103 Romans, XVI. 1. The number of women alluded to by St. Paul in this chapter shows how active they were in disseminating the faith. Junia he dignities with the title of Apostle.

104 Atton. Vercell. Epist. viii.—Epiphanius (Hæres. LXXIX) denies that women had ever been permitted to rise beyond the diaconate, and asserts that their functions in that grade were simply to render to women such offices as decency forbade to men. In the West, the ordination of deaconesses was prohibited by Concil. Arausican. I. ann. 441 can. xxvi.; Concil. Epaonens. ann. 513 can. xxi., and Concil. Aurelianens. II. ann. 538 can. xviii., on account of disorders arising through the fragility of the sex, as was perhaps not unnatural, after the adoption of enforced celibacy. It was probably for the sake of order that St. Paul forbade women from teaching or asking questions in church (I Cor. xiv. 34, 35; I. Tim. ii. 11, 12).

105 Declaratum est enim hos eosdem nuptias accusare et docere quod nullus in conjugali positus gradu spem habeat apud Deum.... In domibus conjugatorum nec orationes quidem debere celebrari, persuasisse in tantum ut easdem fieri vetent.... Presbyteros vero qui matrimonia contraxerunt sperni debere dicunt, nec sacramenta quæ ab eis conficiuntur, attingi.—Concil. Gangrens. Proœm.

So also Socrates—“Benedictionem presbyteri habentis uxorem, quam lege cum esset laicus duxisset, tanquam scelus declinandum præcepit.”—Hist. Eccles. Lib. II. c. 33.

After the specific condemnation of this latter doctrine by the undoubtedly orthodox council of Gangra, it is somewhat remarkable to see it enunciated and erected into a law of the church by Gregory VII. in his internecine conflict with the married priests. Thus the heresy of one age becomes the received and adopted faith of another.

106 Concil. Gangrens. c. 4.—Si quis decernit presbyterum conjugatum tanquam occasione nuptiarum quod offerre non debeat, et ab ejus oblatione ideo se abstinet, anathema sit.—I give the Isidorian version adopted by Gratian, Dist. XXVIII. c. 15, and by Burchard, Lib. III. 75. That of Dionysius Exiguus is somewhat different.

Can. 10.—Si quis propter Deum virginitatem professus in conjugio positos per arrogantiam vituperaverit, anathema sit.—Can. 1 and 9 are directed against those who condemn marriage, and teach that it affords no chance of heaven.

107 Concil. Gangrens. Epilog.

108 Lib. XVI. Cod. Theod. Tit. ii. l. 20.

109 So great was the influx of wealth to the church from the pious legacies of the faithful that it became an evil of magnitude to the state, and in 370 a law of Valentinian pronounced null and void all such testamentary provisions made by those under priestly influence (Lib. XVI. Cod. Theod. Tit. ii. l. 20)—a provision repeated in 390 (Ibid. l. 27) with such additional details as show its successful evasion during the interval. Godefroi, in his notes to these laws (T. VI. pp. 48-50, 60-64), has collected much curious matter bearing on the subject.

110 Synod. Roman. ad Gallos Episc. Respons. c. 3.—The date of this synod is not certain, but the year mentioned in the text is the earliest to which it is assigned. By some authorities it has been attributed to 398, and Hardouin suggests that it may even have been held under Innocent I.

111 “Certe idololatræ, ut impietates exerceant et dæmonibus immolent, imperant sibi continentiam muliebrem, et ab escis quoque se purgari volunt, et me interrogas si sacerdos Dei vivi spiritualia oblaturus sacrificia purgatus perpetuo debeat esse, an totus in carne carnis curam debeat facere?”

If all the postulates be granted, the reasoning is unanswerable, and as the precedents of the Old Testament have been relied upon in all arguments since the time of Siricius, it may be worth while to refer to the caution of Ahimelech before giving the shew-bread to David (I. Sam. 21) as one of the texts most constantly quoted, and to the residence of Zacharias in the Temple during his term of ministration (Luke I. 23), which was frequently instanced. These are certainly more germane to the matter than the linen breeches provided for Aaron and his sons (Exod. XXVIII. 42-3), by which the Venerable Bede assures us (De Tabernac. Lib. III. c. 9) “significatum esse sacerdotes Novi Testamenti aut virgines esse, aut contracta cum uxoribus fœdera dissolvisse.”

