neither of you being such good friends to our Church and Clergy will deny that is to joyn with me in my prayers for the Tribe of Levi Let thy Urim and thy Thummim be with thy holy One let the sound of Aarons bells be ever heard and the smell of his Pomegranates always perfume the Church of God and let there be found at last of the Tribe of Levi amongst us as of other Tribes twelve thousand sealed ones And that there may never want a supply of able and good men for the work of the Ministry Let the Rod of Aaron I mean the Universities ever flourish and yearly bud blossom and bring forth ripe Almonds Your very much obliged and very humble Servant T.H. July 1. 1673. TO THE READER Courteous Reader Two things I desire to premise First That I do not pretend in this small popular Tract to teach Men Brethren and Fathers of the Church them and their Wives Oeconomicks But yet shall beg leave to transcribe a passage out of Luthers Colloquia Mensalia which I desire our Married Clergy would consider viz. That one cause of the unmarried lives of Priests to wit in the Papacy was that the faults of the Priests wives were offensive so that when the Priests should reprove the wickedness of others then the people would hit them in the teeth again and say why did not they reform their own wicked wives And truly I could wish that I might have cause to say of all the Married Clergy and of all others in the state of Matrimony as confident I am I may say of many Ye have no need that I write unto you of Conjugal love and duties for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another To this purpose it was we advised by a Right Reverend Father of our Church viz. the B. of W. to all such as his Lordship married often to read over the Office of Marriage that so they might the better remember and dâ— their duties each to other And truly I could heartily wish and beg of the Right Reverend thâ— Fathers of our Church that if ever they should revise our Liturgy which even some good men desire that the duties of Man and Wife Parentâ— and Children Masters and Servants might bâ— appointed to be read on the Lords days after the reading of the Commandments out of the Epistle to the Ephesians or Colossians or both The second thing I desire to premise is that I do not present you with a Regular and Scholastical Discourse either of Marriage or of the difference betwixt the Church of England and Rome concerning the Marriage of Priests or persons in holy Orders but offer as to the latter some Collections out of Dr. Field his Fifth Book of the Church Dr. Fulk and Mr. Cartwright their Annotations on the Rhemists Testament on Matth. 8. and on the Epistles to Timothy and Titus Mr. Perkin ' s his Demonstration of the Problem Dr. John and Dr. Francis White concerning this Argument and others together with some of my own observations The truth which is on our Churches side is chiefty maintained and the Church of Rome confuted by the Authority of the holy Scriptures Bishop Hall in his Treatise of the Honour of the Married Clergy page 124. observes that the Church of Rome teaches contradictory to the Holy Scripture The Spirit of God saith he saith that a Bishop may be the husband of one wife the Church of Rome says a Bishop may not be the husband of any wife at all The Spirit of God says Marriage is honorable amongst all men the Church of Rome says Marriage is dishonorable to some The Spirit of God says to avoid fornication let every man have his wife the Church of Rome like a quick-huswife says some Order of men shall not have a wife though to avoid fornication So that as another Author notes amongst them Marriage only and not Fornication is inconsistent with the dignity of a Clergy-man and that Fornication has been allowed to Priests and Fryers in compensation for their restraint from Marriage three or four Whores as part of their spiritual Preferment And probably such foul Positions and Practices made Luther so zealous for Matrimony I took a wife said he therewith to upbraid the Devil and to confound the whoring in Popedom and in contempt of that nasty Letchery in Popedom which is very great and abominable Luth. Col. Mens The same Author tells us that under Pope Julius was exercised an abominable Letchery and Whoring in Rome At the same time saith he was a Cardinal that had a married wife the which being known he was constrained to forsake her but in less than a years space he took her again Now when the Cardinal dyed his wife wept bitterly and said she had an honest husband who contented himself with one woman The Citizens of Rome wondering to hear the same cryed O Sancta Maria for says Luther Chastity in those people is rare Venison And as we have the holy Text on our side so have we the Fifth Canon of the Apostles the testimony of Paphnutius a holy Bishop and with him concurred the whole Council of Nice the Sixth Council of Constantinople Can. 13. and the practice of the Greek Church to this day so far as to justifie the lawfulness of Priests officiating about the holy things of their Function