void and that because of the danger of Incontinency to which the other party is thereby exposed Wherefore Gregry I. commanded the Husband of Agathosa who had entred into a Monastery without her consent to be taken thence although Professed and be forced to live with her But if the danger of another's Damnation produced by a Vow of Contitinence can dissolve the Obligation of it certainly much more will the danger of any one 's own Damnation produce the same effect Thirdly If it be true what Salas the Jesuite teacheth That a Fryar Profess'd of any approved Order who shall have a probability of Divine Revelation that God dispenseth with his Vow to enable him to Marry may Marry and make use of this probable though doubtful Dispensation certainly he who after Continency Vowed in the taking of Orders shall find himself assaulted with any grievous temptations of Incontinence may make use of the same remedy having more than a probable even a plain and undoubted Revelation of the Lawfulness of it in those words Nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and it is better to marry than to burn So that in many cases it is Lawful in some Necessary to break this Vow Thirdly Whether Lawfully or Unlawfully Necessarily or Unnecessarily violated if a Marriage be Contracted after a Vow of Continence it is firm and valid as any other and cannot be rescinded For Marriage is a thing of Natural and Divine Right whose continuance when once Contracted is commanded by the Laws of God and first Principles of Reason whereas Vows of Continence are but of human Instituion as we have proved or at the most but of Evangelical Counsel as all our Adversaries confess and therefore must in all cases give place to a matter of Natural Right and Divine Preeept Bellarmine acknowledgeth this and affirms it to be the constant Opinion of all Catholicks that a simple Vow hinders the Contracting of Marriage but dissolveth it not when Contracted altho' a solemn Vow he would perswade us doth But since the difference between a Solemn and a Simple Vow consists meerly in an External Act in pronouncing outwardly with words what the Mind inwardly resolves This distinction is wholly vain For that External Act addeth nothing Essential to the Vow and although a Solemn Vow only can subject any Man to the Censures of the Church and Punishment of the State yet a Simple Vow doth equally oblige in Conscience so that all the use that can be made of such a distinction is this that such a Contract is not valid in the present Canon or Civil-Law although it be a true Marriage in the Eyes of God which is sufficient for our purpose and will make the annulling of it to be unlawful in the Sight of God although lawful in Human Judicatures However the contrary of this was the only thing which the Council of Trent adventured to define in the Cause of Celibacy most unhappy in their Choice for that in all the dependent Questions of Vows Marriage and Celibacy there is none more apparently false nor any one opposed by so constant and uninterrupted a Tradition from the Apostles Times to the Days of Hildebrand when such Marriages were first declared to be null and void if we except two or three obscure or inconsiderable Councils about the Year D. CCCC All the Fathers before that time who treat of this Matter not one excepted allow their validity and even after that time all the more Famous Divines and Canonists till the Council of Trent Some Provincial Councils indeed after the Year D. ordered those who had Contracted such Marriages to be separated from each other but that was not for any invalidity which they supposed to be in those Marriages but in way of Penance to expiate the guilt of the Violation of their Vows and the Scandal given to the Church as may appear from all those Canons which Bellarmine alledgeth in Defence of the Decree of Trent Sometimes also a Separation of such Married Persons was commanded or rather permitted only thereby to enable the Man to be re-admitted into the Ministry As for the Council of Chalcedon commanding all who Contract Marriage after a Vow of Continence to be Excommunicated produced by Bellarmine who might have added many such like Canons of other Councils They rather prove the validity of these Marriages because contented to inflict the Punishment of Excommunication they proceed not to a Dissolution of them especially since the Council of Chalcedon in the close of that Canon leaveth to every Bishop a Power of Remitting even that Punishment But that Excommunication doth not suppose the invalidity of these Marriages evidently appears from the Canons of all those many Councils as Aurelianense II. Can. 19. Arvernense Can. 6. Toletanum IV. Can. 63. Nicaenum Can. Arab. 53. Arelatense I. Can. 11. which Excommunicated those Christians which Married Jews or Gentiles although none will deny those Marriages to have been perfectly valid and further ordered the Married Persons to be separated which also proves that a Sentence of Separation doth not simply imply the invalidity of any Marriage To manifest then the constant Tradition of the Church to have been contrary to the Definition of the Council of Trent I might produce a long Bead-roll of Councils Popes and Emperours who in the their Canons Decrees and Laws have inflicted upon the Clergy who Married after a Vow of Continence no other punishment than that of Degradation and some no more than an Incapacity of rising to higher Dignities in the Church All these by permitting the use of such Marriages must necessarily be supposed to have owned the validity of them But because their Authority however certain yet is indirect I will content myself with those who if not in terminis yet at least directly assert the validity of these Marriages I begin then with St. Paul who giveth these Instructions to Timothy concerning the Deaconnesses of the Church Let not a widdow be taken into the number under threescore years old But the younger widdows refuse for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry Having damnation in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is too severely translated because they have cast off their first faith I will therefore that these marry These Deaconnesses were Women chosen out of the Widdows to attend the Service of the Church who maintained with the Revenues of the Church were with some peculiar Ceremonies set apart and as it were Ordained to that Office whom decency and the Custom of the Church permitted not to Marry again because thereby they must have quitted their Offices and so defeated the end of their solemn Dedication to the Church or as the Apostle termeth have cast off their first faith In taking upon them therefore this Office they obliged themselves not to Marry again and therefore as to a Vow of Continence were in the same condition with
