8 sufficient to prove that the Brachmani with whom the Greek philosophers came in contact were Buddhists. —Had they been professors of Brahminism, they certainly would have reported nothing good of Buddhu. Neither do we offer any great violence to probability by the conjecture, that traces of their presence are discernible at this day, in the Soofees of Persia; a sect of Mohammedan deists, who profess to attain to assimilation with the nature of God, by the incessant contemplation of the divine perfections; and whose name is derived from the white woollen garment, which is the badge of their profession. But whether the notions of Pythagoras and the Essenes originated with Buddhu or not, the important and difficult question of the rise and progress of the principle of monasticism, can never be fairly and fully discussed, unless it be taken into consideration, that the countries in which Buddhism is the established religion, abound with convents quite as much as those which profess the corrupt and debased Christianity of the Middle Ages; and that the rules and regulations of the two agree with such wonderful exactness, that the Catholic missionaries in Thibet were driven by it to the old subterfuge of supposing, that the author of evil himself, seeing the essential benefits which had been thereby conferred upon the Catholic church, had inspired the priests of the Great Lama with the Benedictine rule; in the hope that in their hands, it would equally benefit his own cause. But this is not the place where such an enquiry can with propriety be pursued. Our present 7 1 Strom., § 15. "Some of the Indians obey the precepts of Butta, and honour him as a God on account of his virtue." In the same passage he divides the Indian Gymnosophists into two classes, the Sarmani and the Brachmani. 8 Malcolm's History of Persia. purpose is abundantly answered if we have shown, that Christianity was neither the author nor the abettor of the abominations of monasticism; they were already rife in the world when the religion of Jesus Christ first appeared; —with the Jews as the highly popular tenets of the sect of the Essenes, and with the Greeks under the still more influential form of the Pythagorean philosophy. We shall soon find how deeply the minds of the early fathers were imbued with monastic notions, regarding celibacy: though our quotations from them will be necessarily limited by the nature of the subject, and by the unseemly manner in which they too often treat it. The earliest proof I can discover of this bias towards celibacy is in the epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnæans; at the conclusion of which, the first notice occurs of an order of female ecclesiastics. St. Paul had directed that certain portions of the funds of the church should be set apart for the maintenance of aged widows:—it appears from the passage before us, that unmarried women were also supported by this fund, who were named by a most uncouth solecism, Virgin- Widows. - Tertullian plainly hints, that in his time, the practice had opened the door to great licentiousness, and very properly denominates them monstrum in ecclesiâ.10 The virginal ecclesiastics of the other sex also seem to have occasioned scandal 9 This coincidence was observed long ago: Eusebius the historian, quotes at length Philo's account of the Therapeutæ, or Essenes of Egypt, points out the many agreements between their regulations, and those of the Christian monastic system which prevailed in his time; and from thence comes to the conclusion, that the Therapeuta were Christians. He does not seem for a moment, to have entertained the fact of the case, that the Christians had become Therapeuta.-Euseb. Eccl. Hist., lib. 2. 10 Miraculum, ne dicerim monstrum in ecclesiâ virgo-vidua. — De Virg. Vel., c. 9. and inconvenience to the church, even in the days of Ignatius; he hints at this in his epistle to Polycarp, (c. 5.) "If any man can remain in a virgin state to the honour of the flesh of Christ, let him remain, without boasting but if he boast he is undone." Three heretical sects are enumerated by Irenæus, who declared marriage to be unlawful and sinful." The reasons assigned for its prohibition by some of these Heresiarchs, are so shockingly indecent and profane, that one cannot help hoping that the polemical furor of their orthodox antagonists has carried them somewhat beyond the bounds of exact truth, in stating the opinions they are combatting: but the maintenance of such a doctrine, by persons who scarcely regarded the Bible at all in their wild mythic systems, sufficiently proves, that it was not in the regulations which Christianity prescribes to the baser passions, that the monastic reverie of the sanctity of celibacy originated. In the writings of Tertullian we shall find the fullest exposition of the doctrine of the church in the second century, upon this point also.