notwithstanding their being married And further to justifie our Church and the practice of our Clergy we have the Concessions of many of our Adversaries as Franciscus a Sancta Clara observes that the Celibacy of Priests is not de Jure divino but by the Law of the Church and that the Pope may dispense therewith and some say doth dispense with the married Clergy in the Greek Church and others in his name 't is said have made Overtures of the like favour to the English Clergy and in case they would be his dutiful and obedient Sons be would be an Indulgent Father to them Lastly It is worth the consideration on our behalf â—n this matter that some of the best men of the Church of Rome such as Espencaeus Aeneas Sylvius Polydore Virgil Erasmus and others have desired that the Law of forced Celibacy might be taken away to prevent the great scandal that is given by the filthy lives of the Clergy Forasmuch then as the English Clergy have had the possession of their wives for above a thousand years after Christ and again have had them restored to them by Law at the Reformation they have no reason to quit their so just and ancient Rights and with one half of themselves and to be contented with Lemans instead of Wives and Nephews in room of Sons I shall dismiss thee Reader when I shall have told thee that the fig-leaves wherewith the Romanists seek to hide the nakedness of their Church in this cause are eafily blown away by Dr. Field of the Church Dr. Francis White his Defence of his Brother Dr. John White by Bishop Hall
Bishop of Sebastia in Armenia and in the West by Siricius and Innocent the first his Successor and some Canons were made in the second or rather last Council of Carthage to the contrary Yet by degrees these Canons and Severities against the married Clergy lay dormant being found a burthen too heavy for the Church to bear We find that in the time that Hildebrand climb'd up into the Papal Chair namely anno 1075. and long before that Priests had wives publickly This was he that was neither chosen by Emperor or Clergy but intruded himself this was he that threw the Sacrament into the fire this was he that forced the Emperor whom he had Excommunicated to come with his Empress and Son bare footed in the cold of Winter to his Castle at Canusium and there to wait three days fasting until he might have audience which at length was obtained by the mediation of Madam Matilda the Popes Minion that left her husband to live with the Pope vid. Plat. this was he that Sainted his Predecessor Liberius the Arrian and this was he that restrained and forbad Priests Marriage but by so doing stirred up the whole Nation of Clergy-men against him crying out that he was an Heretick and a man damnably erring in his judgement c. And it is so far from being true that Bellarmine saith That the Priests beginning to marry in Gregories days was the cause of the great contempt of the Sacrament and of the Confusions and Prophanations of Sacred things in those days that it was clear contrary as Nauclerus testifies de Clericis lib. 1. cap. 19. that it was an old and confirmed custom that was not easily to be altered and the Priests rather in Gregories time ceased than began to marry by reason of the attempts and endeavours of Gregory to restrain them from marriage and the causes of the Confusions of those times were occasioned rather by the forbidding the Priests to marry than by their beginning then to marry And now since the Church of Rome hath forced this single life on Clergy men very many Learned men of later times have desired the Law of single life may be taken away Durandus in his Book de Modo celebrandi Concilii proveth by many Reasons that it were fit that the liberty of Marriages were again restored to Priests in a General Council Aeneas Sylvius after Pope Pius the second was of this mind So was Polydor Virgil and Erasmus the first of these in Book 5. chap. 4. de Invent. rerum saith thus I dare confidently say that it hath been so far from being true that this inforced chastity hath excell'd that which is in Marriage That no sinful crime hath brought greater disgrace to the Order of the Ministry more evil to Religion or made a greater and deeper impression of sorrow in all good men than the stain of the impure lusts of Priests Erasmus in Declam de laudibus Matrimonii affirms that in his conceit he should not ill deserve nor take the worst course for the furthering of humane affairs and the right informing of the manners of men which should procure liberty of Marriage if it might be both for Priests and Monks Read also his Annotations on the first Epistle to Timothy chap. 3.1 And Sigismund the Emperor a little before the Council of Basil declar'd and published That forasmuch as more evil cometh by the forbidding of Marriage than good it were better and more safe to permit Clergy men to live in the state of Marriage according to the custom of the Oriental Churches than to forbid them so to live Antiochus aforementioned a Figure of Antichrist Dan. 11.37 did not regard women or the