rescued mine aged Syre and made these shoulders bowe To garde him from the enemies troope For an action directly contrarie a Christian man should goe about to merit the same surname appellation or that S. Hierome by any meanes should rather propose wicked Tullia for an instance of pietie that roade in her coach ouer her fathers coarse than deuout Aeneas for an imitation to Heliodorus Yea though hee might purchase thereby all the kingdomes and seignories of the world or all the vast territories of hell where ghostes Lorde it as Painims suppose or lastly that who so profest himselfe a Monke in such a scornefull fashion to his parents should bee better thought of than Cleobis and Piton that drewe their aged mother in a litter to a place where she was to sacrifice in stead of a payre of coâ—tch-horses Or those brethren which for they rescued their impotent parents from the rage of a tempestuos fire the people of Catanna in a reuerence of their deuotion called by no other name than the godlie-children Certainely it is so far from S. Hieromes meaning to haue his words peruerted drawn to the maintenance of such a barbarous crucity and impity as that when hee spake this to Heliodorus neither his Father or mother were then liuing so that the inference is impossible that had his Father mother forbad him to haue beene an Eremite in the wildernes of Syria he would haue gone ouer them and stamped them vnder his feete What then may S. Hieromes meaning be why this After Heliodorus had long time beene a souldier in the wars and dealt much in negotiating of state matters growing into some years and hauing no issue as we tolde you before he bad farewell to the world and in S. Hieromes company which was his puysne vowed a solitary and retyred life and to that end they both entred into a monastery liued there long time together at last Heliâ—dorus had a great longing to see how his onely sister and hir young sonne did and there lo did he alter his former resolution for there he betakes himselfe to the Church and in stead of being a Monke becomes a Cleargy man This was the time without all peraduenture when S. Hierome wrought these matters in commendation of the monasticall life beeing for yeares but a stripling and almost a very boy as he speaks of himselfe in another place and comming fresh from the vniuersity then he vseth these flourishing speeches vnto him alluding from his secular to the heauenly warfare interlacing withall such strong motiues and perswasions as friends vse often to their friends all to this purpose in effect that wheras we are commanded to be Eunuches for Christs sake to put the verie eies out of our head if they offend to leaue and forsake all that we haue in this present worlde as if the case were desperate for a rich man euer to come to heauen a point whereof S. Austen discourses excellently in his 89. epistle to Hilarius not to be carefull for to morrow to turne thy left cheeke to him that smites thee on the right and many moe sayings of the like nature which were they literally vnderstood and not spiritually without question would fill the Church full with heresies and yet concerning worldlie vvealth doth not S. Austen in an Epistle to Bonifacius tell vs a valiant Christian minded man should not be puft vp if he haue it nor be deiected if he loose it vvas not Leontius a Bishop of Laodicea condemned of the Church for dismembring himselfe vvhereupon Anastasius a Bishop of Nice in his 73. and 79 question saith vvhat is meant by this Gospell if thy right eie offend thee or thy right hand cut it off from thee Christ meant it not of our bodilie parts and members God forbid but of our friends and kinsfolke for hee slanders Gods workmanship that dismembers himselfe And euen S. Hierome himselfe hath he not vvritten so manie things in that strain of vehemencie for commendation of virginitie and single life that he seems in a manner to disallow and condemne all mariage yet questionles he neuer meant it For were it so that he spake as he thought and perswaded Heliodorus rather to make his way ouer his fathers body than to forsake that blissefull estate which as it seems in your conceipt the cloister affoords why then would he prefer Priesthood before it indeed he confesseth that Heliodorus answer may serue any other mans turne else but cannot serue his owne who hauing profest in precise tearmes the actiue life might not without blame renouÌ„ce his former profession and betake himselfe to an order of higher perfection as namely Priesthood Indead he describes the good and happie estate of them that liue in monasteries and likewise how perilous and subiect to all manner of temptations their condition is that liue at large in the world and saith he was a glad man to see him come vp so high but very fearefull to thinke of his fall So that he blames not Heliodorus for leauing his cloister nor his entrings into Priesthood nay he perswades him not directly to forsake the one and returne to the other But because first he reuolted from being a souldier to become a Monke and afterwards grew wearie of his cowle abjuring the profession which he vndertook in S. Ieromes company his endeauour is now by these forceable reasons or rather rhetorique schemes and colours to draw him backe againe into his monasterie And as for these words of the Gospell he that loueth father or mother more than me I pray marke whether