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
unreasonably Jealous of her for which being rebuked by the Apostles that he might purge himself of all Suspicion of Jealousie he brought his Wife into the midst of the Company and giving up his Right to her gave free leave to any one to marry her not that he intended any such thing but only to shew by that Bravado how far he was from Jealousie This indeed was a rash and imprudent Act which gave neither Example nor just Occasion to those execrable things which afterwards the Nicolaites practised and some credulous Persons believed to have been committed by Nicolas whom Clemens affirms to have been truly Chaste and have used the company of none but his own Wife by whom he had one Son and several Daughters all Persons of Exemplary Vertue and Modesty Eusebius St. Augustine and Theodoret relate the Story the same way Only Epiphanius relates in a different manner That Nicolas having vowed perpetual Abstinence from his Wife was allured by the Charms of her Beauty to return to her Embraces and violate his Vow and afterwards not only became unreasonably Jealous but fell into all kind of Uncleanness and founded the Heresie of the Nicolaites This Relation Epiphanius seems to have received from the impure Gnosticks with whom he conversed in his Youth and as he was a Person infinitely credulous and of weak judgment blindly to have followed it However his Authority in a matter of this nature is of no moment when opposed to Clemens and Eusebius judicious and more ancient Writers From the Apostolick Times I proceed to the Doctrine and Practice of succeeding Ages till the Council of Nice Of the two first Ages few Monuments of the Church are now extant and in them not the least foot-step of Celibacy imposed or generally used by the Clergy to be sound Rather Clemens Alex. assures us that Every Christian in his time might as himself pleased either chose or omit Marriage That all none excepted had power to make use of that Marriage which the Gospel permitted them first Marriage where he plainly speaks of the Clergy for second Marriage was never forbidden to the Laity But the following words are more remarkable The Apostle very well approveth the Husband of one Wife although he be a Priest or a Deacon or a Lay-man if he useth his Marriage unblameably for he shall be saved by Procreation of Children And what will the Condemners of Marriage say to these Precepts since the Apostle commandeth him to preside over the Church in quality of Bishop who governeth his own House well and the Marriage of one Wife representeth the Church of Christ. Indeed about the Year 170. Pinytus Bishop of Gnossus in Creete had under pretence of a greater Perfection and Purity endeavoured to impose Celibacy upon his Clergy Which when Dionysius the Famous Bishop of Corinth heard he writ an Epistle to him representing the injustice of his attempt and persuading him not to impose so heavy a burthen as Necessity of Continence upon the Brethren but to have regard to the infirmity of many That by the Brethren in this place only the Clergy are meant appears evidently from the Character which Eusebius gives of Pinytus That he was a Pious and Orthodox Person Whereas had he imposed Celibacy upon all the Faithful he had been guilty of a gross and most erroneous Heresie To this I might add the Confession of the most Learned Mendoza and many others if so clear a Matter wanted any further Illustration That Pinytus yielded to the Admonition of Dionysius and quitted his attempt we are assured by Russinus who saith That Pinytus writing back to him embraced the Opinion of his better counsel In the Third Age Origen plainly insinuates That First Marriage was in his Time indifferently permitted to the Clergy Not only Fornication saith he but also Second Marriage excludeth from Ecclesiastical Dignities For neither a Bishop nor Priest nor Deacon nor Deaconness can be Digamists Himself indeed was agreat Admirer of Celibacy but that we shall speak to hereafter Of the Practice of the Church in these Three first Ages not a few Examples may be produced For to pass by the Apostles and Deacons already mentioned St. Polycarp professeth himself to be very sorry for Valens Presbyter of Philippi and his Wife That Tertullian Presbyter of Carthage was married all ackowledge that he abstained from his Wife after his entrance into Holy Orders is a meer Fiction of the Papists which however contemned by some Reformed Divines may be refuted by Tertullian's own words For in his Two Books directed to her to perswade her to continue a Widow after his death or if through the infirmity of the Flesh we cannot do that yet at least to marry none but a Christian he hath these words Why should we not love the Perfection of Continence as much as we are able As soon as it offers itself let us embrace it that what we are not now able to do whilest Married we may perform in Widowhood That occasion ought to be laid hold of which depriveth us of those Pleasures that Necessity before commanded A little before Tertullian's time Irenaeus relates how Marcus the Haeresiarch being entertained by a Catholick Deacon in Asia who had a handsom Wife debauched her both in Body and Mind and ran away with her In the Decian Persecution Chaeremon Bishop of Nile in Egypt fled into the Mountains of Arabia a together with the Companion of his life or as Valesius truly translates it With his Wife Among the Articles of Misdemeanour whereof St. Cyprian accuseth Novatus Presbyter of Carthage