some made it even the business of Christianity it was an unusual abstinence from lawful and permitted Pleasures that procured them Admiration from the Heathen and Honour from their Fellow-Christians But then they really performed what they generously undertook Their Celibacy was no less chast than voluntary their Piety was fully adequate to their Zeal and both perhaps in some things greater than their Knowledge Yet should we even do violence to our Reason and force our Nature to imitate the Examples and receive the Doctrine of those great and holy Persons if either their Consent or their Practice had been universal But on the contrary the Imposition of it hath been condemned by the most Famous Councils and Greatest Writers never used in the Eastern Church not introduced in the Western till almost two hundred years after Christ enjoyned but in some few Provinces of that and even in those not universally practis'd and all this without doing injury to the sacred Bond of Marriage and ever leaving open a refuge for incontinent Persons Not so the Church of Rome which not only adviseth but imposeth Celibacy in many of the Clergy have dissolved Marriage in all descrieth it as Heresie defineth it to be worse than Fornication and to none allows a remedy for Incontinency To demonstate the Injustice of the Church of Rome herein and her departure from the Doctrine and Practice of the Ancient Church shall be the Subject of this present Treatise It is no small presumption of Errour when the Defenders of any Opinion agree not in the merits of the Cause they undertake In the Church of Rome there are Four Opinions about the Celibacy of the Clergy The first that it is of Divine Right Instituted and Commanded by God. So Jo. Major Clichtovaeus and Turrian teach that God hath forbidden Bishops Priests Deacons and Sub-deacons whom we shall hereafter comprehend under the general Name of the Clergy unless when we manifestly distinguish them to Marry or use their Wives already married The second is that of Bellarmine Valentia Vasquez Becanus Aquinas and the far greater part of the Roman Divines that it is not properly of Divine but of Apostolick Right as being instituted by the Apostles and ever since constantly and invariably practised by the Church that a Vow of Continence should be annexed to Holy Orders and consequently that Marriage thereby becomes unlawful to the Clergy without a Dispensation The third without any respect to Divine or Apostolical Institution and Practice of the Ancient Church whether they be here had or not thinks it sufficient that the Church hath Power to impose a Vow of Continence upon the Clergy and that such a Vow being once taken all use of Marriage is become unlawful and subsequent Contracts invalid This seems to be the Opinion of many of the Canonists and the Council of Trent which ventured to define no more than this that Clergy-men or Regulars after a solemn profession of Continence cannot Marry or if they do that their Marriage is unlawful Lastly the more moderate Divines maintain that it is neither of Divine nor Apostolical Right but deriveth all its Obligation from Ecclesiastical Institution which as well as the Vow annexed to it will cease to oblige as soon as the Church shall please although in the mean while she hath sufficient reason to continue her Institution Against these Opinions I shall prove these Four Propositions I. Celibacy of the Clergy was not instituted either by Christ or his Apostles II. It hath nothing excellent in it and bringeth no real advantage to the Church or to the Christian Religion III. The Imposition of it upon any Order of Men is unjust and contrary to the Law of God. IV. It was never universally imposed or practsed in the Ancient Church I. First then that Celibacy was not instituted either by Christ oâ—… his Apostles By Celibacy we mean a perpetual abstinence from the use of the Nuptial Bed in those already Married and not Contracting of Marriage in single Persons after taking of Holy Orders or making a Vow of Chastity That such Celibacy was not at all enjoyned by Christ nor by the Apostles as of Divine Right is sufficiently proved from the dissent of our Adversaries herein For it is the received Opinion of the Church of Rome that nothing can be a matter of Faith such as this would be if it had been commanded by Christ which is doubted and disputed of among the Doctors of the Church Now this is denied by the Maintainers of the Second and Fourth Opinions As for the Third that according to the usual artifice of the latter Popish Councils is so obscurely proposed that it neither directly favours nor opposeth it Besides neither Scripture or Tradition can be offered for this claim of Divine Institution The former is not so much as pretended to or if it be we shall examine it afterwards The latter cannot justly be since none but an universal Tradition of all past and present Ages is sufficient to convey down a matter of Faith whereas here the greatest part even of the present Church deny it But I will not insist upon disproving this as well because it is disowned by the greatest part