Heliodorus answered S. Hierom well that they were to be vnderstood in case of martyrdome or whether S. Hieromes reply to this answer be sufficient But be it as it may be that no man should stand to too stiffelie vpon the authoritie of that speech which is not altogether so true as neat and elegant obseruing more his words than his meaning for an vpshopt of all when he came to riper yeeres he recants that opinion in an epistle written to Nepotian who by this time also was both in yeers and discretion grown to be a man And as concerning such arguments as he had proposed to Heliodorus he saith he did it as a yong man after the fashion of the schooles when the fire of his study and learning in Rhetorique was not clean beat out of him for verily at that time a man might freely enter into a monasterie and when him list leaue him And then the question was idle whether a man might follow this course of life without his parents liking because then there was no such obligation by vowes as now a daies there is and had a man misliked of his profession his punishment was none other but the imputation of lightnesse and inconstancie which is euident out of S. Austins epistle to his friend Boniface The profession of being a Monke in those daies was nothing else but the meditation and exercise of the ancient
discipline being appealed vnto as to an higher iurisdiction gaue present help and assistance that is to say parents were able to doe more with their children then law or legion or Dictator himselfe Cn. Martius Coriolanus marched forth with a dangerous army against his country breathing forth nothing but ruine and vastation whomade him to disarme himself forsake his ensignes leaue the commaund of the field but Veturia only He that neither yeelded to Senators sent vnto him nor Magistrates nor priests yeelded to his mother He that neither the Maiesty of the Empire nor any touch of religion could cause once to retire did soone relent at the name of his mother Cn. Seruilius L. Sergius M. Papirius being Tribunes together and in like authority which was also Consular were vehement competitors which of them should be generall in the war against the Lucani euery one was for himselfe and thereupon despised the charge of the City as an office altogether thanklesse and base the Senators beheld the contention with astonishment Dictator was there none that by strong hand might order these factious Tribunes saith Q. Seruilius nay sith there is no respect hereby carried to your owne ranke and quality nor duty to the estate of this common wealth my fathlery authority shal soone dispatch this controuersie I tell you my sonne without drawing of any lots for the matter shal bide at home and gouerne the City And what did the Father of C. Flaminius tribune of the common people which enacted the law about the partage of some french grounds by the poll the Senate was against it his colleagues mainly opposed him which he set light by an army was mustred against him in case he should persist in that opinion but that danted him nothing his father euen as he was in the place to haue proclaimed his new made Law seizes vpon him how was it now with my yong master downe comes he from his chaire of estate and this braue gallant that before set at nought all the maiesty authority and prerogatiue of his country is now subdued at a poore priuate mans check and as M. Valerius storieth it in his fift booke was not so much as once blamed for it by the least muttering of the sessions so disappointed and broken vp How then is it possible but that in the point of parents authority there should be more force in mans law than in the bare and simple precept as it was deliuered from God by Moses especially if that be true which Halicarnassus reporteth that contempt impiety murdering of parents were therefore ordinary monsters among the Greekes but exceeding scarce and seldome to be found in Rome because the authority which those ancient Law makers Charondas Pittacus and Solon assigned to parents was a mild and feeble regiment contrariwise that which Romulus gaue was absolute full and without limitation whence it came to passe that in all the large territory of the Romane Empire hardly will you meete with one Malleolus that is such a desperate ruffian as butchered his own mother What then may we say of this diuine commandement established as we see neither by threat of abdication nor losse of life here is only commanded that which honesty and good conscience perswades vnto Nor let any man thinke that it is a good answer to the obiection to say that Moses Law aswell as any other law did not only sharply censure parricide but euen euery dishonest and idle speech vttered by a sonne for we intreat not what authority a publique magistrate hath neither of a iudiciall proceeding held in consistories and common Assises we talke of that which may be exercised at our home dwellings in our owne priuate housholds which fathers not officers by vertue of their office challenge ouer their children that is to say without appeale to any higher bēch without assistance of any other Iudges office For so it is he that punisheth by the helpe of another doth in deed not punish but complaine But yet ouer and aboue al that which we haue already obiected against S. Gregory it falls so short that parents by this heauenly oracle haue any more dominion ouer their children than either by