a Veil upon her head they should be both of them contemned by the Laity and separated from the Church Where it would have been highly unjust to punish the Clergy for the light carriage of their Wives if at their Ordination they renounced the company of their Wives and thenceforth ceased to have any power over them The first Council of Toledo in the year 400. ordered That if the Wives of any Clergy-men were scandalous in their carriage or rather were false to their Beds their Husbands should have power to keep and imprison them in their houses and inâ—…lict any arbitrary punishment upon them which extended not to death But themselves should not so much as eat with them unless they first did penance Whence it appears that before the fault committed they might have eaten with their Wives and even after the fault may again receive them to the usual familiarity of a Wife if they will â—…irst do penance which was in conformity to the antient Canons of the Church which enjoyned that if the Adultery of even any Lay-mans Wife was notorious he should either be bound to put her away or if he will retain her first to do penance lest he should otherwise seem to have consented to and connived at her Adultery An evident Argument of the use of Marriage permitted to the Clergy may be also drawn from the violent and forcible Ordinations of Bishops Priests and Deacons which were frequent in the antient Church For many of these persons thus violently and against their wills ordained were married whose resolutions to abstain from their Wives could not then be known and as all acknowledge could not be forced Or if they should condescend to such a renunciation of the pleasures of Marriage yet was it uncertain whether their Wives would conâ—…ent to it Who if they should dissent they ought not to be defrauded of their Husbands Embraces as all will grant and therefore total abstinence was not universally used by the Clergy while such violent Ordinations were in use I will produce but two Examples of them Paulinus as himself relates being present in the Church of Barcelona upon Christmas-day was suddenly laid hold on by the people dragged to their Bishop Lampius then officiating at the Altar and ordained by him his Wife Therasia not knowing of it till it was done In Africa about the same time Pinianus an illustrious Nobleman of Rome but more famous for his Piety going with his Wife Melania to visit St. Augustin was beset in the Church of Hippo by the people and forced to divert their present intentions by promising them under Hand and Seal before many Witnesses that if they would now dismiss him he would in due time enter into Priests Orders among them This he did his Wife Melania being not only unwilling but even weeping and protesting against it as loath to descend from the pomp of a Roman Lady to the humility of a Priests Wife The Titles which were antiently bestowed upon the Wives of the Clergy are no mean Argument of their cohabitation and continued use of Marriage The Wives of Bishops Priests Deacons and Subdeacons are frequently in the Councils called Bishopesses Priestesses Deaconesses and Subdeaconesses Titles which argue they did not immediately cease to be Wives upon the promotion of their Husbands to those several Orders nor lose all relation to them Rather the first of these Canons enjoyn That a Bishop having no Bishopess no Wife shall not keep any number of women in his Family which plainly intimates that he might admit women into his Family if he had a Wife to preside over them and by her prudent government secure their sobriety Lastly Children are the visible Effects of Marriage and those many Sons of the Clergy which were eminent in the ancient Church manifest there were many more who neither deserved nor obtained any place in History and that the Marriage of the Clergy was then both frequent and honourable I will produce the chief of them In the First Age we have Petronilla Daughter of St. Peter four Virgin-Prophetesses Daughters of Philip the Evangelist and three Daughters of St. Philip the Apostle In the Second Age Marcion the degenerate Son of a Pious and Orthodox Bishop In the Third Age Domnus Son of Dometrianus Bishop of Antioch was made Bishop of that See upon the deprivation of Paulus Samosatenus In the Fourth Age Probus and Metrophanes were the Sons and in order Successours of Dometius Bishop of Bizantium Eustathus Bishop of Sebastea was Son of Eulalius Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia St. Gregory Nazianzen Bishop of Constantinople and Caesarius Count of the Empire and Questor of Bithynia both Sons of Gregory Bishop of Nazianzen Sozomen mentions a great Officer in the Court of Theodosius the Emperour son of Helladius Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia Flavius Dexter Praefectus-Praetorio of the East was the son of Pacianus Bishop of Barcelona Abra daughter of St. Hilary Eulampia daughter of Anicius a Presbyter and Mother of Philostorgius the Historian Apollinaris the learned Bishop of Laodicia son of the no less learned Apollinaris Presbyter