of our Adversaries as because all the Arguments to be produced against the other Opinions will with much more force be valid against this I will only observe that if this Opinion be either false or uncertain the Infallibility of the Church of Rome is wholly overthrown since many Popes and Councils in the Eleventh Age determined the Celibacy of the Clergy to be of Divine Institution and the lawfulness of their Marriage to be downright Heresie Bellarmine therefore and with him the more Learned of the Church of Rome decline this Plea and assign to this Celibacy a bare Institution of the Apostles acting herein without any particular or express Commission from our Lord but by them prescribed and advised as meritorious itself and convenient to the Church punctually herein followed and obeyed by the Church in all Ages Whether the Church and more especially the Ancient did conform its discipline to this pretended Institution of the Apostles we shall enquire hereafter and by proving that it did not prove also that the Apostles made no such Institution Since the Primitive Church cannot be supposed to have immediately degenerated from the Instructions and Admonitions of her Founders and great Doctors But to pass by that I observe that whether the Apostles instituted Celibacy and ordained a Vow of Continency to be annexed to Holy Orders is a Question of Fact and consequently cannot be infallibly determined by the Church but must be by them clearly proved either from express Texts of Scripture or an universal and invariable Tradition That there is no such Tradition we shall â—…hew in some measure presently and more largely hereafter For Scripture we desire to know where those plain Admonitions of Celibacy to the Clergy are to be found For we
are in no ways obliged to prove the Negative Marriage being not forbidden to the Clergy by the Moral Law and therefore to be esteemed Lawful to them till a manifest Prohibition shall be produced Bellarmine indeed urgeth that Precept of the Apostie Tit. 1. 8. that a Bishop be sober and temperate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But not to say that Bellarmine herein forsakes his own Principle and maketh Ceiibacy to be of Divine Institution since St. Paul speaketh this not only as one that had obtained Mercy of the Lord to be Faithful but also as an Apostle of Jesus Christ These words serve not the purpose as designing neither Continence nor Chastity but Abstinence from Drunkenness and Coveteousness and are opposed the first to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the second to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the former Verse Or if we should with St. Chrysostom interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place of an universal Temperance we must remember that such a Temperance is nothing else but a Moderation in the use of all lawful Pleasures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is universally Temperate not who abstaineth from all things but who moderately useth those things which he judgeth lawful Or Lastly if we should against all reason interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chast and Continent Yet the Fathers unanimously teach that these Vertues are not incompatible with the moderate use of Marriage as we shall prove hereafter In the mean while let it be observed that St. Paul reason'd before Faelix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Righteousness and Temperance and yet cannot be supposed to have forbidden him the embraces of his Wife As for Bellarmine's other Text 2 Tim. 2. 4. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life It is sufficient these words are addressed not only to Clergymen but to all Christians Whether a Married state doth necessarily entangle Persons in the Affairs of this Life more then Celibacy shall be enquired hereafter We come now to that great Store-house of the Assertors of Celibacy the VII Chap. of the 1 Epist. to the Corinthians And here a few Observations might have prevented many Mistakes as first That the Apostle was so far from imposing Virginity upon any Order of Men that he seemeth to have foreseen the danger of such Mistakes and therefore to have inserted these Cautions of them But I speak this by permission and not of command Ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men And this I speak for your own profit not that I may cast a snare upon you Secondly To those who are already Married he adviseth not a total but a temporary Abstinence Defraud not one the other except it be with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Sataâ—… tempt you not for your incontinency Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called Art thou bound unto a wife seek not to be loosed Thirdly That of those who are already Unmarried he adviseth Virginity to them only who have the Gift of Continence Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his own heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin he doth well I say therefore to the unmarried and widows it is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn Fourthly That this advice of Virginity was given not for the attainment of any greater merit but meerly for reasons of Convenience and the urgent Necessities of those times I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress Such shall have trouble in the flesh but I spare you But this I say brethren the time is short But I would have you without carefulness Fifthly That this Advice was directed not only to the Clergy but to all Christians in general The Apostle no where restrains his discourse to the former but all along addresseth himself to the whole multitude of Believers If any one of these Observations be true as they are all most certainly then no advantage can be drawn out of this Chapter for the cause of Celibacy now in Controversie But our Adversaries are not only destitute of Reason and Revelation in favour of this Opinion but