112 Siricii Epist. I. c. 7.—It would seem from this decretal (cap. 8, 9, 10, 11) that even the rule excluding digami was wholly neglected. Siricius further (cap. 13) urges the admission of monks to holy orders, for the purpose of providing a priesthood vowed to chastity.

113 Præterea, quod dignum, pudicum et honestum est, suademus ut sacerdotes et levitæ cum uxoribus suis non coeant, quia in ministerio divino quotidianis necessitatibus occupantur.... Qua de re hortor, moneo, rogo, tollatur hoc opprobrium quod potest etiam jure gentilitas accusare.—Concil. Telensis. c. 9.

114 Quod eo non præterii quia in plerisque abditioribus locis, cum ministerium gererent, vel etiam sacerdotium, filios susceperent, et id tanquam usu veteri defendunt, quando per intervallo dierum sacrificium deferebatur.—Ambros. de Officiis Lib. I. c. 50.

115 Tertullian has no scruple in asserting—“Et Christum quidum virgo enixa est, semel nuptura post partum.” (De Monog. c. 8). This belief was founded on the words of Matthew (I. 25), “καὶ οὐκ ἐγίνωσκεν αὐτὴν ἔως ὁυ ἔτεκετον ὑιὸν ἀυτῆς τὸν πρωτοτόκον, καὶ ἐκάλεσε τὸ ὄνομα ἀυτοῦ ἰησοῦν.”—“And he knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son; and he called his name Jesus.” The restrictive “till” and the characterization of Jesus as the first-born of the Virgin (though the latter is omitted in the Sinaitic and Vatican MSS.) are certainly not easily explicable on any other supposition; nor is the difficulty lessened by the various explanations concerning the family of Joseph, by which such expressions as ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοί αὐτοῦ—fratres et mater ejus (Marc. III. xxxi.), or the enumeration of his brothers and sisters in Matt. XIII. 55-6, Mark VI. 3, or the phrase ἰάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ κυρίου—Jacobum fratrem Domini (Galat. I. 19)—are taken by commentators in a spiritual sense, or are eluded by transferring to the Greek a Hebrew idiom which confounds brothers with cousins. In the Constitutiones Apostolicæ occurs a passage—“Et ego Jacobus frater quidem Christi secundum carnem, servus autem tanquam Dei”—which seems to place it in an unmistakable light, if it be an extract from some forgotten Gospel, although it may only reflect the opinions of the third century when the collection was written or compiled.

The Bonosiacs were also sometimes called Helvidians.—S. Augustin. de Hæresibus § 84.—Isidor. Hispalens. Etymolog. Lib. VIII. c. v. § 57.

In an age which was accustomed to such arguments as “per mulierem culpa successit, per virginem salus evenit” (Rescript. Episcopp. ad Siricium), it is easy to appreciate the pious horror evoked by such blasphemous heresies.

St. Clement of Alexandria alludes to a belief current in his day that after the Nativity the Virgin had to submit to an inspection ab obstetrice to prove her purity (Stromat. Lib. vii.)—a story which continued to trouble the orthodox until the seventeenth century.

The Buddhists eluded all these troublesome questions by making Queen Maya die seven days after the birth of Sakyamuni, and asserting that this was the case with the mothers of all the Buddhas.—Rgya Tch’er Rol P (Ed. Fou-a aux, p. 100).

116 Epist. Siric. ap. Batthyani Legg. Eccles. Hungar. T. I. p. 210.

117 Hieron. de Perpet. Virgin. B. Mariæ adv. Helvidium.

118 Epist. XX.

119 Concil. Arelatens. II. can. 17.—Concil. Aurelian. III. can. 31.

120 Panar. Hæres. 78.—At the time of the Reformation the Bonosiac heresy naturally was revived. In 1523, at the Diet of Nuremberg, the Papal orator accused Osiander “quod prædicasset Beatam Virginem Mariam post Christi partum non mansisse Virginem” (Spalatini Annal. ann. 1523), but Osiander found few followers. At the Colloquy of Poissy, in 1561 the learned Claude d’Espense, doctor of Sorbonne, in arguing that there were many things the authority of which rested solely on tradition, and yet which were admitted as undoubted by all parties, instanced “que la Vierge Marie demoura vierge après l’enfantement, et plusieurs autres semblables par conséquent; ce qui a esté baillé de main en main par nos pères, ores qu’il ne soit escript, n’est pourtant moins certain et approuvé que s’il estoit temoigné par l’Escripture” (Pierre de la Place, Liv. VII.).