of Laodicia Evagrius Ponticus Arch-deacon of Constantinople son of a Presbyter of Iberia Pope Anastatius Son of Maximus a Presbyter In the Fifth Age there was Julianus Bishop of Ecla in Campania son of Memor Bishop of Capua and his Wife Ia daughter of AEmilius Bishop of Beneventum St. Patrick son of Calphurnius a Deacon Leporius Presbyter of Marseilles son of Sulpicius Severus Presbyter of France as some think That Sulpicius was married is evident from his Epistle to Bassula his Mother-in-law Pope Boniface I. son of Secundus Presbyter of Rome Theodulus son of St. Nilus Presbyter of Elusa Auspiciola daughter of Salvian Presbyter of Marseilles Photina an holy virgin daughter of Theoctistus Presbyter of Lâ—…odicea Salonius and Verarius sons of Eucherius Archbishop of Lyons and both Bishops in their Father's life-time Gelasius Cyzicenus Archbishop of Caesarea in Palastine son of a Presbyter in Cyzicum Alcimus Avitus Archbishop of Vien and Apollinaris Bishop of Valence sons of Isicius Archbishop of Vien Superventor a Clergy-man of France son of Claudius a Bishop Pope Foelix III.
should have his own Wife and expresly teacheth all have not the Gift of Continence That the Apostles advice of Virginity was temporary himself professing that he cast no snare upon us That as for themselves they professed they could not contain without the use of Marriage and therefore by the Precept of the Apostle had a right to marry That it was a vain and false pretence that this Indulgence was given by the Apostle only to the Laity and not to the clergy That the Yoak of Celibacy was unlawful and intolerable condemned of old by Dionysius Corinthius and Paphnutius Lay not therefore we beseech you this heavy burden upon us which we are not able to bear nor violate the Reverence due to Holy Orders and the sacred Mysteries for our sakes Certainly you render both contemptible in the sight of men whilst you forbid the Sacraments to be received from our hands A Prohibition directly contrary to the antient Canons which define that the Sacraments lose not their efficacy by the unworthiness of him that administers them By these Authorities and Reasons you ought to be perswaded and neither remove us from the sacred Office nor deprive the Laity of the benefit of the Sacraments Concluding with a protestation that they could not contain without Marriage nor obtain Continence any otherwise than by the peculiar Gift of God. Thus the married Clergy wanted neither learning nor courage to defend the justice of their Cause and however they were overborn by the violence of the Court of Rome and prevailing interest of the Monastick Order yet many of them retained their Wives for some Ages after the times of Hildebrand although from his Popedom the marriage of the Clergy gradually decreased and at last was born down by an universal Celibacy For some time after that the Priests of Germany publickly cohabited with their Wives saith Aventinus as other Christians did and begat Children as appears from the Records of Grants made by them to Churches Priests or Monks wherein their Wives by name subscribe as Witnesses together with their Husbands and are called by the honest name of Priestesses This constancy of the Clergy in retaining their Wives was the only reason of the frequent renovations of the Laws of Celibacy by the Popes and Councils of the 12th and 13th Ages These Laws seem not to have been introduced into Dalmatia till the year 1199. when a Council being held there by the Popes Legates this Canon was made Whereas the Priests of God ought to live continently they are said to hold both their Wives and Churches in the parts of Dalmatia and Dioclia Wherefore we enact That Clergy-men having Wives married before Ordination live with them and resign their Benefices but that those who have Wives married after Ordination dismiss their Wives and retain their Benefices To pass by other Councils I will produce only the great Lateran Council under Innocent the Third in the year 1215. which not only allowed the Marriage of the Clergy when contracted to be valid but also permitted Marriage to the Clergy of some Provinces wherein the Laws of Celibacy had not yet been received The first appeareth from the 31 Canon conceived in these words To abolish a great Corruption which hath been introduced in divers Churches we straightly forbid that the Sons of Prebendaries especially their Bastard Sons be made Prebendaries in the secular Churches wherein their Fathers were instituted Where by excluding especially the Bastard Sons of the Clergy it is acknowledged that their Children born in Marriage are not Bastards The latter is no less evident from the 14th Canon which enjoyning Continence to the Clergy adds this Proviso But whereas many of the Clergy according to the custom of their Countries have not renounced their Wives if any of these commit Fornication or Adultery let them be more severely punished because they can make use of lawful Marriage The latter Writers of the Church of Rome to â—…lude the Authority of a Council so much reverenced by them