we have also many strong Arguments against it For to pass by the greatest of all the Silence of Scripture and the contrary Practice of Antiquity the first manifested already the latter to be proved hereafter Many of the Greatest Divines of the Roman Church do expresly confess that the Celibacy of the Clergy is neither of Divine nor Apostolical Institution This all those Popes Councils and Doctors hereafter to be produced who allow the Marriage of Priests in the Greek Church to be lawful must have held unless they be supposed to have betrayed the Doctrine and Tradition of the Church All those Divines likewise who have admitted or allowed a total abrogation of the Laws of Celibacy could not believe it to have a Divine or Apostolical Original However I shall produce some few who expreslly denied it As first the Canon Law which may be looked upon as the sence of the whole Church of Rome for some Ages So then Gratian The Marriage of Priests is Forbidden neither by Legal nor Evangelical nor Apostolical Authority and yet is wholly Forbidden by the Ecclesiastical Law. And The Church after the Apostolical Institutions hath added some counsels of Perfection as that of the Continence of Ministers Joannes a Ludegna in a Speech made in the Council of Trent and Printed among the Acts of that Council determineth and largely proveth that the Celibacy of the Clergy is neither of Divine Right nor in any sence commanded by the Apostles but only advised by them And that if there was no Laws of the Church or Monastick Vows Priests or Monks might lawfully Marry Besides if the Opinion of those Divines be true who maintain that Christ superadded no Evangelical Counsels to the Moral Law Celibacy can be neither of Divine nor Apostolical Institution unless we suppose that the Apostles immediately adulterated that most pure and simple Religion which they had received from their Master And indeed this seemeth highly rational most consonant to the Honour of God and adapted to the Nature of Man. That Religion was most beâ—…itting the Wisdom of the Deity to prescribe for the last and most perfect Rule of Mankind which was most pure and simple And this seems to have been the great End of Christ's coming into the World to free us from the bondage of the Ceremonial Law and estate us in that perfect liberty if not of Will yet at least as to the objects of Choice in which we were at
confirmed by any Pope or Council to this day But I doubt not to evince that this Canon is to be thus understood only of a temporary abstinence of the Clergy while they performed their Office in their turns For the Clergy had not then as now each one his Parish assigned him wherein to officiate but all of one City at least in the lesser Cities belonging to one Church supplied the necessities of the Church in Order and relieved one the other by turns That this Canon is to be thus understood appeareth 1. From the plain words of it where Positis in ministerio must either signifie this or be wholly impertinent since all the Clergy by the very nature of their Office are placed in the Ministry of the Church 2. Otherwise total Abstinence will be enjoyned to Subdeacons Readers Exorcists and Acolythi as well as to Bishops Priests and Deacons and so Albaspinaeus explains the words in totum prohiberi it is forbidden saith he to all Clergy-men whatsoever Whereas Subdeacons were never forbidden the use of Marriage till the middle of the Fifth Age and the three inferiour Orders are not at this day forbidden it in the Church of Rome 3. When a total Abstinence of Bishops Priests and Deacons was proposed in the Council of Nice all the Historians of that Council express it by saying some endeavoured to introduce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new and unheard of Law and Paphnutius opposing it pleaded that the Church ought not to be burdened with new Impositions but that the universal Tradition and practice of it was to be preserved Now if this total Abstinence had twenty years before been imposed by the Council of Eliberis all those Historians had mistaken and Hosius Bishop of Corduba who had been present in the Council of Eliberis and presided in that of Nice would not have suffered the Fathers to be led away with the false representations of Paphnutius Celibacy was not yet arrived at its Crisis universally indeed applauded but no where imposed yet had the unreasonable affection of it in many Clergy-men and an immoderate Ambition of the honour of Virginity in many Lay Persons already introduced two of the most enormous Scandals that ever the Church laboured under from the Apostles to this day I mean Emasculation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were unmarried Women commonly those who had vowed perpetual Virginity taken into the house as Domestick Assistants by Clergy-men who had either never married or buried their Wives or unmarried Men commonly of the Clergy taken into the House in the same Quality by Women or Virgins who had vowed Continence We want a proper English word to express them and therefore must be content to call them House-keepers they were called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but most commonly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which name was first given by the people of Antioch to the House-keepers of Paulus Samosatenus their Bishop and his Clergy by the Latins they were termed Subintroductae Adscititiae Extraneae Alienae Dilectae Sorores Commanentes and Focariae They were taken in by most under pretence of Piety to encourage and assist one another by Spiritual Conference and Exhortations but by all upon pretence of Domestick Assistance that the Men might defend the Women from all injuries to which otherwise that weak Sex is exposed and the Women might provide Necessaries for the Men and take care of their Families Some perhaps made good their Pretences by a sober and prudent Conversation but the greatest part indulged to themselves the