desire of women or of wiving and the Antichrist forbids to marry and commands to abstain from meats The ancient Romans liked and encouraged Marriage Thus the Figure and Forerunner of Antichrist he himself and his followers decry wiving and cry up single life and by Fryers and Monks the great Adorers of single life and Observers of distinctions of meats the Doctrine of Image-worship was brought and spread and propagated in the Church as is proved by Mr. Mede in his Apostacy of the latter times Some of these Hermites Anchorites or Monks and Coenobites might be honest and good persons abating them their errour about over-magnifying the single life yet the generality of them he condemns as hypocrites For the lawfulness of Marriage of persons in holy Orders we have the Old and New Testament and the practice of the Church and the Doctrine of the Church at the Council of Nice and after till the time of Siricius about the year 385. Afterwards we have the Marriage of these allowed by all those Councils which forbid such persons to marry widows such as Concilium Epaunen Canon 2. Aurelianum the first Council Can. 15. Concilium Toletanum 1 ch 1. the 3. And we find the Council of Carthage made divers Canons about the Government of the Sons and Daughters of Bishops and Clergy-men such as the 11. That they should not make or go to the Spectacula Secularia c. 12. That their Sons and Daughters should not marry to Heathens Hereticks or Schismaticks c. 14. That they suffer not their Sons to go free out of their power and Government till they are assured of their manners and of such age ut possint ad eos propria pertinere peccata This Council was held saith Coriolanus 397. The first Council of Toledo an 400. c. 1. Ordains de Presbyteris Deaclnis si post ordinationem filios genuerint ad altiorem gradum non ascendant Yet they might continue in their station though not rise higher in the Church In the year 506. Consilium Agathense in the time of Pope Symmachus cap. 1. although Bigamists and those that had married widows being Presbyters or Deacons might not consecrate or minister yet they might retain the name of Presbyters and Deacons Hence it is to be supposed that Presbyters and Deacons who were not Bigamists nor had married widows might consecrate and minister notwithstanding their marriage If it be Objected That there were endeavours to make the Clergy content themselves without wives I say yet in many places it would not prevail not in England till above Eleven hundred years after Christ not in Ireland till the days of Henry the Second of England who subdued Ireland I read that Celsus the great Apostle of Armagh and High Primate of Ireland had both a wife and children in the time of his Archbishopry according to the usage of the Countrey vid. Bernard in vita Malachiae And we are told that Pope Adrian and Pope Alexander did stir up Henry the Second to subdue Ireland because the people withstood their proceedings against the Marriage of Bishops and Priests It is certain de facto that many Eminent Persons in holy Orders were actually married So Gregory Nazianzen's Father was a Bishop and begat him after he was Presbyter if not after he was
lawful no Adultery no Uncleanness 3. That for a person at his Ordination to make an absolute vow of single life for all his days is a rash and unlawful Vow 4. That if a man have made such a Vow and find he have not nor cannot obtain the gift of Continency in that case he ought to marry 5. That the Marriage of Luther with Katherine Bora on supposition they could not contain was lawful 6. That the Church of Rome sins grievously to put a yoke upon the neck of the Disciples of Christ that officiate in holy things which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear 7. That the Church of Rome may and ought to reverse and repeal her Laws Canons or Constitutions enjoyning Celibacy on the Clergy so contrary to Scripture the Apostles Canons the Council of Nice and the continued practice of the greatest part of the Christian Church to this day 8. That that Church of Rome's admitting young Youths and Virgins to make and engage in absolute solemn Vows that they will live all their days in Celibacy is a great snare a grievous sin and contrary to the Apostles advice concerning young widows 2 Tim. 5.14 is opposite to the prime blessing Crescite multiplicamini Increase and multiply is a great scandal to Religion is a damage to Kingdoms and States where such are educated idle and useless to the Publick is a weakning to their Countrey a destruction of their Race and Family an occasion of grievous and horrid lusts and wickednesses 9. That Marriage notwithstanding it is lawful to all Ranks Orders and Degrees of men and consequently to men in holy Orders yet it is no Sacrament 10. That the Church of Rome by advancing Matrimony to be a Sacrament lays claim to the Administration of it and to the judging and deciding Matrimonial causes and so brings store of grist to her Mill. And by forbidding Marriage to Priests doth inrich the Church with that which should