declaring in favour of the Clergies Marriage would have this clause understood of the Greek Clergy but produce not the least shew of Reason for their pretence No mention is made of the Greek Clergy either before or after nor did the Fathers of the Council in forming this Canon any more dream of them than of the Clergy of the Abyssine Church Lastly almost the whole 17th Title of the first Book of Decretals of Gregory the Ninth is made up of Epistles written by Alexander the Second to the Bishops of England about admitting or not admitting the Sons of Priests into the Benefices of their Fathers without any intermediate Successour In these Epistles Bastardy is no-where objected to the Sons of the Clergy but only the danger which may accrew to the Church if Ecclesiastical Benefices should descend like a Lay Inheritance from Father to Son. And this danger the Pope sometimes dispensed with For it is manifest from the 9th Chapter that he had given a Faculty to the Archbishop of York of inducting the Sons of the Clergy into the Benefices of their Fathers immediately after the death or cession of the latter The 12th Chapter hath these words Clement III. to the Archbishop of Cassels Whereas your Brotherhood inquired of us the Sons of Priests or Bishops may be promoted to Holy Orders if they be adorned with knowledge and sobriety know that if they be born of lawful Marriage and there be no other Canonical Impediment they may lawfully ascend to Holy Orders Where it is manifest that the Sons of which Pope Clement speaks were born after the Ordination of their Fathers for none was ever so mad as to doubt whether the Sons of Clergy-men born before their Ordination were capable of Holy Orders But if any scruple remains the 14th Chapter will remove it which is this We understand that N. begotten in Priesthood born and conceived of a lawful Wife desires to be admitted into Holy Orders Wherefore let it be done Thus did Popes General Councils and the practice of the Church after the times of Hildebrand acknowledge the lawfulness of the Clergies Marriage and connive at it till the Papal ambition drawing the disposition of all Ecclesiastical Preferments to themselves and allowing the use of Concubines to the Clergy Marriage was at last forced to yield to the more advantageous and easie way of Fornication It remains that we speak somewhat more particularly of the state of Celibacy in the Church of England which more peculiarly concerns us and probably the last of all the Churches in the West submitted to the imposition of it The Church of England being no part of the Roman Patriarchate nor intervening by her Bishops in those Western Councils which enjoyned Celibacy took no notice of nor gave any obedience to the Decrees of Popes or Constitutions of Councils in that matter but allowed an uninterrupted freedom of Marriage to the whole body of her
son of Foelix Presbyter of Rome so the Liber Pontificalis or of Valerius a Bishop of Africa so Gratian Radulphus de Diceto saith Pope Gelasius I. was son of Valerius a Bishop In the end of this Age Leontia daughter of St. Germanus a Bishop in Africa suffered Martyrdom at Carthage In the Sixth Age Pope Silverius was son of Pope Hormisda Pope Agapetus son of Gordianus Presbyter of Rome Epiphanius Patriarch of Constantinople praised by Justinian the Emperour for his descent from a Priestly Family Chronopius Bishop of Perigord descended from Bishops both by Father and Mother's side Nonnosus the Historian son of Abraamius a Presbyter Sidonius Apollinaris Bishop of Clermont son of Sidonius Bishop of that place Archadius Senator of Clermont son of Sidonius junior Latro Bishop of Laon son of Gerâ—…ardus Bishop of the same place Syagrius son of Desideratus Bishop of Verdun Pope Gregory I. great Grandchild of Pope Foelix IV. In the Seventh Age we find Pope Deusdedit son of Stephen Subdeacon of Rome Pope Theodorus son of Theodorus suffragan Bishop of Hierusalem Samuel the British Historian son of Beulanus Presbyter of Britain In the Eighth Age we have Anchises son of Arnulphus Bishop of Mets Progenitor of the Caroline Family St. Florebert son and successour of St. Hubert Bishop of Leige Gerbilo son and successour of Geroldus Archbishop of Worms In the Ninth Age Pope Hadrian II. son of Talarus an Italian Bishop Pope Marinus son of Palumbus a Presbyter Pope Stephen VI. son of John Presbyter of Rome In the Tenth Age Pope John XIII son of John an Italian Bishop Pope John XV. son of Leo Presbyter of Rome Joannes Cameniata the Historian son of a Presbyter of Thessalonica As for John XI base fon of Sergius III. in this and Hadrian IV. Bastard of Robert Parson of Langley in Hartfordshire in the Twelfth Age they peculiarly belong to the Church of Rome to whose Celibacy they owed their being and to whose shame they possess'd their Thrones In the end of the Seventh Age that undisturbed freedom of Marriage which the Eastern Clergy had hitherto enjoyed suffered some little diminution in the Quinisext Council This was a Council assembled at Constantinople in the Year 692. to supply the