most inward Familiarities of Man and Wife and made them even the Companions of their sleep where they used all the Embraces Caresses and Allurements of the Nuptial Bed save only Carnal Knowledge And all this they openly maintained to be lawful and thought it not injurious to their Profession of Virginity and the integrity of their Chastity But some proceeded farther and by visible effects discovered the Approaches of a nearer Familiarity and more â—…lose Embraces to their own Shame and the great Scandal of the Church Others finding or fearing they should not be able to contain in the midst of so great Temptations For can a Man take Fire into his Bosom and not be burnt as the Fathers frequently applied to this Case emasculated themselves that they might at least prevent all visible Scandal when they could not extinguish the Fire of their Minds Thus did Leontius the Arian Bishop of Antioch for the love of Eustolium his Paramour and that the abuse was frequent even among the Catholicks appears from all the Writers of those times especially the Author of the Book De singularitate Clericorum and St. Basil's Treatise of true Virginity where he eloquently describes and bewails the scandalous familiarity of these Eunuchs and House-keepers See two egregious Scandals the immediate effects even of a voluntary Celibacy in the antient Church greater than any which the Church now suffers in the dregs of time We needed not say any more of them if the unreasonable wills of our Adversaries did not necessitate us to clear the Matter a little farther They maintain that by these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were meant also the Wives of the Clergy a pretence which however shameless and foolish was the main Engine of advancing Celibacy in the latter Age when the Authority of all those Councils which had forbidden House-keepers to the Clergy was produced against their Marriage and the ignorance of those Ages had sitted them for a miserable Delusion by such Impostures To pass by then the Confession of some learned Writers of the Church of Rome and the constant practice of the Eastern Church which always forbids House-keepers but never Wives to the Clergy I will only oppose a few Passages of the Antient Writers St. Cyprian lamenting the folly of many consecrated Virgins who had entred into the Families and even into the Beds of unmarried Clergy-men saith Lastly how grievous falls of many do we see hereby produced and with extreme grief behold the corruption of many Virgins by these unlawful and dangerous familiarities Wherefore if they desire the reward of Virginity let them be Virgins in good earnest but if they will not or cannot contain let them Marry The Author of the Book De Singularitate Clericorum hath these words Why hath he taken a House-keeper who scorned to marry a Wife So he who despised the Bond of Marriage and yet retains the familiarity of Women although he be not actually polluted yet enjoy them by Imagination Sight Conversation and Society St. Gregory Nazianzen professeth he knows not whether to call them married or unmarried Persons since in an unmarried State they performed the Duties of Marriage St. Chrysostom in like manner saith They are neither Wives nor Concubines but a middle kind unknown to former Ages and thus bespeaks them If you desire to have Men
the Clergy the use of Marriage appeareth from the Decretal of Pope Stephen cited by Gratian in these words The Tradition of the Eastern Churches is different from that of the holy Church of Rome For in them Priests Deacons and Subdeacons are joyned in Marriage Matrimonio copulantur i. e. enjoy the use of Marriage as Mendoza hath learnedly proved the meaning of those words to be But in this or the Western Churches none of the Clergy from a Subdeacon to a Bishop hath liberty to use Marriage Here the Pope expresly confesseth the use of Marriage by the Clergy to have been always the Tradition and Practice of the Eastern Church And if so it must have been also sometimes of the Western For being never practised in the East it could not be of Apostolical institution and therefore must have been introduced in the West by some subsequent Decree of the Church This was the state of Celibacy in the Christian Church for the first thousand years No-where imposed in the better and purer Ages of Christianity introduced into the Roman Patriarchate by a rash Pope commanded by many Provincial Councils of the West but in no place universally observed the imposition of it always disused and at last condemned in the Eastern Church and the practice of it in these latter Ages become obsolete in the West It will not now be amiss to look back a little and make some Observations upon the Authors and advance of Celibacy whereby we may the better judge how far the Authority and Example of those times ought herein to influence and direct the practice of the present Age. First then the Celibacy of the Clergy was hitherto esteemed by all a matter of meer Discipline first introduced for reasons of Decency Convenience and supposed Edification which have not only long since ceased but Celibacy is now become a Snare to the Clergy and a Scandal to the whole Church So that the obligation of the Laws of Celibacy even in those particular Churches where it was antiently introduced and commanded have long since ceased The pretence of Divine or Apostolical Institution was not heard of till the days of Hildebrand and is but faintly maintained in these times That the antient Imposers of Celibacy never thought of this pretence is evident because they never made that plea. This we before observed particularly of the Decrees of Siricius and Innocent and may be affirmed of all Popes and Councils which favoured or commanded Celibacy in those times Not to say that some Councils as the Quinisext II. of Toledo and others expresly acknowledge the permission of Marriage to the Clergy to be of Apostolical Institution II. The Example of the