these or other humane lawes that in truth they cannot be said to haue receiued thence any one iot of power or authority For let a sonne be negligent in performing of that one command honour thy father what may the father doe in such a case It is true it allures him with reward that is with a prosperous and a long life but it puts ouer no punishment into the fathers hands no none at all As though in so doing somewhat would be found which nature of her self could not well abide Did Moses then mistake and when he deliuered Gods lawes was he somewhat more carelesse in this point which concernes Fathers A sinne it is so to say for this authority of parents which wee seeke after was for precedency of time farre more ancient than the commandement it selfe which is demōstratiuely proued by this very instāce that God almighty would neuer haue commanded Abraham to haue sacrificed his sonne Isaacke if hee had had no commission of life and death ouer him Would God haue enioyned it would the father haue executed it would neighbours and strangers haue endured it which in no case at no time by no law a father might bee able to iustifie besides they that liued long before Moses would neuer haue busied themselus so much in matching of their children in wedlock for that was a matter resting in their choyce not in the choice of the parties contracting mariage which sinne of theirs was cause of the vniuersal deluge nor wold the children bin so eager in pursuit of their parents blessing and what shall we say more surely the bare enditement brought in by the father to the Magistrate would neuer haue serued for a sufficient euidence against an vndutiful child if euen in those dayes the power of a father and his domestique discipline had not beene very transcendent What shall wee say then Did God by his latter law repeale the former and confine this duety to an inhibition of wordes alone If the case were so what then might wee say for Nazianzene Without doubt something might bee spoken for him and very much were it not that the very selfe same Christian Religion which in a manner we receiued from him did in some sort now crosse the good Christian Bishops assertion For this authority of parents if there be any such thing extant is so far reuolted from that which was ordained and established by God by nature by the Law of nations and Law positiue and that forsooth vpon no othet occasion but that wee I cannot tell how seuer this filiall duetie from religion that among Christians now a dayes to be a Father is nothing else but so to bee tearmed the dutie is gone though the name continue Can Christian religion then and Gods heauenlie commandement wich Saint Gregory
hir sonne For what saith she shall I get at his hands what shall all my little nephewes get when he that hath liued in banishment for 4. yeares together in all that while neuer sent me so much as one letter hath quite forgotten his kindred as well as his natiue countrey which might I speake like a mother most vncurteously and vndeseruedly condemned him Shee notwithanding all this embarkt her selfe in the message and forced him to come in by no other stratagem of war than the name of a mother What thinkest thou art thou more religious than S. Chrysostome more hard harted than was Coriolanus yet he came to meete his mother halfe way thou fliest from thine and eschewest her very presence What fearest thou to write vnto me in Gods name write write without date of day or year Indeed if S. Basil be your countenance for this irreligious deuotion the imputation were the lesse and the fault more excusable on you part I must needs grant But I feare me that we haue little aduantaged our cause all this while by quoting of so many ancient Fathers except it be the filling vp of a long empty catalogue with names Our best way therefore in my iudgement to deale with thee will be with some records and precedents of antiquity And whereas S. Chrysostome hath written some bookes against such as discommend the monasticall life hath giuen counsell to parents to take some care that their children bee trained vp in such speculatiōs rather then to make them swordmen or of the long robe his intent is therby in preferring that kinde of life before any other to aduize men rather to bestow their children in a course of religion than a secular employment but not to make them in any sort disobedient to their friends and in despite of them to abandon cities and inhabite vast mountainous deserts nay hee wills them after some time spent after they haue bene well seasoned in Christianity to repayre home againe to their parents Which makes mee to thinke that the Monkes of that world were not termers for life in their monastery as now they vse to be but at curtesie to return home when they list Againe reade the same S. Chrysostome in his bookes de prouidentia there you shall obserue how hee spends himselfe in comforting Stagyrius the Monke who was therefore vexed with a deuill because that contrary to the aduice of his Father he had cast himselfe into a cloyster and whom for that cause he terms an intruding Frier But Stagyrius was thē of ripe yeares and his father had not expresly forbid him that calling onely hee counselled him otherwise S. Austine himselfe and S. Ambrose in his first booke De Virginibus towards the end proues that parents should not hinder a daughter from consecrating her selfe to