defects of the Fifth and Sixth General Councils of which the last was held but eleven years before and neither of them had made Canons for the better government of the Church being wholly taken up with the determination of Matters of Faith. To remedy this defect the Quinisext Council was called which in truth was nothing else but a continuation of the Sixth Council almost the same Bishops being present in both and therefore the Canons of it are commonly cited under the name of the Sixth Council A voluntary abstinence from the use of Marriage was now become common to all the Bishops of the East which is not at all to be wondred at for that custom was already taken up which at this day continueth in the Eastern Church of chusing the Bishops not out of the Secular Clergy but out of Monasteries This voluntary Abstinence therefore being now become universal was in this Council formed into a Law upon occasion of the Bishops of Africa and Libya who still retained the use of Marriage This the Council inhibited to them and all other Bishops for the future professing they did it not in derogation of the ancient Apostolical Discipline but for the greater edification of the Church whereby they acknowledge that the use of Marriage was permitted even to Bishops by the Apostles and that permission continued down in the Church till their times As for the Marriage of Priests and all the other inferiour Clergy the Council only commanded an abstinence from the use of it in the time of the celebration of the more sacred Mysteries of Religion at which times it had been forbidden also to Laymen by the Canons of many Councils Thus only renewing the Third Canon of the Fifth Council of Carthage in all other things they left to the Clergy the free use and enjoyment of their Marriage And not only so but condemned also the practice of the Church of Rome in these words Whereas in the Church of Rome we understand it is prescribed in form of a Canon that those who are to be invested with the Order of Priest or Deacon should promise perpetual abstinence from their Wives we following the ancient Canon of Apostolical Truth and Discipline enact that the lawful cohabitation of the Clergy with their Wives cease not to be accounted valid not daring to dissolve the union between them and their Wives nor depriving either of the convenient Society or Embraces of the other Lest we should thereby be unavoidably injurious to Marriage which God ordained and blessed with his own presence the Holy Gospel pronouncing this Sentence What God hath joyned together let no man put asunder and the Apostle teaching us that Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled and again Art thou bound unto a Wife seek not to be loosed If any one therefore shall presume against the Apostolical Canons to deprive the Clergy of the lawful company of their Wives let him be deposed This Council was ever held sacred and the Constitutions of it about the Marriage of the Clergy continued down in the Greek Church without variation to this very day That it was an Oecumenical Council the Greeks always believed and the Latins have sometimes confessed For the Church of Rome acknowledgeth the Third Constantinopolitan Council to have been General of which the Quinisext was no more than an Appendix and therefore always accounted part of it The interval of eleven years doth no more prejudice the identity of the two Councils than almost twice that number of years between the first and last Session of the Council of Trent can hinder them from being esteemed parts of the same Council Besides the Church of Rome doth at this day receive the Definitions of the Second Council of Nice and accounts it Oecumenical But this Council expresly confirmed the Sixth General Council and therein also the Quinisext Council For that they accounted the latter to be a part of the former and consequently confirmed both together is manifest because citing the Eighty second Canon of the Quinisext Council they call it the definition of the Holy and Oecumenical Sixth Council Or lastly If the express approbation of a Pope be required to make a Council General neither is that here wanting For Pope Hadrian I. in his Epistle to Tarasius Patriarch of Constantinople citing the same Canon calls it one of the divine and lawfully enacted Canons of the Sixth Synod The Greek Translation is more express which runs thus I receive all the Decrees of this holy Sixth Council with all the Constitutions and Canons divinely enacted by it However that the Church of Rome hath approved this very Custom of the Eastern Church of permitting to