antient Church in this case is not only not conclusive but even of no authority it neither necessitates nor recommends Celibacy to the present Church For all the deference which we ow to the Authority and Example of these times proceeds from a probable supposition that the antient Church had greater and better opportunities of knowing the mind of Christ the intentions of the Apostles and the exigences of the Church than the present Age can pretend to as being more removed from the Fountains head and animated with a less vigorous and impartial zeal for the knowledge of Truth and increase of Piety But when this supposition becomes not only improbable but is evidently false when we are assured the practice of the antient Church was occasioned and introduced by prejudices and mistakes false notions of Piety and gross errours about the nature of things imitation would not only be not laudable but even foolish and perhaps unlawful lest the continuance of such a practice should uphold the errours which first produced it At least when these mistakes are discovered these prejudices removed the authority of this example will vanish with them That this was the case of Celibacy in the antient Church we have all along observed and proved and need not here repeat our Arguments III. If we should allow the usage of the antient Church â—…o be in all cases a Rule and Pattern to the present Age yet will Celibacy receive no advantage from it The Marriage of the Clergy may put in a larger and much better Plea of antiquity as being able to produce the practice of the Universal Church in the four first Ages of Christianity of the whole Eastern and many parts of the Western Church to this day and alledge the Suffrage of two General Councils the first and fourth which confirmed and allowed it Whereas the imposition of Celibacy was unknown to the first and better Ages not universally practised in the latter rejected by one and condemned by another General Council and never confirmed by other than Provincial Synods whose Acts may be annulled and Decrees abolished by the single authority of any particular Church And certainly if what most of our Adversaries pretend the tradition and practice of the present Universal Church be the only certain method of knowing the Opinion and Doctrine of all precedent Ages the lawfulness and convenience of the Clergies Marriage must have been the belief of the antient Church since all the Eastern Churches the greatest part of the Universal Church not to speak of the Reformed Churches in the West do at this day permit the use of Marriage to the Clergy and maintain the impositioâ—… of Celibacy to be unlawful Which also is no small prejudice to the cause of the Church of Rome if there be any truth or solidity in that grand Argument of our Adversaries that in the case of two dissenting Churches when the one openly condemneth the practice of the other and receiveth not the same severe Sentence from her Adversary Truth and Justice must necessarily ly on that side For however the Greek Church hath always condemned as impious and unjust the imposition of Celibacy in the Latin Church the Latines never dared to return the same Sentence upon the permission of Marriage to the Clergy in the Greek Church Rather the practice of the Eastern Church hath been allowed and ratified by the publick Authority of the Church of Rome For to omit the great Later an Council under Pope Innocent the Third wherein our Adversaries confess that permission of Marriage was continued to the Greek Priests thus Pope Nicolas the First answered to the Inquiry of the Bulgarians You ask whether you ought to maintain and honour a Priest having a Wife or to remove him from you To which we answer That although they be very blameable you ought not to cast them off And Bellarmine acknowledgeth that although the Roman Church approves not herein the practice of the Greek Church and judgeth it to be an abuse yet she permits it to the Greeks so that if they had no other errours a Peace might easily be accorded between the two Churches IV. The practice of the ancient Church in the imposition of Celibacy was various and divers and consequently neither Celibacy it self
wherewith the Antients were induced to make this Constitution are not only now ceased but are even become opposite For first we see that by this Decree Chastity and Continence is so far from being promoted in the Clergy that thereby a door is rather opened to all kind of Lust and Villany and Coveteousness in the Clergy so far from being restrained by it that it seems hence to have received no small encrease II. To Confute our Adversaries pretence of Antiquity and establish my Design it is sufficient to produce the Authority of some Fathers who thought the Imposition of Celibacy unlawful or inconvenient to the Church to alledge the Testimony of some Historians assuring us that Marriage was in their Time used indifferently by the Clergy and propose the Examples of some Married Clergy Althogh some Fathers and Writers were of a contrary Opinion or the greater part of the Clergy perhaps practised Celibacy For this will undeniably prove that both Marriage and Celibacy were left indifferent to all that neither was a Point of Faith an Institution of Christ or his Apostles or a matter of Universal Practice Whereas our Adversaries pretending herein to an uninterrupted Tradition and constant Practice of the whole Church in all Ages must to that end produce a perfect consent of all Doctors Historians and Writers and an universal Practice of all Times If any one Writer occur not condemned or any one Example not censured by the Church the Plea of Tradition must fall Some indeed of the Roman Church as Erasmus and Cassander pretended not to so Universal a Tradition and Practice but then they were so far from Defending the present Constitutions of the Church of Rome by the Authority of the Antients that they were open Enemies to the Imposinion of Celibacy