otherwise be expended on wives and children and keeps the Clergy in a dependance on Rome having no such near relation as wives and children to withdraw their affections from it 11. That to assert that for a man in holy Orders suppose he have made a Vow of Celibacy to marry and to accompany with his wife is worse than Fornication yea than Adultery is an erroneous and dangerous Position contrary to the holy Scriptures to sound Reason to the Ancient Councils and Fathers vid. Austine de Bono viduitatis And if this Book be questioned whether it be his or not see his Epistle to one Bonifacius who had vowed a Monastical retired and single life and yet afterwards did marry his words are these Thy wife hindereth me that I cannot exhort thee to this kind of life without whose consent it is not lawful for thee to contain c. Of this opinion also was Jerome the great Patron of Virginity Ep. 47. de Suspecto contubernio vitando Of the same judgement was Epiphanius Haeres 61. who indeed maketh it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing evil and such as God will judge and punish to forget neglect and not perform a Vow made to God but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a thing which casteth men into the condemnation of Hell fire and plungeth them in everlasting destruction as to live in Adultery He thinks it better for a man though he have committed a fault in breaking his Vow which he may repent of and be forgiven to marry than by living in continual Adultery to add one sin to another and to plunge himself in endless destruction And 't is an absurd and irrational thing for any man to say that 't is better to burn than to marry because either of his Vow or of the Command of the Church for neither a Vow of our own nor any Command of the Church can make void the Law of God if he cannot contain let him marry and to avoid Fornication let every man have his own wife Our Saviour saith nothing to the contrary when he saith he that can receive it let him receive it We speak only of those who cannot receive it who cannot contain and in such case we must not make void the Laws of God against Adultery and Fornication in seeking to confirm or observe the Laws and Constitutions of the Church In this case Whether it be better to obey God or man judge ye I shall not here go about to shew that the Answers of Bellarmine and others to the Authorities that are brought on our side are but fig-leaves to cover the nakedness of their cause and easily blown away but I shall direct my Reader to Bp. Jewel his Defence of his Apology Dr. Field of the Church B. 5. ch 57. to Mr. Cartwright and Dr. Fulk's Answer to the Rhemist's Testam on Matth. 8. and on 1 Tim. 3.8 to Calixtus de Conjugio Clericorum to Bishop Hall's Honour of the married Clergy Nor shall I go about to answer the particular sayings of some Fathers to the disparagement of Marriage It sufficeth that the Church of England hath the holy Scripture and the Ancient Church on her side the desires of many Learned Worthy men that have been in the Church of Rome the practice of the greatest number of Christian Churches in the world at this day so far as to justifie the lawfulness of married men to be admitted to holy Orders and to officiate in and about holy things notwithstanding their having wives and that the blessing of God is and hath been upon our married Clergy no other Nation excelling them in Learning Piety or the gift of Preaching that saying still holding good notwithstanding their Marriage Stupor mundi Clerus Britannicus If it be objected That this Marriage doth spoil our Charity and Hospitality and proves a temptation to Covetousness I answer That Solomon Eccles 4.7 8. says There is a vanity and dissatisfaction and unprofitableness in heaping up riches even by single persons And 't is observed by a sober and learned Casuist of our own Mr. Capel That single persons and those that have but few children oft-times prove more covetous than those that are married and have many children alledging that the latter are by daily and frequent experiences and layings out habituated to part with money and so a peny comes not as from some others like a drop of blood from their hearts I say further that great things have been done by the married Clergy and other married persons in our days if it were necessary we might instance in particulars It hath been said That Pater Noster built Churches and Our Father pull'd them down but it hath been proved and published to the world that as many and great Acts of Piety and Charity have been done in England since the Reformation of Religion as in the like number of years in times of Popery And whatever is or may be said or pretended to the contrary as if the allowing of the marriage of the Clergy was an impoverishment of the Church and Country and a damage to the Kingdom I dare say they that would remove the married Clergy to bring in the Monks could never be able to recompence the Churches their Countrys and the Kings and Kingdoms damage Who can more earnestly pray for and endeavour the weal of their own King and Country than those who have such great bonds and interests to desire and endeavour it And who is like to be most at home amongst his own people if not he that hath amongst them continually a wife the desire of his eyes and children which he loves as his own eyes FINIS