can be of Apostolical Institution nor the antient practice of it be a fixed Rule to succeeding Ages The great variation of the Canons of those several Councils which enjoyned Celibacy we before observed and might add the alterations introduced into the practice of the Greek Church by the Quinisext Council and Novels of Leo the Emperour But I will here insist only upon the case of Subdeacons who in the present Church of Rome are no less forbidden the use of Marriage than the superiour Clergy Not to the antient Church Siricius and Innocent left Marriage free to them Pope Leo the First endeavoured to impose Celibacy upon them but his Decree gained no acceptance Many Councils after that time permitted Marriage to them Palagius the Second forbid it to the Subdeacons of Sicily but his Successour Gregory repealed that prohibition That Continence was not yet commanded to Subdeacons neither in Spain nor Sicily at the time of the third Council of Toledo Anno 589. Baronius and Binius affirm may be evidently deduced from the fifth Canon of that Council In England Augustin Archbishop of Canterbury had consulted Pope Gregory whether Clergy-men not being able to contain might marry and whether when married they ought to resume a secular Life Gregory returned answer that Clergy-men who were not in Holy Orders if they could not contain might marry and ought still to be maintained from the Revenues of the Church and be employed in sacred Functions By Clergy-men not in Holy Orders an antient Saxon Homily produced by Mr. Whelock understands all besides Deacons Priests and Bishops And even after the time of Hildebrand Pope Urban the Second in the Council of Beneventum prescribed Continence to Bishops Priests and Deacons but not to Subdeacons to whom the Fathers of the Council asfirm Celibacy was neither imposed by the Primitive Church nor commanded by the Apostles Lastly Gratian contends that neither Deacons nor Subdeacons ought to be restrained from contracting and using Marriage V. Whatsoever Popes and Councils in the antient Church forbid Marriage to the Clergy did at the same time forbid to them the company of Concubines with much greater and severer penalties Which doth not only demonstrate that they believed not the use of Marriage by the Clergy to be equal to the crime of Fornication but also takes away from the Church of Rome all just title to any plea of antiquity in the imposition of Celibacy since she hath sometimes openly permitted the use of Concubines to the Clergy and always in these latter Ages affixed greater punishments to the Marriage than to the Concubinacy of the Clergy And therefore the Gloss upon the Canon-Law observeth that Fornication is less disadvantageous to the Clergy than Marriage because in many cases Marriage would exclude a man from Orders or deprive him when ordained when a Fornicator might be admitted into and continued in the sacred Office. VI. The antient Church in imposing Celibacy upon the Clergy ever left open a Refuge for incontinent persons and thereby prevented the danger of their incontinence and scandal of the Church And not only those who could no longer contain but even all who desired Marriage were permitted to contract it by quitting the sacred Office and retiring to Lay-Communion maintained still by the Revenues of the Church and sometimes allowed to rank themselves among the three inferiour Orders Thus the Councils of Orleans I. of Tours and many others in the Western Church In the East no other punishment than deprivation was ever inflicted upon the superiour Clergy contracting Marriage So the Council of Neocaesarea and the Novels of Justinian the Emperour And even this punishment of total Deprivation Leo the Emperour thought too severe and therefore moderated it decreeing That Priests Deacons and Subdeacons contracting Marriage after Ordination should only be deposed from that degree wherein they were before their Marriage and be reduced to a lower Station among the Clergy using in the mean while the Habit of the Clergy and attending to the administration of holy things although acting in a lower Sphere And this Balsamon proposeth as the constant practice of the Greek Church in his time In the West however many Popes and Councils of the fifth sixth and seventh Ages commanded the Clergy contracting Marriage to be excommunicated and separated from their Wives these furious Decrees vanished and grew obsolete in the next Ages and Deprivation was thought a sufficient punishment of Marriage when Isidore Mercator forged the Decretals about the beginning of the ninth Age as appeareth from a spurious Decree of Pope Lucius cited by Gratian and from the Canons of the Councils of Worms and Mentz towards the end of this Age. I may add that no more than a temporary Deprivation seems then to have been sometimes used For the spurious Acts of the second Roman Council under Pope Silvester forged by the same Mercator decrees That no Presbyter shall contract Marriage from the day of his Ordination if he doth let him be deprived of his dignity for ten years Thus did the antient Church allow a Remedy to the Incontinence of the unmarried Clergy and perhaps cannot properly be said to have forbidden Marriage to any since none was by her Constitutions rendered incapable of Marriage nor totally debarred from it Not so the present Church of Rome which maintaineth Marriage contracted after Ordination to be in it self unlawful and no other than the sin of Fornication and Adultery nay much worse than both in the judgment of Cardinal Campegius