121 Siricii PP. Epist. ii.

122 Rescript. Episcopp. ad Siricium. (Harduin. Concil. I. 853.)

123 Hieron. adv. Jovin.—Augustin. de Hæres. No. lxxxii.

124 Augustin. Retractt. II. xxii. 1.

125 Lib. XVI. Cod. Theod. Tit. V. l. 53. It is generally assumed from this law that Jovinian lived until 412. An expression of St. Jerome, however, (adv. Vigilant. cap. i.) would seem to show that he was already dead in 406, and critics have suggested either that there is an error in the date of the law or that another heresiarch is referred to.

126 Exortus est subito Vigilantius, seu verius Dormitantius, qui immundo spiritu pugnat contra Christi spiritum, et martyrum neget sepulchra veneranda, dammandas dicat esse vigilias; nunquam nisi in Pascha alleluia cantandum; continentiam hæresim; pudicitiam libidinis seminarium. Et quomodo Euphorbus in Pythagora renatus esse perhibetur, sic in isto Joviniani mens prava surrexit; ut et in illo et in hoc diaboli respondere cogamur insidiis.—Hieron. adv. Vigilant. c. 1.

127 Proh nefas! episcopos sui sceleris dicitur habere consortes: si tamen episcopi nominandi sunt qui non ordinant diaconos nisi prius uxores duxerint; nulli cœlibi credentes pudicitiam, immo ostendentes quam sancte vivant qui male de omnibus suspicantur; et nisi prægnantes uxores viderint clericorum, infantesque de ulnis matrum vagientes, Christi sacramenta non tribuant.... Hoc docuit Dormitantius, libidini fræna permittens, et naturalem carnis ardorem, qui in adolescentia plerumque fervescit, suis hortatibus duplicans, immo extinguens coitu fœminarum, ut nihil sit quo distemus a porcis, etc.—Hieron. adv. Vigilant. c. 2.

128 Præterea quod dignum, pudicum et honestum est, tenere ecclesia omnino debet, ut sacerdotes et levitæ cum uxoribus non misceantur.... Maxime ut vetus regula hoc habet ut quisquis corruptus baptizatus clericus esse voluisset, spondeat uxorem omnino non ducere.—Innocent. PP. I. Epist. ii. c. 9, 10.

129 Ut incontinentes in officiis talibus positi, omni ecclesiastico honore priventur, nec admittantur ad tale ministerium, quod sola continentia oportet impleri.—As for those who could be proved to have seen the epistle of Siricius—“illi sunt modis omnibus submovendi.”—Innocent. PP. I. Epist. iii. c. 1.

130 The observance of the rule and its effects are well illustrated in the story of Urbicus, Bishop of Clermont, and his unhappy wife, as naïvely related by Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc. L. I. c. 44).

131 Ab universis episcopis dictum est: Omnibus placet, ut episcopi, presbyteri et diaconi, vel qui sacramenta contrectant, pudicitiæ custodes etiam ab uxoribus se abstineant.—Concil. Carthag. II. can. 2 (Cod. Eccles. African. can. 3).

132 Aurelius episcopus dixit: Addimus fratres carissimi præterea, cum de quorundam clericorum, quamvis lectorum, erga uxores proprias incontinentia referretur, placuit, quod et in diversis conciliis firmatum est, ut subdiaconi, qui sacra mysteria contrectant, et diaconi et presbyteri, sed et episcopi, secundum priora statuta etiam ab uxoribus se contineant, ut tanquam non habentes videantur esse: quod nisi fecerint, ab ecclesiastico removeantur officio. Ceteros autem clericos ad hoc non cogi, nisi maturiori ætate. Ab universo concilio dictum est: Quæ vestra sanctitas est juste moderata, et sancta et Deo placita sunt, confirmamus.—Concil. Carthag. V. c. 3 (Cod. Eccles. Afric. c. 25).

The councils thus alluded to are probably the Roman Synods under Damasus and Siricius.