or Children to Marry eo nomine or else they could not be Presbyters Priests Bishops or Arch-Bishops It was smartly replyed by Dr. Featley when some had charged it on the Puritans that they were Calvinistae tantum non in Sabbato that their Adversaries were Papistae tantum non in uxoratu Certainly Bishop Mountague of Norwich Bishop Wren and Bishop Cozens were all Canonical Men and yet all Married And Bishop Laud was one of the first that for a while was thought to discountenance Marriage in men of Holy Orders saying That in disposing of Ecclesiastical Preferments he would prefer the single Man before the Married supposing the Abilities of the Persons were otherwise equal But Dr. Heylin that wrote his Life tells us by what means and method he sought to procure other apprehensions of him namely by negotiating not long after a Marriage between Mr. Thomas Turner one of his Chaplains and a Daughter of Windebank his old Friend and he officiated the whole service of their Marriage in his own Chappel at London-House joyning their Hands and giving the Nuptial Benediction and perfecting all other Ecclesiastical Rites which belong to the Solemnization of Matrimony by the Rules of this Church D. H. in his Life p. 212. I acknowledge that the Papists urge against the Marriage of our Clergy the ill manners and lives of their Children I confess I cannot tell of any one of our married Clergyes Wives that can match that Whore who they say was the Mother of Gratian Petrus Cornestor and Peter Lumbard yet doubtless there have been famous men who have been Children of Bishops the Fathers of the Church and of others in Holy Orders Bishop King late of Chichester was the Son of Bishop King sometime Bishop of London Bishop Hall late of Chester was the Son of Bishop Hall Bishop of Norwich whose Works praise him in the Gate And it hath been observed that five Knightly Families descended from Arch-Bishop Sands Arch-Bishop of York One of the greatest blots in our English Bishops Escutcheons in this matter is that Sir Toby Matthews a great Son of the Church of Rome was a Son of Arch-Bishop Matthews of York Let me add for the honour of our Married Clergy that Sir Francis Drake that famous Sea Captain was the Son of a Minister in Devonshire Many at this day have attained to the honour of Knighthood who owe their Estates to Bishops and Arch-Bishops And 't is no abatement to their Honour that the late reverend and renowned Bp. of Chester Bp. Wilkins his Mother was the Daughter of a Minister viz. Mr. John Dod a man famous in his Generation for Piety and a learned Man and who taught that excellent Critick of Christ-Church Mr. Gregory and the great Bishop of Winchester Hebrew It cannot be denyed that most of the Antient Writers cry up the excellency of Virginity and that divers of the Fathers pleading for the singleness of Priests do detract from the due praises of Marriage So Siricius stuck not to say That they that are in the flesh that is saith he in Matrimony cannot please God And Ambrose Offic. Lib. 1. Cap. ult will have the Priests to be pure from Marriage and to be contaminated by Marriage But the blessed Apostle St. Paul a greater than these allows a Bishop to be the Husband of one Wife that is one who liveth chastly with one Wife alone at one time And whereas some would oppose Marriage and Chastity the same Apostle in Titus 2.4 5. teaches us that Wedlock and Chastity are not divorced or separated each from other but may dwell together in the same House and the same Bosom exhorting Titus to teach the young Women to be sober to love their Husbands to love their Children to be discreet chast keepers at home good obedient to their own Husbands That which the Apostle Paul saith in 1 Cor. 7. That 't is good for a man not to touch a Woman is to be interpreted 'T is not expedient viz. that if a man have the gift of continency and with particular respect to the Christian Church in that time of Persecution for the Apostle saith Nevertheless to avoid Fornication let every Man have his own Wife and let every Woman have her own Husband Vers 2. of the same Chapter And Paphnutius a good Man and a Bishop in the Council of Nice though himself a single Person named an honest Matrimonial Conjunction a Godly Chastity The Celibaty or single-Life of the Clergy and others in the Popedom hath hindred much good and given great occasion to abominable sins St. Vlrich Bishop of Auspurgh in an Epistle which he wrote complained of a fearful Spectacle at Rome namely that after Pope Gregory had decreed and confirmed the unmarried kind of Life he intended to fish in a deep Pond at Rome hard by the Monastery of the Nuns the Water of the Pond being let out they found more than six thousand Heads of Children which had been