who to the Embassadours of Strasbourg complaining of the open Concubinacy of their Clergy and desiring Marriage might be permitted to them as a Remedy of it answered That the Marriage of Priests was a much greater sin than if they kept many Concubines in their house For that these were perswaded they did well but the others both knew and confessed their sin And lest we should imagine this to be only the product of a rash and precipitate judgment Costerus the Jesuit proposeth and defendeth the same Proposition VII The scandalous and bad effects which too great an affectation much more the imposition of Celibacy produced in the antient Church might justly deter the present Age from imitating that Example and thereby continuing and augmenting the same scandals The horrible and sad abuses of Eunuchs and House-keepers we have before described whose ill examples have done greater injury and given deeper wounds to the honour and reputation of the antient Church than ever the affected or imposed Celibacy of the Clergy brought lustre or advantage to it And if in those times when the first zeal of Christianity was not yet expired when Piety and Vertue were excited by Miracles and fomented by Persecutions when a generous renunciation of the World and contempt of all Sublunary Pleasures was the common practice and seem'd to be the very genius of Christianity if under all these advantages Celibacy could not
them and oft-times voluntarily spilt the consecrated Bloud upon the ground In Germany as Nauclerus relateth upon the prohibition of hearing the Masses of married Priests the Laity were forced to administer the Sacraments themselves and baptize their own Children This scandal arose much higher in England where when the same prohibition was by the procurement of Anselm enacted in a National Synod all Divine Service was for want of unmarried Priests generally discontinued in Parochial Churches and the Church-doors overgrown with Thorns As for the scandalous incontinence and uncleanness of the Clergy that is not much to be admired being the natural effect of imposed Celibacy But it may be justly wondred that while the Pope engaged with so much violence against the Marriage of the Clergy they willingly overlook'd and conniv'd at their Fornications and prodigious Impurities of Life This Petrus Damiani himself assures us and affirms it to be the custom of the Church of Rome in his time severely to exact other points of Ecclesiastical Discipline but to connive at and dispense with the Lust of the Clergy which was then become so brutal and notorious that he writ a Book entituled Gomorrhaeus particularly upon that subject This alone might justifie what we before observed that the Church of Rome imposed Celibacy upon the Clergy not for increase of Piety or advancemenâ—… of Purity but only for temporal ends and secular advantages However the Marriage of the Clergy wanted not Defendeâ—…s in this Age to maintain its right against the calumnies and tyranny of its Adversaries The Decrees of the Popes were condemned by some Councils universally opposed by the Clergy of all Nations and gained not success till a long and sharp contention In the year 1061. the Bishops of Lombardy by the instigation of Guibert Bishop of Parma met in a Council at Basil wherein they annulled the Decrees of Pope Nicolas and decreâ—…d That no Pope should be obeyed who would not 〈◊〉 and yield to their Infirmities About the same time the Clergy of Laon being urged by Petrus Damiani to put away their Wives produced in their defence a Decree of the Council of Tribur which permitted the use of Marriage to the Clergy Several Councils were heâ—…l at Tâ—…ibur in this Age of whose Acts we have little or no account left and therefore cannot 〈◊〉 the time of this Council The Synod of 〈◊〉 we shall mention afterwards when we come to the Affairs of England In the year 1080. Gregory the Seventh was condemned and deposed in the Council of Brixia as well for other crimes as because hâ—… had â—… Divorâ—…es between married persons to use the words of the Historian or had violently separated the married Clergy from their Wives To these we may add the Council of Beneventum held eleven years after by Urban the Second which permitted Marriage to Subdeacons as we before observed and the great Lateran Council under Innoâ—…ent the Third of which more hereafter If many Bishops disliked annulled and miâ—…igated the Papal Decrees of Celibacy with much morâ—… violence although with less authority did the inferiour Cleâ—…gy oppose this unjust Imposition Particularly 〈◊〉 Hildebrand published his Decrees the Historian saith The Clâ—…rgy were in a rage crying out the 〈◊〉 was plainly a Heretick and maintainer of mad Opinions who forgetting those words of Christ All 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tâ—…is and â—…e that cannot contain let him marry would by a violent exaction compel men to live the life of Angels and while he stopped the wonted course of Nature let loose the Reins to a promisâ—…uous Lust. 