and Author of the Novatian Schism in Africk one is that he kick'd his Wife great with Child and caused her to Miscarry That St. Cyprian himself was married and lived with his Wife after the the receiving of Holy Orders we may learn from Pontius his Deacon who speaking of his eminent Vertues and extraordinary Piety whilst yet Presbyter saith That neither Want nor Sorrow could discourage him neither the Persuasions of his Wife nor the Sufferings of his own Body could divert him from neglecting the care of his estate to attend the Exercises of his Religion Caecilius Presbyter of Carthage who had converted St. Cyprian to the Christian Faith at his death recommended his Wife and Children to his Care and Protection Caldonius in an Epistle to St. Cyprian reckons Faelix a Presbyter and Victorin his Wife among the Confessors of Africa In the Dioclesian Persecution Phileas the most Holy Bishop of Thmuis in Egypt and Philoromus being brought before the Heathen Judge to receive Sentence of Martyrdom were desired by him to take Pity if not of themselves yet at least of their Wives and Children and prevent the Ruin of their Families by sacrisicing to Idols although those brave Martyrs slighted his Admonitions and scorned such ignoble Considerations However Celibacy and the Merits of
the Author of them is abundantly demonstrated by the learned Garnerius That he led about his Wife with him in his Travels and Preaching St. Paul plainly intimates in these words Have we not power to lead about a sister a wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as other Apostles or rather as the rest of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas Our Adversaries indeed pretend that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place is to be understood not a Wife but an assistant Woman commonly of the richer and more aged sort carried about by the Apostles to minister to their necessities provide them maintenance and serve them in the quality of Deaconesses And thus it must be acknowledged the greatest part of the Antients did interpret it However I will oppose to that Opinion some considerable and perhaps convictive Arguments As first the ordinary acception of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both in the Septuagint and the New Testament where the name Wife is never designed by any other word Secondly this Interpretation was by the Antients received from Tertullian who first proposed it in his Book of Monogamy which he writ after he was become a Montanist Thirdly the contrary Opinion of all the Catholicks in Tertullian's time For in his Exhortations to Chastity writ likewise after his fall decrying the excellency of Marriage he introduceth the Catholicks thus objecting to him It was lawful even for the Apostles to marry and to lead about their wives with them And indeed Clemens Alexandrinus the most Learned and Orthodox of all the Writers of the three sirst Centuries expresly interprets this place of Wives and further adds That St. Peter had several Children by his Wife Not to mention Cardinal Humbert in latter Ages who although a bitter Enemy of Priests Marriage allows and followeth this Interpretation That is more considerable which Eusebius relates from the same Clemens that St. Peter saw his Wife suffer Martyrdom and standing by her exhorted her generously to undergo it which alone might demonstrate that she accompanied him in all his Travels Since excepting St. Stephen and St. James the Great none suffered Death for the Christian Faith till the latter end of Nero's Reign when St. Peter was wholly employed in the West The Marriage of St. Paul however commonly denied by the Antients and universally by the Moderns is attested by great Authorities Clemens Alexandrinus the Disciple of Pantaenus who by the Testimony of Photius had those for his Masters who had seen and conversed with the Apostles and who himself writ within 125 years after the death of St. Paul and had travelled into Palaestine expresly affirms it From him Euseâ—…ius receiving this Tradition transcribeth and approveth it These two Authorities are sufficient alone to create a probability However I will observe that many still retained the same Opinion in the end of the Fourth Age. So St. Hierom assureth us some believed in his time St. Chrysostom acknowledgeth the same thing and adds that many in his time maintained St. Paul directed those words to his Wife Philipp 4. 3. I intreat thee also true yoke-fellow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For those words in the Attick dialect the most elegant of the Greek Tongue may be translated my faithful Wife Nay in the Sixth Age the Interpolator of Ignatius's Epistles hath these words In praising Virginity I do not blame all other holy Men because they used Marriage For I desire only to be thought worthy of God to be placed at their feet in the kingdom of heaven as of Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph and the other Prophets as of Peter and Paul and the other Apostles who used Marriage This place the Ancient Latin Interpreter who lived about the Eighth Age hath retained and translated with advantage It is a foolish as well as impudent Pretence which the Writers of the Church of Rome alledge to defeat the Authority of this Testimony They maintain that the name of St. Paul was foisted in by the fraud of some latter Greeks at least Reformed Printers and therefore the Index Expurgatorius commands his name to be wiped out of all Editions yet have they no other