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A65597 A treatise of the celibacy of the clergy wherein its rise and progress are historically considered. Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695. 1688 (1688) Wing W1570; ESTC R34741 139,375 174

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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 o●… 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 ●…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