cap. 4.

called a hell-brand) was the first that ever brought about (but Polyd. lib. v. with much ado,) that priests should not marry', and the mar- De Inventor. ried should lose either their wives or livings: but the priests

of Spain withstood him by their bishop. Some afore attempted it, but never one could compass it. This pope lived about the conquest, five hundred year since; and since the beginning of the world unto his time it was not brought to pass. There is a great difference in continuance of time then, that marriage was allowed, and a small that they were forbidden. In Moses' law it was not forbidden, two thousand year afore Christ. Peter the apostle and Philip the evangelist were mar- Acts xxi. ried, and had daughters. Gregory, bishop of Nazianzum, was Ruff. lib. ii. bishop there, as his father was afore him. Polycrates, bishop Euseb. lib. of Ephesus, says, that "seven of his cousins and ancestors had been bishops afore him3." When Phileas, bishop of Chinna, was led to martyrdom, the greatest reason they had to persuade him to recant, was that he would have pity on his wife'. Eustathius and his scholars are blamed because they despised Sozo. lib. iii. married priests.

These among the Grecians, I trust, prove that the church

[Ita aliis denique super aliis promulgatis legibus, non ante pontificatum Gregorii septimi, qui anno salutis MLXXIV. est pontifex creatus, conjugium adimi occidentalibus sacerdotibus potuit.-The remark which the writer subjoins, shortly after, is too much to the purpose to be passed over: Illud tamen dixerim, tantum abfuisse ut ista coacta castitas illam conjugalem vicerit, ut etiam nullius delicti crimen majus ordini dedecus, plus mali religioni, plus doloris omnibus bonis impresserit, inusserit, attulerit, quam sacerdotum libidinis labes. Polyd. Vergil. Lib. v. cap. 4. pr. fin. p. 298. Argentor. 1606. ED.]

[Gregorius vero apud Nazianzon oppidum in locum patris episcopus subrogatus hæreticorum turbinem fideliter tulit. Auctores Hist. Eccles. Lib. x1. (Ruffini 11.) cap. ix. ED.]

[In his letter addressed to Victor, bishop of Rome: 'Età μèv ηoav συγγενεῖς μου ἐπίσκοποι, ἐγὼ δὲ ὄγδοος. Translated by Rufinus, Septem namque ex parentibus meis per ordinem fuerunt episcopi. ED.]

[' Πρὸς δὲ καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ δικαστοῦ παρακαλοῦντος, ὡς ἂν αὐτῶν οἶκτον λάβοιεν, φειδώ τε παίδων καὶ γυναικῶν ποιήσαιντο. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. Lib. vin. cap ix., where it is told of Phileas, bishop of Thmuis, and his fellow-martyr, Philoromus. ED.]

[* Επαιτιῶνται δέ τινας τῶν αὐτοῦ μαθητῶν, ὡς γάμῳ καταμεμφο μένους, καὶ ἐν οἴκοις γεγαμηκότων εὔχεσθαι παραιτουμένους, καὶ τοὺς γεγαμηκότας πρεσβυτέρους υπερφρονοῦντας. Ρ. 42. Ed. 1544. ED.]

cap. 9.

V. cap. 25.

cap. 14.

St Paul.

Ambrose.

Platina.

Jerom.

has had married priests of old time. The fiftieth canon of the apostles says: "If any bishop, priest, deacon, or any of the clergy, forbear marriage, flesh and wine, not for that his mind might be fitter to godliness, but for abomination, forgetting that all that God has made is good, and that he made both male and female; let him be correct or deposed'.” The third council of Carthage says thus: "Let not priests' children make any plays and games"." "If any," says the pope's canon law, "should teach that a priest for religion sake should despise his wife, accursed be he." Distinct. xxvIII3. Again, the next chapter following: "If any make a difference of a married priest, as though he should not minister by occasion of his marriage, and therefore forbear from his ministration, accursed be he." When this foolish unlearned papist has scraped these and such like sayings out of the pope's testament, commonly called his decrees, then he may say the pope's law has utterly condemned marriage of priests in the Latin church.