Foundation for this consident Calumny than the Authority of two Manuscript Copies which they pretend to be very antient the one of Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary the other of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford taken up upon the Credit of an Irish â—…ugitive Whereas the first was never seen since the days of Ambrosius Camaldulensis who lived 250 years since the other Bishop Usher saw and found to be no older than the year 1490. That the Reformed Printers corrupted not this place appears from all the Editions before the Reformation particularly those of Fabor Stapulensis Paris 1498. Strasbourg 1502. and Jod Clichtovaus Paris 1515. and many Editions set forth by Papists since the Reformation wherein the name of St. Paul is found The Greeks are no less cleared from all fraud herein by the consent of the Latin Copies particularly of one 800. years old in Baliol Colledge in Oxford mentioned by Dr. James wherein although some zealous Romanist had blotted out the name of St. Paul and the other Apostles yet they had done it so slightly that the words were still easily legible Now whether St. Peter led about his Wife with him or St. Paul was married is not of so great moment to our case as is the Conclusion which may be evidently drawn from the belief entertained by some of the Antients both of the one and of the other For even if we should grant their Opinion to have been erroneous yet it manifestly demonstrates that in their time the Celibacy of the Clergy was neither believed to have been instituted by the Apostles nor universally practised by the preceding Ages nor the use of Marriage inconvenient much less incompatible to the Priesthood Had any of these Opinions been generally received in their time it is impossible they should have been so stupid as to believe the Apostles had done a thing contrary to their own Institution or the laudable practise of succeeding Ages or the Dignity of their Office. Of the other Apostles St. Philip had Three Daughters whom by the Testimony of Clemens Alex. he Married to so many Husbands Of the Four Virgin Daughters of Philip the Deacon we read in the Acts of the Apostles The Marriage of Nicholas the Deacon is Famous in Ecclesiastical History which because the Mis-representation of it gave occasion to many Errours and the Imposers of Celibacy in the Eleventh Age constantly traduced the Marriage of Priests with the Title of Nicolaite Heresie it will not be amiss here to rectifie Clemens Alex. the most Ancient of all who mention it for St. Irenaeus saith only That the Nicolaites came from Nicolas the Deacon relateth it it thus Nicolas having a very beautiful Wife became
from married Priests but much farther in the time of Hildebrand and once again advanced into the formal Heresie of the Eustathians From the Montanists the Catholicks received their dislike of second Marriages one of the most palpable Errours of Antiquity since what the Apostle expresly alloweth and in some Cases adviseth most of the Ancients decry as scandalous and inconvenient oft-times as a tolerable Evil and sometimes even as a grievous sin Tertullian hath written whole Books against it Athenagoras calls it a decent Adultery Origen maintains that a Digamist however otherwise a person of good conversation and adorned with all other Vertues not to belong to the Church I might add many other Fathers and Councils who imposed a tedious Penance upon Digamists but the thing is sufficiently notorious This prejudice against Digamy was first taken up in the end of the Second Age. Before that time second Marriage was thought indifferent and wholly innocent Hermes in â—…he First Age had determined the lawfulness of it and Clemens Alexandrinus in the next pleads largely for it From the Gnosticks the Catholicks received an erroneous Opinion of some Impurity and Sinfulness or at least Imperfection in the use of Marriage They scrupled not to use the Authority of Books forged by those Hereticks in prejudice of Marriage such as the Gospel of the Egyptians the Acts of Paul and Tecla and the like and in some measure adopted their Errours Thus Origen and one of the most early Favourers of Celibacy writeth thus of Marriage Although I will not positively pronounce yet I suppose these are some ordinary actions of Men which however they be free from sin are not worthy to be honoured with tbe presence of the Holy Gospel for instance lawful Marriage is not indeed sinful yet while conjugal Acts are performed the Holy Ghost will not be present although he seems to be a Prophet who performs them St. Hierom the great Patron of Celibacy in the next Age goeth farther and disputing against Jovinian doth in some places make Marriage not only sinful but even damnable If it be good saith he for a Man not to touch a Woman then it is evil to touch her For nothing is contrary to Good but Evil. While I perform the Duty of a Husband I do not the Duty of a Christian For the Apostle commandeth we should always pray If so we must never serve the ends of Marriage For as often as I do that I cannot pray I suppose that the end of Marriage is eternal Death The Earth indeed is filled by Marriage but Paradise by Virginity And as the Apostle permits not those who are already married to put away their Wives so he forbideth Virgins to marry Marriage is permitted only as a remedy of Lust it being more tolerable to be prostituted to one man than many Nor did this Errour expire with those Heresies from whence they rose About the year 