cast into the Pond and drowned these were the fruits of the unmarried life Whereupon Pope Gregory amazed at the sight abolished that Decree concerning the unmarried kind of life but the succeeding Popes decreed the same again And in the Monastry of Neuburgh in Austria where there had been Nuns who were displaced for their ungodly leacherous doings as my Author saith when the Franciscan Fryers who were set therein intending to build digged up twelve great Pots in each Pot was a Carcase of a little Child We are told that the Multitude of Bastards are so great at Rome that they are constrained to build particular Monastries wherein they are brought up and that the Pope is named their Father and that when any great Processions are held in Rome the said Bastards go all before the Pope If the Pope be accounted Father to all the Bastards that may call the Whore of Babylon Mother I suppose he may have as many Children every day in the year as that Countess had at a Birth namely as many as there are dayes in the year Our Histories tell us That John de Crema aâ— Italian Cardinal was sent over from Rome to England with his bigness and bravery to bluster our English Clergy out of their Wives he made 't is said a most gaudy Oration in the commendation of Virginity and on the same Night at London he was caught in Bed with a Harlot See F. H. B. 3. p. 23. But the Cardinal might far sooner and easier be permitted his Concubine or Harlot than the English Clergy their lawful Wives the Pope being Judge We find afterwards that the Clergy paying a Fee or Fine to the Pope were tolerated their Concubines And this custom was so general and thought so justifiable that when one of the Priests pleaded he had no Concubine it was answered strait Habeat si velit solvat pecuniam He may have one if he will let him pay his Money Yea it has of late dayes been maintained That Marriage in a Clergy-Man is a
life and were not married but also by married persons as Patriarchs Apostles Martyrs and innumerable others 1 Thess 4.17 'T is observed that there is nothing said of these Virgins which agreeth not to all the faithful 1. They have all the name of the Lamb his Father and written in their foreheads and all God's servants are sealed in their foreheads Rev. 7.3 2. All God's servants are to sing the new Song Rev. 5.9 10. all are redeemed from the earth by the blood of the Lamb chap. 5.9 The believing Jews they are all a kind of first-fruits unto God James 1.18 Lastly The Jesuites at Rhemes confess that these are the same number of the Elect that were sealed chap. 7. where in the Margent they note That by the number there spoken of are understood all the Elect both of the Jews and of the Gentiles vid. T. C. in loc These Virgins then are those that would not be polluted or defiled with the Idolatry or Spiritual Fornication of the Whore of Babylon mentioned in Verse 8. of the 14 Chapter of the Revelations Whatever Papists or old Hereticks say against the lawful Conjugal society of man and wife as if it were a work of the flesh the holy Apostle Paul doth not rank or condemn it for a work of the flesh in that black Catalogue of the works of the flesh on Record Gal. 5.19 20 21. But on the other side 't is observable that those who decry Marriage without a just cause and cry up single life more than they have cause as the Papists do they are verily guilty of Idolatry which is Spiritual Adultery or Fornication witness their worship of the Cross with Religious worship their worship of Images of Saints and particularly of the B. Virgin their worship of Angels with Invocation with Adoration They tell us a story that at the Synod held at Winchester when there was a difference 'twixt the married Clergy and the Monks and Archbishop Dunstan had a mind to introduce the Monks The Cross spake humano more with mans voyce against the married Priests This was in the days of King Edgar who began his Reign 959. It seems then that there were married Priests in England in those days If it be Objected That many Ancient Councils have ordained Celibacy for Priests as the first Elibertine Council an 310. or 311. Can. 33. The second Council of Cartharge about the year 396. Can. 2. Concilium Agathense Can. 9. about the year 506. The third Council of Orleans Can. 1. about the year 537. The fourth Council of Orleans an 547. Can. 17. c. My Answer is That we have the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament for the lawfulness of Priests or Presbyters marriage the Canons of the Apostles Can. 5. and the General Council of Nice rejecting the Proposal about prohibiting of it as also the sixth General Council of Constantinople c. in the year 692. and the Council of Toledo an 400. chap. 4. 