I give the version most favored by modern critics, but it should be observed that there is doubt concerning several important points. In the older collections of councils (e. g. Surius, Ed. 1567, T. I. p. 519-20) the canon indicates no compulsion for the orders beneath the diaconate, commencing “Placuit episcopos et presbyteros et diaconos” and ending “Cæteros autem clericos ad hoc non cogi sed secundum uniuscujusque ecclesiæ consuetudinem observari debere,” and this has probability in its favor, since the subdiaconate was not included in the restriction for nearly two centuries after this period, and the lower grades were never subjected to the rule.

The expression “secundum priora statuta” is probably the emendation of a copyist puzzled by the obscurity of “secundum propria statuta,” which latter is the reading given by Dionysius Exiguus. That it is the correct one is rendered almost certain by the Greek version, which is κατα τους ἰδιους ὁρους (Calixt. Conjug. Cleric, p. 350) which would seem to leave the matter very much to the preëxisting customs of the individual churches.

133 De Adulterin. Conjug. Lib. II. c. 20.

134 Faustinus episcopus ecclesiæ Potentinæ, provinciæ Piceni, legatus Romanæ ecclesiæ, dixit: Placet ut episcopus, presbyter et diaconus vel qui sacramenta contrectant pudicitiæ custodes ab uxoribus se abstineant. Ab universis episcopis dictum est: Placet ut in omnibus pudicitia custodiatur qui altari inserviunt (Cod. Eccles. African. can. iv.).

That strict rules were not enforced in the African church is rendered probable by another circumstance. Faustus the Manichæan, in defending the tenets of his sect on the subject of marriage and celibacy, enters into an elaborate comparison of their doctrines and practices with those of the Catholic church. In ridiculing the idea that the Manichæans prohibited marriage to their followers, he could not have omitted the argument and contrast derivable from prohibition of marriage by the Catholics, had such prohibition been enforced. His omission to do this is therefore a negative proof of great weight.—See Augustin. contra Faust. Manich. Lib. XXX. c. iv.

135 Concil. Toletan. I. ann. 400 can. 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 18, 19.

136 Hi autem qui contra interdictum sunt ordinati, vel in ministerio filios genuerunt, ne ad majores gradus ordinum permittantur synodi decrevit auctoritas.—Concil. Taurinens. c. 8.

137 Concil. Arausic. I. c. 22, 23, 24.

138 Leon. PP. I. Epist. clxvii. Inquis. iii.

139 Catalogus Sanctt. Hibern. (Haddan & Stubbs II. 292)—Confessio S. Patricii (Ibid. 308, 310)—Epist. S. Patricii (Ibid. 317)—Synod. S. Patricii can. 6 (Ibid. 329). The date of all these documents is of course somewhat conjectural, but I have assumed it safe to follow the conclusions of the painstaking and lamented Mr. Haddan.

140 Innocent. PP. I. Epist. v.

141 Greg. Turon. Hist. Franc. Lib. II. c. 1.

142 Greg. Turon. de Glor. Confess. c. 76.

143 Sunt alii (de mei ordinis hominibus loquor) qui ideo presbyteratum et diaconatum ambiunt ut mulieres licentius videant.—Epist. XXII. ad Eustoch. cap. 28.

144 Epist. CXXV. ad Rusticum, cap. 6.

145 Lib. XVI. Cod. Theod. Tit. ii. l. 44.

146 Concil. Andegav. ann. 453 c. 4.

147 Nullus diaconus vel presbyter vel episcopus ad cellarii secretum intromittat puellam vel ingenuam vel ancillam.—Concil. Arelatens. II. c. 4.

148 Epist. Lupi et Euphronii. (Harduin. II. 792.)

149 Whatever interest there might be in exhibiting in detail the varying legislation and the expedients of lenity or severity by turns adopted, would scarcely repay the space which it would occupy or relieve the monotony of retracing the circle in which the unfortunate fathers of the church perpetually moved. I therefore content myself with simply indicating such canons of the period as bear upon the subject, for the benefit of any student who may desire to examine the matter more minutely.