〈◊〉 the learned Monk of Gemblacâ—… writ to Henry Archdeacon of Leige a peculiar Tâ—…eatise or Apology against those who sâ—…andered or condemned the Masses of married Priests as himself tells us which is now lost The same Author in another place giveâ—…h this judgment of the Decree of Pope Gregory That it was made by an unheard-of Example and inconsiderate prejudice against the Doctrine of the Holy Fathers Matthew Paris useth the same words In Germany the Clergy opposed the Papal Decrees with great courage and animosity rejected the perswasion of their Bishops wanted little of tearing in pieces the Popes Legate who proposed to them the imposition of Celibacy and when at last by the violence of their Adversaries forced to submit chused rather to quit their Office than their Wives In France the Clergy of Laon rejected the Sollicitations of Petruâ—… Damiaâ—…i Of England we shall speak more largely afterwards In Italy Damiaâ—…us being sent to Milan by Nicolas the Second in the year 1059. to subject that See to the Obedience of the Church of Rome and the Clergy to the Yoak of Celibacy could effect neither without great commotions For as himself writ back to the Pope the people and Clergy contended with great heat that the Ambrosian See owed no Obedience to the Bishop of Rome and that the Law of Celibacy was unjust and intolerable Mr. Fox in his English Martyrology hath published two antient Latin Apologies for the Marriage of the Clergy under the name of Volusianus Bishop of Carthage both directed to Pope Nicolas The first which is short is nothing else but the Epistle of Huldericus before mentioned which hath been often published The second is far longer was never elsewhere published and seems to have been the Remonstrance or Apology of all the married Clergy of the Western Church offered to Pope Nicolas the Second and the other Bishops of the Church who endeavoured to impose Celibacy presently after the Roman Synod in the year 1059. which forbid the Laity to hear Mass from the married Clergy The Author of it writes far more elegantly and argues more strongly than Huldericus and indeed abating some allegorical interpretations of Scripture the peculiar Genius of those Ages it may be accounted a rational and exact Treatise The sum of it is this That Continence is the peculiar Gift of God not bestowed upon all which therefore cannot be commanded That no Vow or Gift is grateful to God but what is voluntary not compelled That it savoured of Judaism to impose such burdens upon men under the Gospel That the Governours of the Church were not invested with an arbitrary power nor could lay such grievous impositions on the Clergy against their will. That this Yoak was imposed for vain ostentation and worldly ends That although many of the inferiour Clergy were awed by Force Authority Threats or Anathema's to submit to this Imposition yet they unwillingly underwent the burden of Celibacy and hated the cross laid upon them because they bore it rather to their destruction than salvation That from the imposition of Celibacy greater inconveniencies arose Sodomy Adultery Fornication Incest and other horrid Lusts. That Marriage is the only Remedy assigned by God to incontinent persons which they who contemn and affect a greater shew of perfection commonly fall into precipices That the Apostle commandeth that to avoid Fornication every man
1102. Anselm forbid Wives to the Priests Which seemed most chast to some to others dangerous lest while they affected a purity beyond their power they should fall into horrible uncleanness to the great scandal of the Christian Religion Mattheâ—… Paris repeateth very near the same words The same prohibition was renewed by Anselm in a Synod in the year 1108. In the year 1125. John Cardinal of Crema was sent into England by the Pope upon the same design who holding a Synod at London perswaded the Clergy in a set speech to dismiss their Wives and live continently but he being caught that very night in the act of fornication was dismissed with shame In the year 1129. a great Council was held at London to use Matthew Paris and Bromton's words wherein Concubines or Wives were forbidden to the Clergy and the exeâ—…ution of the whâ—…le matter left to King Henry Which thing ended afterwards with great disgrace For the King took an infinite Sum of Money of the Priests to redeem their Wives Then the Bishops repented of the power granted by them to the King when it was too late Thus the King by selling Licences to the married Clergy defeated all the Decrees of these Synods The same had William Rufus before done in respect of the married Prebendaâ—…ies after the prohibition of Lanfranc Which made the Author of the Saxon History of Peterborough say of these Councils of Anselm and others against the Marriage of the Clergy All these Councils availed nothing 〈◊〉 the Clergy by the favour of the King enjoy yet their Wives as they did before This may be further confirmed from the frequent repetion of this prohition in subsequent Synods which would have been unneâ—…essary if the Decreâ—…s of former Councils had been receiv'd â—…nd