7. which testifies that the Clergy had wives I might also have alledged Concilium Gangrense cap. 4. in or about the year 324. which Anathematiseth those who held it unlawful to receive the blessed Sacrament at the hands of a married Priest and many Councils which forbid Priests second Marriage or to marry a widow c. All which supposed it lawful for him to marry Whatever the Canons decreed certain it is that the Greek Church unto this day allow of a married Clergy and that divers Nations and Countreys for a long time in the West did not admit of this necessary Celibacy but tolerated their Clergy to be married In England they had their wives for above a thousand years almost twelve hundred years after Christ So in Ireland till the days of Henry the second of England who began his Reign 1155. Pope Pius II. who sate about the year 1458. was a great man in the Council of Basil his saying was That Marriage was better for the Clergy than single life and turned out divers cloystered Nuns to take their liberty De facto many Priests were married of old So Novatus a Priest permitted by Cyprian to live with his wife Tertullian was married as appears by his Book written to his wife Gratian tells of the Sons of Presbyters and Bishops that were promoted to the Papal Dignity Dist 56. So was Bonifacius the Pope the Son of Jucundus the Presbyter Foelix the Pope the Son of Foelix the Presbyter Agapetus the Pope Son of Gordianus the Presbyter Theodorus the Pope Son of Theodorus the Bishop and many more he saith there were and addeth we are not to understand them as born out of lawful Marriages which were lawful to Priests before the Prohibition ibid. Chrysostom agreeth with Athanasius and Clemens Alexandrinus in 1 Tim. 3. and saith That Marriage is in so high a degree honorable that men with it may ascend into the Episcopal Chairs and yet live with their wives For though it be a hard thing yet it is possible so to perform the duties of Marriage as not to be wanting in the performance of the duties of a Bishop Sozomen saith of Spiridion that though he had a Wife and Children yet he was not therefore any whit the more negligent in performing the duties of his Calling and of Gregory Nyssen it is reported that though he was married he was no way inferior to his worthy Brother that lived single And howsoever in Thessaly Thessalonica Mandonia they did not admit into the Ministry any single persons yet all the Bishops of the East besides were then left unto their own liberty and though some went about to take away their liberty in some places yet the worthiest men the Church had stood in defence of it So Synesius when they of Ptolemais would needs have him to be their Bishop which thing he little desired he made them acquainted with his present condition and resolved purpose for the time to come God saith he the Law and the sacred hand of Theophilus have given to me a wife I therefore tell all men aforehand and testifie unto all that I will neither suffer my self to be altogether estranged and separated from her neither will I live with her secretly as an Adulterer for the one of these is no way pious and godly and the other no way lawful But I will desire and pray unto God that exceeding many and most good and happy Children may be born unto me Neither will I have him that is chief in ordaining of me to be ignorant hereof Synesius ad fratrem Ep. 105. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This liberty the Council in Trullo impeached in respect of Bishops but in respect of Presbyters it continueth in all the East Churches of the world unto this day Greek Armenian and Ethiopian warranted unto them by the Canons of the Apostles judgement of Bishops Canons of councils c. Dr. Field of the Ch. l. 5. p. 708. Some attempts were made in the East by Eustathius
namely that younger widows should marry and guide the house and not be received into the Office of Deaconesses of being servants to the Church to relieve or look to the sick and to succour the poor because such persons if they should make such a promise to the Church to continue in that state all the days of their life would be apt to break it either by being wanton against Christ committing fornication or else would be under the power of their husband and so not be at liberty to serve the Church Now therefore the Apostle concludes that none should be received into the Church as Deaconesses under the age of threescore at which time saith one the Vow of not marrying would be ridiculous Therefore the Pope and his Clergy saith Dr. Fulk admitting other widows or virgins to profess or vow Continency do sin against the express Commandment of the H. Ghost Nor was the want of Monasteries and Monkish and Nunish Rules and Orders in the Apostles times the occasion of this Prohibition or restraint For saith my Author the Incontinency of Nuns and Monks in Cloysters and under all your Rules and Orders hath and doth daily give sufficient proof that Lust will not be kept out by the walls of your Monasteries nor by the Rules and Prescripts of your Orders So then as the experience of some younger widows that had followed after Satan was a sufficient reason to cause the Apostle to refuse all young widows to the Office of Deaconesses so the experience of so many Milch Nuns and filthy Monks and Friers teach us that no young persons are to be admitted to any Vow or Profession