Concil. Turon. I. (ann. 460) c. 2, 3.—Agathens. (506) c. 9.—Aurelianens. I. (511) c. 13.—Tarraconens. (516) c. 1.—Gerundens. (517) c. 6, 7.—Epaonens. (517) c. 2, 32.—Ilerdens. (523) c. 2, 5, 15.—Toletan. II. (531) c. 1, 3.—Aurelianens. II. (533) c. 8.—Arvernens. I. (535) c. 13, 16.—Aurelianens. III. (538) c. 2, 4, 7.—Aurelianens. IV. (541) c. 17.—Aurelianens. V. (549) c. 3, 4.—Bracarens. I. (563) c. 15.—Turonens. II. (567) c. 10, 12, 13, 15, 19, 20.—Bracarens. II. (572) c. 8, 32, 39.—Autissiodor. (578) c. 21.—Matiscon. I. (581) c. 1, 2, 3, 11.—Lugdunens. III. (583) c. 1.—Toletan. III. (589) c. 5.—Hispalens. I. (590) c. 3.—Cæsaraugustan. (592) c. 1.—Toletan. (597) c. 1.—Oscensis. (598) c. 2.—Egarens. (614) c. unic.—Concil. loc. incert. (a. 615) c. 8, 12.—Toletan. IV. (633) c. 42, 44, 52, 55.—Cabilonens (649) c. 3.—Toletan. VIII. (653) c. 4, 5, 6, 7.—Toletan. IX. (655) c. 10.—Toletan. XI. (675) c. 5.—Bracarens. III. (675) c. 4.—Augustodunens. (690) c. 10.

150 Salvian. De Gubernat. Dei Lib. VI. VII.

151 Expurgat. Sixti Papæ c. VI. (Harduin. Concil. II. 1742).—Pagi (ann. 433, No. 19) casts doubt on the authenticity of the proceedings of this trial, and modern criticism (see “Janus” The Pope and the Council, p. 124) assumes it to be a fabrication of the early part of the sixth century, made for the purpose of vindicating the immunity of the clergy from secular law.

152 Concil. Chalcedon. Act. X. (Harduin. II. 518-9).

153 The strictness with which the Nicene canon was enforced is shown by an epistle of St. Basil, about the middle of the fourth century, in which he sternly reproves a priest named Paregorius, who at the age of 70 had thought himself sufficiently protected against scandal to allow to his infirmities the comfort of a housekeeper. The unlucky female is ordered to be forthwith immured in a convent, and, until this is accomplished, Paregorius is forbidden to perform his priestly functions. The whole is based on the authority of the council of Nicæa.—“Nec primo nec soli (tibi Paregori) sancivimus, non debere mulierculas cohabitare viris. Lege canonem, a sanctis patribus nostris in Nicæna synodo constitutum: qui manifeste interdixit, ne quis mulierculam subintroductam habeat. Cœlibatus autem honestatem suam in eo habet, si quis a nexu mulieris secesserit.”

154 Hæres. LIX. c. 4.

155 Quid faciunt Orientis ecclesiæ? Quid Ægypti et sedis Apostolicæ, quæ aut virgines clericos accipiunt, aut continentes: aut si uxores habuerint, mariti esse desistunt.—Lib. adv. Vigilant. c. 2.

156 Sextum, quod dimissa uxore sua cum ea rursus congressus est, filiosque ex ea procreasset.—Palladii Dial. de Vit. S. Joan. Chrysost. cap. xiii.

157 Synesii Epist. cv.

158 Ejusd. Epist. cviii.

159 Et si placet, quanto etiam melior sit addam, quanto cœlum terra, quanto hominibus angeli.—Lib. de Virgin. c. x.

160 Socrat. H. E. Lib. V. c. 21.

161 S. Isidor. Pelusiot. Epist. Lib. III. No. 75.

162 Constit. 45 Cod. I. 3. This law is preserved by Photius (Nomoc. Tit. IX. c. 29), but Balsamon (Schol. ad. loc.) says that it is omitted in the Basilica.

163 “Nihil enim sic in sacris ordinationibus diligimus quam cum castitate viventes, aut cum uxoribus non cohabitantes, aut unius uxoris virum, qui vel fuerit vel sit, et ipsam castitatem eligentem.” The lector could, by forfeiting his prospects of promotion, marry a second time, if pressed by overmastering necessity, but he was not allowed, under any excuse, to take a third wife.—Novell. VI. c. 5.—These provisions were repeated the following year in Novell. XXII. c. 42.