But what needs these proofs, when St Paul says plain, "A bishop must be the husband of one wife?" And Ambrose, writing on the same place, says that "he is not forbidden to have a second"." Pope Pius II. writes, that “there were great causes why priests were forbidden wives, but there were greater causes why they should be restored." Jerome

[Si quis episcopus aut presbyter aut diaconus, aut quivis omnino de sacerdotali consortio, nuptiis et carnibus et vino abstinuerit, non propterea quo mens ad cultum pietatis reddatur exercitatior, sed propter abominationem, oblitus, quod omnia pulchra valde, et quod masculum et feminam Deus creavit hominem, sed diffamationibus lacessens creationem Dei vocat ad calumniam; aut corrigitor, aut deponitor, et ex ecclesia rejicitor. Consimiliter et laicus.-Canones sanctorum apostolorum per Clementem, a Petro Apostolo Romæ ordinatum episcopum, in unum congesti. Can. L. ED.]

[ Held in the year 397. Cap. xi. Ut filii episcoporum vel clericorum spectacula secularia non exhibeant, sed nec spectent. Concil. Tom. III. p. 486. ED.]

[Si quis docuerit sacerdotem sub obtentu religionis propriam uxorem contemnere, anathema sit. Decret. Gratiani, Pars 1. Distinct. xxvIII. p. 148. Antverp. 1573. ED.]

[ Sed conjugia non resolvuntur, si quis iteraverit. Qui autem iteraverit conjugium, culpam quidem non habet coinquinati, sed prærogativa exuitur sacerdotis. Class. 1. Epist. LXIII. (LXIV.) § 63. ED.]

[5 Sacerdotibus magna ratione sublatas nuptias, majori restituendas

videri. Platina, De Vit. Pontif. fo. 157. Colon. 1540. ED.]

grants that in his time many priests were married, contra Jovinian. And on the sixth chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians he writes thus: "Let bishops and priests read these, which teach their children worldly learning, and make them to read comedies, and sing bawdy songs of minstrels, &c. Nauclerus, Part VII. Generat. XXXVII. writes thus: "Gregory VII. de- Gregory vii. creed in the year one thousand and seventy-three, that from thenceforth priests should not have wives; and they that had, should leave them or be deposed. He wrote to the bishops of France and Germany, that they should procure it so to be with them. The whole clergy cried out against this decree, calling him heretic; who had forgotten the word of the Lord, who said, Matt. xix. 'All receive not this saying; and he that cannot refrain, let 1 Cor. vii. him marry; and it is better to marry than to burn.' How violent a thing is this to compel, that men should live like angels! and when he denies the accustomed course of nature, he should give liberty to whoredom! If he continued to confirm this decree, they had rather leave their priesthood than marriage. Gregory, notwithstanding, was instant, and rebukes the bishops Gregory. of slothfulness, that these things were not done among them. The archbishop of Mentz, perceiving how hard a thing it was, to break so long a rooted custom, and to reform the world in his old age, appointed his priests six months to do that in, which they must necessarily do: they purposed then to lay violent hands on the bishop, except he changed his purpose. The year following Gregory attempted that divorcing of them by his legate, which he could not bring to pass by the bishop. The priests were so moved against the legate,

[* Eliguntur mariti in sacerdotium, non nego; quia non sunt tanti virgines, quanti necessarii sunt sacerdotes. Hieron. adversus Jovinianum, Lib. 1. Tom. IV. Pars ii. p. 175. Paris. 1706. ED.]

[Legant episcopi atque presbyteri, qui filios suos secularibus literis erudiunt, et faciunt comedias legere, et mimorum turpia scripta cantare. In Ephes. vi. Tom. IV. p. 396. ED.]

[ i.e. its old age, the world's. Ad rudimenta nascentis ecclesiæ senescentem jam mundum reformaret. It is unnecessary to quote the original, of which, in substance, the text gives an accurate translation. The conclusion is as follows: Hanc disceptationem horrenda ecclesiæ occidentalis pestis secuta est; adeo ut et laici in hoc sacerdotum dissidio sacra tractarent, baptizarent, inungerent sordibus pro vero pietatis oleo, &c. Naucleri Chronica, Tom. II. Generat. xxxvi. p. 777—8. Colon. 1579. ED.]