However the Dissent of ancient Doctors and Councils and the diverse Practices of private Clergymen will manifestly demonstrate that Celibacy was neither universally imposed nor practised in the Ancient Church as it is at this day in the Church of Rome but that as well as Marriage left indifferent both to Clergy and Laity if not in some particular Provinces yet at least in the Universal Church III. The numbers of the Married Clergy in the Ancient Church ought not to be estimated only from the accounts of them which we find in Ecclesiastical History of Monuments of Antiquity For the Relation of Wives or Children add neither Ornament nor Use to History nor have any part in it unless upon extraordinary occasions which rarely happen It concerns not Posterity to know whether Aristotle or Plato were Married since neither Marriage nor Celibacy will inhaunce their Vertue or diminish their Worth. And if mention of Wives be rarely found in Civil much less will it in Ecclesiastical History For Women sometimes bear a share in Civil Matters but in publick Acts of Religion and Affairs of the Church it is even unlawful for them to intermeddle So that if but a few Examples of Marriage in the Clergy of the Ancient Church can be produced we may thence reasonably conclude that the Married Clergy were then very numerous IV. The Reader may observe that almost all those places which we shall produce out of the Ancient Doctors for the lawfulness of Marriage in the Clergy and against the Imposition of it are taken either from their dogmatical Treatises which were written deliberately and in a sedate temper of Mind or from their Harangues of Virginity where the very force of Truth extorted from them those Confessions Whereas the Testimonies made use of by our Adversaries for the Necessity or Convenience of Celibacy in the Clergy are for the most part drawn either from these Encomiastick Discourses of Virginity where they employed all the force of their Eloquence to magnisie the Merits of that State and recommend it to the World or from their Polemick Writings against the Adversaries of Celibacy wherein they were more intent to Destroy Errour than Establish Truth And no wonder if in both these Occasions corrupted with Prejudice or transported with Passion they bent the Bow to much and receded from that Exactness of Truth which is seated in the middle way To these Observations I may add the Confession of many Great Men in the Church of Rome who allow Celibacy neither to have been imposed nor universally practised in the Antient Church To pass by then Cassander Erasmus and the more moderate Divines of that Church I will produce only Gratian and Mendosa the last of which acknowledgeth that Marriage was always allowed to the Clergy and every where thought indifferent till forbidden by the Council of Illiberis in the Fourth Age the first goeth further in these words From this Authority an Epistle of Pope Pelagius in the Sixth Age it appeareth that the Clergy of the aforementioned Order Priests Deacons and Sub-deacons might then lawfully use Marriage And in the time of the Council of Ancyra in the Fourth Age the Continence of the Ministers of the Altar was not yet introduced Although perhaps by this last Passage only Deacons and Subdeacons are understood However in another place he speaks more generally When therefore we read that the Sons of the Clergy are promoted to be Popes or Bishops they are not to be thought to have been born of Fornication but of lawful Marriage which was every where permitted to the Clergy before the prohibition and is to this day permitted to them in the Eastern Church Having premised these few preliminary Observations I proceed to Matter of Fact and begin with the Apostles than whom none better knew the intention of their Master or the convenience of the Church and were the best Pattern of the Clergy for all future Ages St. Basil seems to have believed that all the Apostles were married where speaking of the excellency of of Marriage he brings in the Example of Peter and the rest of the Apostles The Interpolater of Ignatius his Epistles who lived in the beginning of the Sixth Age in like manner produceth the Examples of Peter Paul and the other Apostles or as the Latin Translator antienter than Ado Viennensis who flourished in the year 875. renders it the rest of the Apostles The Author of the Commentary upon the Epistles of St. Paul in St. Ambrose's Works who was Hilary a Deacon of Rome excepts St. Paul and St. John and affirms all the rest to have been married That St. Peter was married we are assured by the Authority of the Holy Scripture That he had a Daughter by her the antient Book of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Travels writ before the times of Origen manifest to whom the latter Legendary Writers give the name of Petronilla St. Peter is kniwn to have had a Wife and the begitting of Children hindred him not from obtaining precedency among the Apostles saith the abovementioned Hilary in his Questions upon both Testaments falsly ascribed to St. Austin For that he was
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