theseruice of the Church but yet withall so that a Father may if his pleasure bee peremptorily to forbid it And doth not Saint Austin in his 109 and 110. epistle to Ecdicia plainely say that shee had made a deede of gift of her sonne in her life time whereby to kill him in that his father was not first made acquainted therewith what course of life vpon more maturitie and discretion hee afterwards might follow to bee either a Monke a Priest or a married man therefore till hee came to such an age his fathers voice and consent was absolutelie necessarie thereunto but the conclusion of all is that the son borne in lawfull and holie Wedlocke is more to be in subiection to the Father than to the mother And therefore he cannot be denied him wheresoeuer he be when once hee is lawfullie demanded The same Father in his 233. Epistle to Benenatus doth not he write of a certaine girle that as the report went would faine haue beene a Nunne how hee consulted about the matter with Felix her Aunts Husband and that otherwise he neither could nor would haue giuen way vnto it What would his opinion haue beene thinke you of hir mother whose direction and vvill in bestowing of hir daughter was euer to bee preferred before all others Without doubt if the mothers interest be so much the fathers is a great deale more and so great as he would not haue much demurred vvhether the sonne were vnder yeares or aboue for such a question would neuer haue beene proposed Lastly I appeale to thy conscience good Father Saluianus wast thou a stranger to this newe Church discipline when thou tookest such extraordinary paines to Hepatius and Quieta that they would please to excuse that action of their daughter Palladia for that shee was conuerted from Paganisme to Christianitye without their priuity do I say her action nay to excuse thine owne that after the birth of thy daughter Auspiciola refrainedst the companie of thine owne wife the better to giue thy selfe to fasting and praier hauing no warrant so to doe from thy father in laws permission When they betrothed Palladia to thee they gaue her to a Christian husband and thereby sufficiently exprest their consent that she likewise for hir behalf should become a Christian Yea and certaine it is that a little after this blessed match thy wiues parents that so dearely affected their daughter became Christians also Howsoeuer then they might haue taken it ill at thy hands that vndertookest this without their speciall leaue for what hope could they conceiue of any grand-child to be borne vnder that marriage where the man and wife liued a part what reproache was it vnto them that in a matter of such weighty importance they should not be worthie so much as to be lookt after If they for such an insignious contempt done vnto them should haue said vnto thee Sirra packe out of our sight and write letters vpon letters as long as thou list and it bee seauen yeares together thou shalt receiue not one line from vs in way of answer and yet I must haue tolde you that Palladia now after the enter-marriage belonged not to hir Father but to hir husbands disposition couldst thou in defence of thy selfe haue said that it was a point of feruent zeale to Godwards first to hate and set at naught thy Father Oh but reade his epistles and reade them ouer thou wilt tell me another tale there is nothing but bitter teares pittifull suites and begging pardons although saith he for my part I do not well know how or wherin I haue offended them Now vppon these premises see how I could conclude against thee I haue writtē many letters to thee but neuer receiued any one for answere backe again Thou art not yet come to yeers of discretion thou hast entred into a vow I wil not say of chastitie but of single life and neuer told me of it Poore soule how couldest thou make any vow at that yeares thou canst not defend thy selfe and say why but Father I had your consent though you did not openly expresse it For thou knowest vvell enough that I did mainely
holines hath beguiled thee the pretence of religion hath seduced thee the authority of the Ancients hath vndone thee Now surely if the good Abbot inueigh so bitterly against these monkes that thereupon he calls them rauening wolues what might bee fit for me to do against these Iesuits that haue robd me in my life time of my son in such an vnworthy fashion and when I challenge him they deny him trecherously peraduēture they tooke some compassion of thee as the monks did of young Robert peraduenture thou hadst beene in state of damnation if thou hadst remained with thy Christian Catholique parents thy Vncles and Aunts Brothers and Sisters But if the bare changing of one monastery for another was of such feareful sequele that the poore soule was in danger of beeing damned for it for so thinkes S. Bernard what will betide thee that treadest vnder thy feete and in such a presumptuous insolent manner spurnest at not God almighties commaundements alone but also the decrees and canons of our reuerend prelates and pastors why forsooth not to chaunge thy religion but thy habite not the Church but thy ranke and order in the Church Pray let me tell you what Vigorous once wrote in a sermon of his which he made of S. Martin it is written to vs French men you shall neuer find him vary in opinion from the auncient and most sanctified Church gouernement his words be these S. Martin was a nouice in