600. when Augustin Archbishop of Canterbury desired of Pope Gregory some Instructions for his new Converts in England and Rules of Ecclesiastical Discipline he gave him this for one A Man after he hath laid with his own Wife ought not to enter into the Church till he hath washed himself with water nor must then immediately enter Whereas Clemens Alexandrinus praising the Simplicity of the Christian Religion instanceth in this very Ceremony which although used of old by the Jews he saith was no where practised in his time by the Christians Many other erroneons Opinions obtained in the antient Church which proceeded from no other cause but this I will observe but one more their Opinion of the lawfulness of Self-murder to prevent the loss of Virginity imagining somewhat of Sinfulness and Impurity was inseparably annexed even to the natural act of Generation So Eusebius bestows large Encomiums upon some Virgins and Matrons who had laid violent hands upon themselves to prevent the Lust of Heathens And Aldhelmus citeth a Sentence of some Father more antient than himself Self-murder is unlawful unless when Chastity is endangered which he consirms and illustrates with many Reasons and Examples Such weaknesses of the Antients had deserved indeed to be buried in Oblivion if they had not influenced their Practice and laid the Foundations of an Errour which continueth even to this day that Marriage is a state Unbefitting and Celibacy therefore Necessary to the Clergy An Opinion first taken up upon those Prejudices which we have just now mentioned and maintained upon the Authority of those who are led away with these Mistakes So that to take away the Plea of Antiquity from the Church of Rome in the case of Celibacy it were sufficient to shew that the Antients received and embraced it meerly for the sake of these Prejudices and Mistakes Which we have already done For these were the great and only Arguments of Celibacy for the first Thousand years while none were yet so foolish as to imagin it to be of Divine or Apostolical Institution The pre-conceived Opinions of the impurity of Marriage in all and great indecency of it in those who administred Holy things tended directly to introduce the Celibacy of the Clergy For these Reasons Origen and Eusebius who were the only Orthodox Writers before the Council of Nice who openly prefer the Celibacy of the Clergy to their Marriage desired it might be introduced For they rather faintly wished the thing than dogmatically used it and by their Wishes manifest that it was not yet introduced As for their unreasonable prejudice against Digamy that contributed no less to the cause of Celibacy than the other Mistakes For the unlawfulness of Digamy once supposed the force of the Apostles Precept of Marriage to all who could not contain became wholly enervate since a Man is no less subject to Incontinence after enjoyment of a Wife for some few years perhaps days than he was before he ever married Besides all the Patrons of Celibacy failed not to make use of this Argument That if Second Marriage be unlawful or indecent to the Laity even First Marriage will be so to the Clergy it being usual for them who disallowed Second Marriage in all to think First Marriage only a tolerable evil and permitted in some as Divorce was formerly to the Jews And then it was a natural order of Superstition first to forbid Second and then all Marriage to the Clergy Therefore we may observe that in the beginning of the Third Age Tertullian affirms Digamy to have been forbidden to the Clergy both by Apostolical Tradition aud the Discipline of the Church and to be generally discussed by them in his time as a scandalous Imperfection if not a Crime But we no where find Marriage forbidden to the Clergy till the time of the Apostolick Canons first published in the end of this or beginning of the next Age. These Mistakes and Prejudices and Reasons of Celibacy founded upon them were common to both
Churches but there was one Reason peculiar to the Western Church which however it may seem light was of great efficacy and that was the unhappy Fall of Tertullian into Montanism That Great and Learned Person naturally endowed with an ardent Genius of a severe and inflexible temper of Mind infinitely zealous for all outward appearances of religious Mortification and after his Fall prompted with that Enthusiastick Spirit which was the peculiar Character of the Montanists set himself to advance the Opinion of his Sect with all imaginable vigour The unlawfulness of Digamy was the chief Tenet of that Sect and that founded upon an erroneous Supposition of some Imperfection in the Use even of First Marriage In maintaining and recommending these Errours to the World Tertullian employed all the force of his Wit and Eloquence to debase the dignity of Marriage and extoll the merits of a Single-life whether Widowhood or Virginity The extraordinary reverence and esteem which his great Learning and apparent Zeal procured to him in succeeding Ages mightily propagated his Errours and corrupted his Readers with false Prejudices and Notions of Marriage and Virginity For altho' it had been reasonable and sufficient to say of him what St. Hierome once said when pressed hard with his Authority He was a Schismatick no Writer of the Church Yet few considered that the persuasive force of his Eloquence was more sensible than the remembrance of his Schism and then few enquired which Books he writ before and which after his Fall or rather it was a common Errour