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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

the Clergy of the Church of Rome Now at this time in the Church of Ephesus some young Widdows had imprudently been chosen into the number of Deaconesses who either not being able or not willing to contain had some of them Married and others as the Apostle seems to imply had given Scandal by their loose carriage The Apostle therefore ratifies the Marriages of those who were already Married and giveth free leave to the rest to Marry But for the future commands that none be admitted into that Order under Threescore years old at which age there is no danger of Incontinency Now that the Apostle treateth here of these Deaconesses or Widdows who had promised to the Church to observe Continence appeareth as well from the Context as from the common Interpretation of the Fathers many of whom Bellarmine reckons up and embraceth their Opinion After the Apostle succeed the Fathers St. Clemens Alex. the great Defender of Marriage and most Learned of all the Writers of the Three first Centuries Second Marriage after a Promise of Continence is unlawful not in the Contract but in the breach of Promise St. Cyprian speaking of Virgins that had professed Chastity But if they will not or cannot persevere it is better they should Marry than fall into Incontinency by their faults Epiphanius although otherwise a great Bigot of Virginity speaking of those who after a Solemn Vow of Continence and undertaking a Monastick Life find themselves tempted with Lusts gives them this advice It is better to commit one sin by violating the Vow than many by indulging a wandring Lust it is best for him who cannot perform his undertaking openly to Marry a Wife according to the Law. St. Basil blaming some Virgins who after they had solemnly devoted themselves to God and vowed perpetual Chastity behaved themselves unseemly saith It were much better for them being married to a Husband to receive from him directions of life and recompence the benefits of his government by assisting him in the care of the Family and educating a succession of hopeful Children and so preserve her Chastity although it were only to avoid the Jealousie of her Husband There is extant among St. Chrysostom's Works two Eloquent and Passionate Treatises written by him whilst young to his Friend Theodorus afterwards the Great and Learned Bishop of Mopsuestia who in his youth having entred into a Monastick Life had in the twentieth year of his age quitted it for the love of Hermione a fair Virgin whom he resolved to Marry Here Chrysostome employeth all the strength of his Rhetorick to exaggerate the heinousness of his Sin committed in violating his Vow made to God yet no where adventures to declare that his Marriage would be invalid gives it the name of Marriage and not of Adultery and although he equals the Sin of it to that Crime and by a Metaphor calls it Adultery yet he plainly distinguisheth it from formal Adultery more especially in these words Marriage you will say is lawful so say I Marriage is honourable saith the Apostle and the bed undefiled but fortnicators and adulerers God will judge But it is not permitted to you to celebrate the Rites or rather use the lawfulness of Marriage For when one is joyned to a heavenly Spouse to part with him for a Wife and joyn himself to her this is Adultery although you should ten thousand times call it Marriage and by so much worse than Adultery by how much God is greater than Men. Wonder not if Marriage is condemned equally with Adultery when God is despised Here the Crime indeed is sufficiently aggravavated but placed wholly as may be observed not in the use of his intended Marriage but in violating his first Faith pledged to Christ in his Vow of Continence Calls his intended Contract Marriage grants that when Married Hermione will be his Wife And in the close of his Passage plainly distinguisheth his Crime from Adultery Wherefore the Latine Translation in Fronto Ducaeus his Edition renders it thus Wonder not if such a Marriage is compared to Adultery The same Father in another place saying That some Monks in his time quitting their Profession Contracted Marriage passeth the same Censure on them always proceeding upon this ground That they who make a Vow of Chastity do thereby as it were joyn themselves in Marriage to Christ and therefore by a subsequent Marriage become as it were guilty of Adultery Upon which account also many other Fathers in their Rhetorical Flights give to these Marriages the Title of Adultery But if we come to close and strict Reasoning St. Augustine will tell us for them That as this Marriage with Christ is not True but only Spiritual so neither is this Adultery True and Real but only Spiritual and Mystical This Father professedly handles this Question refutes all the contrary Objections and having said that Such Persons are condemned not because they afterwards Contracted a Marriage but because they violated their former Promise of Chastity Determines in these words No small an evil ariseth from this inconsiderate Opinion of the invalidity of Marriage of holy Virgins which quit their Profession For hereby Wives are separated frrom their Husbands as if they were Adulteresses not Wives and they who would by separating of them reduce them to Continence make their Husbands become true Adulterers if while these are alive they marry other Wives Wherefore Gratian contracteth the sence of St. Augustine's Argument and truly represents it thus Some affirm those who Marry after a Vow to be Adulterers but I say they grievously sin who Separate such Persons I might produce many other places of St. Augustine to the same purpose especially where sp●…aking of Professed Virgins which although Incontinent adventured not to Marry partly for Shame and partly for fear of Punishment He giveth his Opinion thus These who long to Marry and yet do not Marry because they cannot do it unpunished it is better they should Marry than Burn that is than be scorched with the secret flames of Lust who repent their Profession and are grieved at their Promise St. Hierome writing to a Consecrated Virgin who leaving her Mother lived with an unmarried Clergyman and was suspected to maintain an unlawful familiarity with him giveth her this advice either to return to her Mother or Marry her Lover Why are you afraid to return to her If you be still a Virgin why need you fear a close Consinement If Debauched why do you not publickly Marry That will be the next refuge after Shipwrack to extenuate at least your Crime by this Remedy A Passage so much the more Memorable because of this Couple the one was a Clergyman the other a Nun and yet St. Hirome not only alloweth but adviseth their Marriage The Council of Ancyra in the Year 314. Decreed that Those who having vowed Virginity falsifyed their Promise should be placed in the rank of Bigamists But none