of perpetual Continency Let me add here what the said Doctor hath out of Wierus de Praestig Daemon l. 3. cap. 9 11. edit 3. That the Devil helpeth the Nuns in their abominable lusts in divers Nunneries in Germany namely in the Province of Colen where the Devil in the likeness of a Dog was seen to fall upon them in the day time in most beastly manner about the year of our Lord 1558. also in the Nunnery of Nazanth in Colen the Nuns in most filthy manner suffered the same illusion oftentimes in the sight and presence of many anno 1564. The state of the Church saith Gerson Chancellor of Paris is grown altogether bruitist and monstrous and should give an Item to the Overseers to enquire whether the Cloysters of Nuns be not become the Stews of Harlots and who would think saith the Author of the Triumph of Rome over despised Protestancy that so wise a man as Caesarius Branchedorus could so far over-reach as to say that the lusts of whoredom and gluttony and other shameful enormities had gotten such a head that young men did pati muliebria and Priests did facere virilia and that their Nuns did as it were openly profess unchastity and at last that whosoever was noted to be a shameless Adulterer or a wild Ruffian that had lavish'd out all his Patrimony anu pene ventre was sure to betake himself to the Court of Rome as his Sanctuary And again Who could have looked for such language to fall from so grave an Author as Espencaeus that our Ancestors wish'd that our Clerks should turn their wives into their sisters but now our age turns them into Lemmans and Whores and consequently their lawful issue into Bastards And again God hath taken away our sons and the Devil hath given us Nephews and could imagine that so learned and ingenious a â—â—n as Erasmus would so far wrong his neighbours as to say that a number of Monasteries are so degenerated that the Stews are more chaste and sober and modest then they The supplication of Beggars tender'd to King Henry VIII assured him that by virtue of the Sacred Votaries there were a hundred thousand Whores in this our Nation Fryar Menolem in the Pulpit cryed to the Clergy Ye my Masters of the Church do not damn your souls Ye have now Birds in the Cage that chirp to you by night yt know my meaning put them away So the Author of Romes Triumph over despised Protestancy which some say was Bishop Hall Our Church Historian tells us that King Stephen's fury fell most fiercely on the Dean and Canons of Pauls for crossing him in the choice of their Bishop for he sent and took their Focaria's that is Roger Hoveden being Interpreter their Concubines and cast them into the Tower of London where they continued many days not without much scorn and disgrace till at last those Canons ransom'd their liberty at a great rate F. Hist Book 3. p. 27. From these premises I hope we may safely draw this good and honest Conclusion That marriage is not to be prohibited to a whole Order of men within the pale of the Church neither directly nor by consequence and that 't is not expedient to suffer young men and young maids or women to vow Celibacy all their lives It was piously said of Pope Pius the second That for great causes Priests wives were taken from them but that for greater causes they ought to be restored to them again See Platina in the life of the said Pope It is better to marry than to burn saith St. Paul and the Canons of St. Paul's Church aforenamed had much better have had Wives than Focaria's Fire-makers or Concubines How horrible is it that the Church of Rome doth hold That 't is much better and less offence for a Priest to use another mans wife than to marry one of his own after that he hath once accepted and married our dear Mother the holy Church for his wife during life But leaving such Apocryphal Doctrine of the Romish Church I come to the Canon of the holy Scripture 1 Cor. 7.2 To avoid fornication let everyman and therefore Spiritual persons are not exempted have his own wife and every woman and therefore Nuns are not interdicted have her own husband and to avoid fornication it is enjoyned and therefore all persons of both Sexes who have not the gift of Continency are bound to marry nor can any Vow or Oath be vinculum iniquitatis i. e. a Bond of Iniquity and oblige against God's Law which saith Thou shalt not commit Adultery and It is better to marry than to burn Besides if two Oaths be taken and the one contradict the other the first is obligatory and not the second Now all Priests and Nuns in Baptism vowed to keep all God's Commandments and therefore the Seventh not to commit Adultery Those Scriptures Be ye holy for I am holy and Pray continually concern all Christians as well as Priests and Professed persons and therefore if they be interpreted to oblige from marriage they oblige the Laity as well as the Clergy to use the ordinary distinction Besides Aaron and his Sons though married persons were daily both morning and evening to attend upon the Sacrifice and to burn Incense every morning Exod. 30.7 and this Incense was a Type of Prayer