in these words O fornication the defiler of my mind the destroyer of my soul whence hast thou stolâ—… upon me miserable man For thou my soul perfidious to God and adulteress against Christ voluntarily falling down from the sublimity of virginity art plunged into the sink of fornication Of the Founders of the four great Orders Francis by the confession of Walsinghaâ—… was in his youth unchast and indulged to himself the most licentious pleasures as did Ignatius Loyola also by the acknowledgement of Ribadeneira As for Benedict and Dominick if they escaped the unlawful embraces of Women yet could they not avoid the violent temptations and desires of them For remedy of which the first was forced frequently to rowl his naked body upon thorns and the latter to whip himself thrice every night with an iron chain Thus have we brought down the History of â—…elibacy to the times of Hildebrand or the middle of the Eleventh Age when although the Marriage of the â—…lergy was once again become frequent and connived at over all the West yet the fatal ignorance and stupidity of the precedent age had prepared the way to a renewed imposition of Celibacy by anticipating the judgments of men with false prejudices and notions of the nature of Marriage and Celibacy All the mistakes of ancient times were then resumed and with advantage improved and the supposition of some hidden impurity in the use of Marriage had so far prevailed that it gained belief and reception even among the married Clergy For this I take to have been the only reason of that abuse frequent in the Ninth Age which Elfric complaineth of in his Epistles to Wulfin and Wulfstan whereby the Priests administring the Eucharist communicated not themselves Besides all these errours and mistakes and the miserable ignorance and barbarity of those times which prepared the minds of men there concurred another great reason which induced the Popes to impose Celibacy upon the Clergy The Popes of the Eleventh Age especially Hildebrand or Gregory the Seventh had formed a design of subjecting the whole Christian World to the obedience of the See of Rome as well in Temporals as in Spirituals To this end nothing could be more subservient than to withdraw the Clergy from the Allegiance due to their Princes and Affection to their Countries and tye them up wholly to the interest of the Court of Rome This could not be accomplisht while Marriage was permitted to the Clergy since the consideration of Wives and Children endeared their Countrey to them and were so many Pledges of Fidelity to their Natural Princes This Obstacle therefore was to be removed and the Clergy to be invested with a perfect liberty of blindly pursuing the dictates of the See of Rome This observation may be hence confirmed that the same Hildebrand endeavoured to subject Temporal Princes to the Papal power and to deprive the Clergy of the use of Marriage For altho some Popes of this Age attempted the imposition of Celibacy before Hildebrand yet was the whole attempt designed and managed by him who is known to have exercised an absolute Tyranny in Rome more than twenty years before he was made Pope Pope Leo the Ninth led the way who although he made no formal Decree at least not any now extent against the Marriage of the Clergy in the West sent Legates to Constantinople in the year 1054. Cardinal Humbert who fiercely contending there with the Greeks both by Writings and Disputations among other heads of accusation charged them with the Heresie of the Nicolaites for permitting Marriage to the Clergy and pronounced an Anathama against them How foolish and false this accusation was is evident from what we before said touching the History of Nicolas the Deacon The cause of the Greek Church was defended by Nicetas Pectoratus a Regular Priest who besides the common right of mankind the divine permission and the necessity of it alledgeth the constant Practice and Tradition of the Greek Church in all precedent Ages in favour of the Clergies Marriage In the year 1056. the Council of Tholouse was held by the command and by the Legates of Pope Victor the Second which commanded Priests Deacons and all other Clergymen possessing Ecclesiastical Dignities to abstain from their Wives upon pain of Deprivation and Excommunication The next year Pope Stephen the Ninth held several Synods at Rome against the Marriage of the Clergy whose Acts are lost The Clergy generally despised these Censures and Canons and retained their Wives in opposition to them This obliged the Popes to invent and make use of new stratagems None could be more effectual than to forbid the Laity to hear Mass and receive the Sacraments from the hands of the married Clergy This was indeed the very formal Heresie of the Eustathians condemned of old by the Council of Gangra but the advantage which it might bring to the See of Rome did abundantly in their esteem compensate the danger and contagion of its errour Pope Nicolas the Second therefore in a Synod held at Rome in the year 1059. decreed that none should hear the Mass of a Priest whom he undoubtedly knew to have a Concubine for such the imposers of Celebacy in this Age would have the Wives of the Clergy to be esteemed or a House-keeper And that whatsoever Priests Deacons or Subdeacons after the Constitution of Leo the Ninth concerning the chastity of the Clergy had openly married a Concubine or put her not away when married should be deposed from his Office and lose his Revenues In this Canon it may be observed that a general and uninterrupted use of Marriage by the Clergy is acknowledged to have obtained in the West immediately before the Constitution of Leo the Ninth and that the universal opposition of the Clergy to the imposition of Celibacy had forced the imposers of it to mitigate the Penalties of Marriage and inflict only deprivation upon the married Clergy This Canon was renewed and confirmed by the Council of Tours in the year 1060. by the Roman Synod under Alexander the Second in the year 1063. and the latter part of it by the Council Roan of in the year 1072. But all these Decrees were only the rash efforts of a furious zeal for Celibacy and met with no success or obedience till reinforced by Hildibrand now become Pope Gregory the Seventh whose violent genius left neither any force nor fraud unattempted to compleat his designs He in a Synod held at Rome in the year 1074. commanded that the Clergy should either put away their Wives or be deposed and that none for the future should be ordained who vowed not perpetual continence and a single life But when the Clergy chose rather to lye under the sentence of Anathema as Simeon Dunelmensis and Hoveden relate or as Bromton hath it when they contemned his censures he renewed the next year the Decrees of his predecessours that none