the Christian religion and not admitted into the congregation by the Sacrament of Baptisme and albeit hee dwelt with his parents which were gentiles yet did he perform all good offices vnto them as became a Christian for the Law of God doth not acquit that obligation wherein a son is bound to his Father or a seruant to his master And surely the Church neuer taught Martin to be a rebell against his parents but rather in all things to yeelde them due obedience and respect so God were not offended Whereupon by reason of such reuerent conformity vnto his parents commaund hee got this graunt from them that considering for what vocation hee was most fit and addressed vnto that they would bee pleased to bestow him in for questionlesse the sonne is not left to any such libertie as either to marrie or betake himselfe to anie sort of liuing without his Fathers approbation I say vnto anie sort of life heere 's no limitation except he will be a monke And now that wee passe not ouer Iustinian the Emperor grant him to bee of the opinion that for a sonne to vow a monastical life without his Fathers consent was neither a sinne of ingratitude nor any cause able in law to disinherit him Doth it therfore follow that because it is no such hainous offence as parricide or incest therefore it is no offence or it deserues not disinheriting therefore must it passe without all correction or if it be no sinne is it therefore no fault Why I tell you a sonne might not marrie without his fathers leaue put case he had married there was no law could extend so far as to disinherit him vnlesse his wife were some leaud and infamous person will your inference hereupon be that therefore he offended not his father in marrying against his vvill this is a notorious nonsequitur And novv sir I tell you for your learning let Iustinian speake or thinke as pleaseth him all the Emperours before him made this case a matter of disinheriting aske you me what warrant I haue for it marry sir this because he professeth in this one point to correct the auncient Ciuill Law and this I tell you withall that take all those Emperors together especially those that were Christian Emperours and I trust their ioint authorities shall sway more than Iustinians alone who in all likelihood might haue as good leaue to erre therein as he did mistake in the matter of diuorce in participating with the heresie of Eutiches But certaine it is that in the ende of that constitution which is an act for bondmen comming to Christianity wheras Iustinian takes away the penalty of disinheriting it is to bee vnderstood of such children of the Gentiles as entring into holy orders or monasticall profession were therfore emancipated in case they were sonnes or ipso facto enfranchised if they were bond-men For had the act beene generall comprizing all or more speciall extending onelie to the children of Christians it is not to bee presumed but that hee would haue vsed some distinction concerning their age that thus betook themselues either to holie orders or monasticall profession and haue said before fourteen yeares be compleat there 's a nullity if a man professe after fourteene there is none the vow holds and there is no danger of beeing disinherited for the matter So then Iustinians constitution in the titles of Bishops and Cleargy men is in this sence to bee vnderstood that whereas the cause of our Christian religion is to all intents much more fauourable than Pagan Idolatry therefore Pagans children liued they vnder their parents verge and iurisdiction or liued they without it both the one and the other might vowe and professe religion without paine or perill of being disinherited the forme wherof is described by Theodoret in his two and twentieth chapter and so might the bondmen of infidels be enfranchised and in lieu of such manumissiō the church to yeeld no ransome backe againe vnto their former masters as it was enacted before Iustinians time the like prouision is made also by Gregory the first in his second booke and 78. epistle if a Christian mayden would become a Conuert in anie house of religion against her maisters leaue whereupon the close of the constitution followes in this maner and thus much hath our Imperiall maiesty beene pleased to ordaine and decree in contemplation of Gods cause and the enlargement of Christian Religion And if it bee lastly replyed yea but Iustinian made the same Law euen for Christians also in 123. nouell constitution and one of the last Paragraphs there Probable it is and in all likelihood to intended that the case in most mens opinions would haue beene hardly thought of for one to be disinherited because he was a monke for in so being hee still notwithstanding continued Laye and entered not into holy orders He succeeded his father by inheritance his goods escheated not to the Abbey he kept himselfe still master of his owne as it is euident out of the 239. epistle of S. Austin to Alipius and as I said before it rested in their own free choice whether they would stil continue in their monasterie or forsake it But when once vowes of pouertie and single life came to bee in request it had beene verie idle for the parents to haue disinherited them that ipso facto by their entrance into the monasterie disinherited themselues there was then no farther controuersie to bee made of the matter but whether the profession would hold good against the