Note also

this notable epistle concerning the same matter.

that they had almost torn him in pieces, except he had gone away, and left the matter undone. A horrible plague," he says further, "did follow this contention of the west church, insomuch that laymen did christen and minister sacraments, because the priests had rather forsake their priesthood than their wives, and would not minister, &c." Thus far the history. Mark when this was done, the trouble in doing it, the plague that followed, and that marriage, as he says, was long used afore him.

"To the lord and father Nicholas, the diligent provider for the holy Romish church: Huldrich, bishop of Augsburgh in name only, wishes love as a son, and fear as a servant.

"Where I found, O father and Lord, your decrees for the continenty of clerks, which ye send me of late, to be without discretion, a certain fear and heaviness both troubled me: fear, because the judgment of the shepherd, whether it be right or wrong, is to be feared; for I was afraid lest the weak hearers of the scripture, which will scarce obey a righteous judgment, not regarding this of yours, as wrongful, should boldly break this so heavy a commandment of the shepherd, that it may not be borne: sorrow, or rather pity, troubled me, when I doubted by what means the members might escape, where their head was so sore sick. What can be more grievous, or more to be pitied of the whole church, than that you, the bishop of the chiefest see, should swerve but a little from a holy discretion? Thou swerved much from this, when thou would that clerks, (whom thou should warn for the continenty of marriage,) should be compelled to it by a certain imperious violence. Is not this worthily to be counted a violence, by the common judgment of all wise men, when any man is compelled to execute private decrees, contrary to the doctrine of the gospel and decree of the Holy Ghost?

Therefore, where there be many examples of the old testament and new, teaching discretion, as ye know; I beseech your fatherhood, be content that some few among many may be put in this writing. Our Lord appointed marriage to priests in the old law, which is not read to be forbidden them afterward. But he says in the gospel, "There be eunuchs which have gelded themselves for the kingdom of heaven: but

all men receive not this word; he that can take it, let him take it." Therefore the apostle says, "For virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give counsel." Ye see that all men cannot take this counsel, according to the saying of the Lord. And ye see also many flatterers of the same counsel, willing to please men and not God, with this false shew of continenty, to do more heinous things; as to provoke their fathers' wives, not abhor to lie by beasts and men. But lest the state of the whole church should be decayed by the great mischiefs of this filthiness, he said, "For fornication let every man have his own wife." Yet these hypocrites falsely say, that this same belongs specially to laymen: which hypocrites, although they be in a most holy order, yet they doubt not to misuse other men's wives. These men understood not the scripture rightly; and because they wrung the pap too sore, they sucked blood instead of milk. For that saying of the apostle, "Let every man have his own wife," excepts no man indeed, but him that professes continenty, or him that determines to continue his virginity in the Lord, &c. And that ye may know that they which have not made this vow, ought not to be compelled, hear the apostle to Timothy, saying, "It becomes a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife :" and lest any man should turn this saying to the church only, he adds, "He that cannot rule his own house, how can he rule the church of God?" Likewise he says, "Deacons must be the husband of one wife, which can well rule their children and houses."

"I know that ye have taught by the decrees of holy Sylvester, pope, that this wife must be blessed of the priest. The writer of the rule of clerks' lives, agreeing with these, and such sentences of the scripture, says, "A clerk must be chaste, or else bound with the band of one marriage." Of all which sayings he gathers truly, that a bishop and deacon are to be blamed, if they be divided into many women: but if either bishop or deacon forsake one woman for religion sake, the canonical sentence here condemns them without respect of their degrees, saying, "A bishop under pretence of religion must not put away his own wife if he put her away, let him be excommunicate; but if he continue, let him be deposed, and postea. There be some which take St Gregory for a help of this opinion; whose foolishness I laugh at, and am sorry for their ignorance: they