observ'd In the year 1138. the Decree of Pope Gregory was renewed in the Synod of London In the year 1175. it was â—…nacted in the Council of Westminster that whosoever in the degree of Subdeacon and upwards contracted Marriage should leave their Wives although unwilling and refusing And indeed Anselm himself in an Epistle to Ernulphus complains that notwithstanding his frequent prohâ—…bitions the King still suffered the Clergy to enjoy their Wives as freely as they did in his Father and Lanfranc's times The Clergy yet retained the use of Marriage for some Ages in the Church of England although not with so much freedom nor in so great number as before the times of Anselm In the Appendix to the Third Council of Lateran in the year 1179. may be found many Epistles of Alexander the Third to the Bishops of England from which it appeareth that an infinite number of the Clergy then in England had Wives and even married them after ordination And the Pope himself doth in some measure allow their Marriage by decreeing that if 〈◊〉 contract Marriage if they were before such persons as it might be feared lest instead of one they should abuse many women their Marriage should be dissembled and their Coâ—…abitation with their Wives connived at because a less evil is to be tolerated that a greater may be avoided Which reason will equally agree to all Orders of the Clergy In the beginning of the Thirteenth Age Innocent the Third writ to the Bishop of Norwich that he understood many Clegymen of his Diocess contracted Marriage and retained their Benefices The Synod of London in the year 1237. complains that many Clergymen privately contracted Marriage and retained their Wives Three years after the Synod of Worcester commands the Archdeacons to inquire after married Priests Towards the end of the Age John Peacham Archbishop of Canterbury published a Constitution that the sons of the Clergy should not succeed immediately to their Fathers in their Benefices which must be understood of the legiâ—…imate sons of the Clergy For Bastards were ever forbidden to succeed either mediately or immediately and indeed to be received into Holy Orders In a word Mr. Fox undeniably demonstrates from ancient Deeds Evidences and Records wherein Estates are given setled or intâ—…iled upon Clergymen and their Wives and Heirs lawfully begotten of their Wives or wherein they together with their Wives sell Estats â—… that the use of Marriage was yet retained by the Clergy of England in the middle of thâ—… 14th Age. We might perhaps carry yet much farther the continuance of the Marriage of the Clergy in the Western Church and that not only to the Reformation but even to this day For many of the more sober Clergy of the Church of Rome finding they could not contâ—…in without the use of Marriage and the Church permitting to them or conniving at the use of Concubines have under colour of keeping Concubines secretly married wives and thereby both satisfied their own consciences and avoided the censures of the Church Or if they either could not or dared not â—…se the Ceremonies of the Church in their contract of Marriage yet at least they obliged themselves and pledged their faith to their Conâ—…ubincs never to forsake them and always to be true to their Bed receiving the same assurance from them By this reciprocal Promise a true and perfect Marriage is formed in the sight of God although the publick Ceremonies of the Church do not intervene So St. Augustin Ifidote and Gratian plainly determine and therefore such Concubines are expresly allowed by the first Council of Toledo in the year 400. and Justinian and were permitted to Christians till forbidden by Eeo the Philosopher Now that both these cases of Marriage were continued down in the Church of Rome we are assured by Alvarus Pelagius who complained to Pope John XXII that many Priests and other persons in holy Orders especially in Spain Asturia Gallieia and other places publickly and sometimes by publick Writing promised and swore to Women chiefly those who were well descended that they would never put them away and gave them Joyntâ—…res of the Goods and Possessions of the Church and sometimes publickly married them in presence of their Kindred and Friends with a solemn Banquet as if they were their lawful Wives About the year 1240. Otho the Pope's Legate coming into England published his Constitutions for the Government of this Church Among them one is particularly directed against the 〈◊〉 Marriage of the Clergy After the Reformation Cassander relateth that all the best and most religious Priests perceiving their infirmity and â—…etesting the fouâ—…ess of Formeation If they dare not publickly at least privately enter into Marriage Thus we find Marriage yet retained by the better and more religious part of the Roman Clergy But then what shall we say of that Church which so far alloweth Concubinacy that for the sake of it she connives at the violation of her so much admired Celibacy and to whom a chaâ—…e Marriage of the Clergy can recommend it self under no other name than that of