that he writ very few after and almost all before his Fall. Whereas in truth he writ before his Fall only the Three little Treatises of Baptism Repentance and Prayer not the Twentieth part of his Works now extant To this Reputation of Tertullian and the ill Effects of it contributed not a little the infinite esteem and veneration which St. Cyprian had for his Writings while unwary Persons imagined that the deference which that blessed Martyr paid to his Learning and Zeal was an effect of the soundness and orthodoxy of his Doctrine However certain it is that the Fall of Tertullian advanc'd and encreas'd the former Prejudices and this I take to be the only reason why Celibacy ever prevailed more in the Western than in the Eastern Church All these Prejudices were in themselves unlawful But there were other Reasons of preferring Celibacy in the Ancient Church which might have been allowed if not attended with such fatal Consequences And first many Catholicks openly espoused the cause of Celibacy and others winked at their Policy meerly to prevent the Delusion of more simple Catholicks by the no less glorious than fraudulent Pretences of the Encratites Who to use St. Hierome's words because they knew the name of Virginity was venerable covered the Wolves under Sheeps-cloathing Antichrist pretended to act the part of Christ and veiled the uncleanness of their Lives with the false honour of that usurped Name They esteemed it a laudable Policy to prevent the Mischief by proposing to the Practice of Men that very Perfection which the Hereticks so much boasted of and the Multitude were apt to admire as being always casier led with great Pretences than sober Truth A not unlike Policy with this was afterwards used by St. Chrysostome against the Arians when fearing the People would be seduced by their Enthusiastical singing of Hymns he set up the same way of singing of Hymns among the Catholicks and thereby prevented the design of the Arians a Stratagem as the Historian observeth and may be applied to our case which however specious was the Occasion of very ill Consequences While Celibacy thus gained ground by the Artisice of Hereticks and Connivance of Catholicks few interposed themselves to undeceive Mankind and stop the torrent of these vulgar Prejudices as well because the immoderate esteem of Celibacy seem'd a Matter of no great moment while it was forcibly imposed upon none nor made necessary to any as because the dis-favour and unjust suspicions of the Multitude would probably have attended such an undertaking While unreasonable Men would have esteemed such a Person as a Libertine an Enemy of refined and more severe Religion and thought him to have therein pleaded only for his own Passions and Inclinations And when Celibacy became once universally esteemed and great numbers of Lay-men vowing Virginity voluntarily abstained from Marriage who by their supposed Sanctity and specious Abstinence drew to themselves the eyes and admiration of all Men the Clergy also were necessitated to make some advances in the Use of Celibacy that they might not suffer loss of Reputation and seem less Vertuous and Spiritual than Lay-men Hence St. Hierome frequently urgeth the Celibacy of the Clergy by the Example of Lay-Virgins affirming it to be highly indecent that the Laity should exceed the Clergy even in voluntary Acts of Piety and Mortification This Reason afterwards received great advantage from the wonderful encrease of Monkery and Vows of Continence in the Fourth and Fifth Ages insomuch that Faustus the Manichee objected to St. Austin that the immoderate Commendation of Virginity had among the Catholicks produced this Effect that in all their Churches there seem'd to be a greater number of professed Virgins than married Women No wonder then if Reverence attending the unmarried and Contempt the married Clegry Celibacy prevailed in the Church and Marriage by being dis-esteeemed became also dis-used especially since Ambition contributed not a little to it For from the end of the Fourth Age the Bishops and greater Clergy were generally chosen out of the Monks and thereby Celibacy became the nearest way to Preferment But to return to the Third Age the frequent Persecutions of that time did not a little advance the Cause of Celibacy it being highly convenient to the Church that the Clergy should shew an Example of Constancy and Resolution to all other Christians which it was believed they would more readily perform when freed from the encumbrances of a married state and not with-holden with the temptations of Wife and Children For the fury of the Heathen Persecutors generally fell most heavy upon the Clergy and sometimes was directed against them only So that to be promoted to any eminent Place in the Church was to be exposed to certain Martyrdom For this reason as Eusebius somewhere relates in the Choice of Bishops single Persons were commonly preferred before married Men in Times of Persecution And then Celibacy was no grievous and intolerable burthen when attended with a continual Expectation of Death and being hurried away to Execution To which may be added that few were then received into the Priesthood but aged Men who by a long course of Vertue had given sufficient proof of their Continence and unspotted Chastity Whereas in the Church of Rome Boys were admitted to Profess or make a Vow of Continence at Fourteen Girls at Twelve years of age till the Council of Trent which reduced it
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