-We have two tracts from his pen upon the subject,12 both written after his conversion to Montanism;13 and, of course, with an especial view to the establishment of the new doctrine revealed by 11 The Saturnine Gnostics, Adv. Hær., lib. 1. c. 22; the Marcionites, id. c. 30., and the followers of Tatian, id. c. 31. The errors of Marcion are very diffusely stated and refuted by Tertullian, adversus Marcionem: and those of both Marcion and Tatian by Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromates II. III, as well as by Irenæus. 12 De Exhortatione Castitatis and de Monogamiâ. 13 The two letters of Tertullian ad Uxorem, dissuading his wife from second marriage, and probably written in the immediate prospect of his own dissolution, are dictated by so very natural and allowable feeling, and, moreover, breathe throughout, so pure a spirit of conjugal affection, that I cannot bring myself to include them in the censure, I am compelled to pass upon his other works on this subject. that enthusiast, the entire prohibition of second marriages : -and that in enforcing this prohibition he committed no offence against the orthodoxy of the times, is evident, in the circumstance, that some of his silliest arguments are copied, almost verbatim, in the Epistolæ familiares of the fiery bigot, Jerome,14 with a large accession of foul language from the exhaustless vocabulary of the latter saint. The mode in which he speaks of marriage, in every form, throughout these tracts, is abundantly confirmatory of the view we are taking of the question.— Nothing can be more plainly stated, than his conviction, that there is a peculiar sanctity inherent in virginity to which married persons can never attain. He asserts that, in a well-known passage of Scripture upon this subject,15 the prohibitions to marry are revealed, while the permissions are only the unassisted opinions of the writer.16-A most palpable mistake; inasmuch as St. Paul expressly states therein, that "concerning virgins he has no commandment of the Lord;"1 and never mentions the subject, without repeating the same caution.18 He likewise continually endeavours to run parallels between marriage, and the violation of the seventh Commandment; both he declares to be the same in kind, that is, both unlawful, but different in degree.19 He argues, that what it is good for a man not to do,20 it is bad for him to do;21 and makes no secret of his desire to destroy marriage altogether, because it consists of that which is pollution: "it follows, therefore, that it is best for a man not to touch a woman; and the main sanctity of the virginal state consists in its entire 14 Lib. 3., Epis. 5, of the selection of Canisius. 15 1 Cor. vii. 19 De Exh. Cas. c. 9. 17 Cor. vii. 25. 18 vv. 6, 7, 12, 26, 40. 20 1 Cor. vii. 1. 21 De Monogamiâ, c. 9. freedom from all affinity with fornication." He proceeds thus to recommend celibacy:-" by continence thou shalt acquire great wealth of sanctity; by impoverishing the flesh thou shalt enrich the spirit.-When the continent man prays to the Lord he is near heaven, when he reads the Scriptures he is altogether there, when he sings a psalm his heart sings also, when he adjures a demon he has faith in himself. If prayer out of a pure heart alone be profitable we must always exercise ourselves in continence, that our prayers may always profit us. If prayer be needful for men, daily and every moment, to just the same extent is virginity also needful. Prayer proceeds from the conscience, and if the conscience blushes the prayer blushes also."23 The tendency of all this is perfectly obvious; a certain degree of pollution is necessarily contracted by married persons, from which celibates alone are free. Or, to approach nearer than I had intended, to the bounds which modern custom has most properly prescribed to this hateful subject, no perpetuation of the human species can take place under any circumstances, but the consciences of the parents are thereby necessarily exposed to a certain degree of sinful defilement. This was certainly the doctrine of Tertullian and I again deny that there is any passage of Scripture which sanctions such an opinion. In Clement of Alexandria the subject of marriage is also diffusely treated upon.-The last chapter of the second and the whole of the third book of the Stromates, are almost 22 De Exhor. Cast., c. 9.-Elsewhere he declares that marriage is the ordinance of an imperfect and immature dispensation; and that the primæval law which occasioned the necessity for it, (Gen. i. 28,) was abrogated by the complete revelation of Montanus. It appears to have been his notion, that the perfection of Christianity would bring about the end of the world, by extinguishing the human race!-Adv. Marc. I. 29. 23 Id., c. 10. |