164 Novell. CXXIII. c. 12.

165 Basilicon III. i. 26.

166 Balsamon. Schol. ad Nomocanon. Tit. I. c. 23.

167 Novell. CXXIII. c. 14.

168 Const. 42 § 1. Cod. i. 3.—Basilicon III. i. 26.

169 Novell. VI. c. 1.

170 Novell. CXXXVII. c. 2.—Basilicon III. i. c. 8.—Balsamon. Schol. ad Nomocan. Tit. i. c. 23.

171 Leonis. Novell. Constit. II.

172 Quinisext. can. 3.

173 Ibid. c. 6.

174 Ibid. can. 12, 48.—“Hoc autem dicimus non ad ea abolenda et evertenda quæ Apostolice antea constituta sunt, sed ... ne status ecclesiasticus ullo probro efficiatur.”

175 Quinisext. c. 13, 30.

176 Quinisext. c. 33.—The Armenian church in the middle ages, was excessively severe as to the chastity of its ministers. A postulant for orders was obliged to confess, and if he had been guilty of a single lapse, he was rejected. So a priest in orders if yielding to the weakness of the flesh out of wedlock was expelled, though they were not obliged to part with their wives, and the Greek rule permitting marriage in the lower orders was maintained.—Concil. Armenor. ann. 1362 Art. 50, 53, 93 (Martene Ampl. Collect. VII. 366-7, 403).

177 Leonis Novell. Constit. III.—It is not improbable that this custom resulted from the iconoclastic schism of Leo the Isaurian and Constantine Copronymus, which occupied nearly the whole of the eighth century. These emperors found their most unyielding enemies in the monks. In the savage persecutions which disgraced the struggle, Constantine endeavored to extirpate monachism altogether. The accounts which his adversaries have transmitted of the violence and cruelties which he perpetrated are doubtless exaggerated, but there is likelihood that his efforts to discountenance celibacy, as the foundation of the obnoxious institution, are correctly reported. “Publice defamavit et dehonestavit habitum monachorum in hippodromo, præcipiens unumquemque monachum manutenere mulierem, et taliter transire per hippodromum, sumptis injuriis ab omni populo cumulatis” (Baronii Annal. ann. 766, No. 1). He ejected the monks from the monasteries, which he turned into barracks; some of the monks were tortured, others fled to the mountains and deserts, where they suffered every extremity, while others again succumbed to threats and temptations, and were publicly married—“alii corporeis voluptatibus addicti, suas etiam uxores circumducere non erubescebant” (Ibid. No. 28, 29).

178 Synod. Montis Libani ann. 1736 P. II. c. v. No. 16, 17, Tab. I. No. 11; P. III. c. i. No. 11; P. IV. c. ii. No. 16.—Synod. Ain-Traz ann. 1835 c. xii. (Concil. Collect. Lacens. II. 134, 138, 262, 263, 366, 367, 585).

179 London “Academy,” Nov. 13th, 1869, p. 51.—See also “The Russian Clergy,” by Father Gagarin, London, 1872 (London Athenæum, No. 2334. p. 72-3).

180 For these details from the collection of Asseman I am indebted to the Abate Zaccaria’s Nuova Giustificazione del Celibato Sacro, pp. 129-30.

181 The strange similarity between some of the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita and Christianity, and the apparent identity of the name and of some of the story of Krishna with those of Christ, would seem to need some such explanation as the above. The problem however is too complicated for discussion here.—See Weber’s Indian Literature p. 238 and Monier Williams’s Indian Wisdom p. 136. For the question of St. Thomas’s Indian Apostolate see Hohlenberg’s learned tract, “De Originibus et Fatis Eccles. Christ. in India Orientali.” Havniæ 1822.

182 Hi omnes Nestoriani ... cum Jacobinis longe plures esse dicuntur quam Latini et Græci.—Jac. de Vitriaco Hist. Hierosol. cap. lxxvi.

183 Calixt. de Conjug. Cleric. p. 415.—Osorii de Rebus Emmanuelis Regis Lusit. Lib. IX. (Colon. 1574 p. 305a).

184 Parkyns’s Life in Abyssinia, chap. xxxi.—Mr. Parkyns sums up about 260 fast days in the year, most of them much more rigid than those observed in the Catholic church.

185 Davids & Oldenberg’s Vinaya Texts, Part I. pp. 4, 8, 14, 16, 32, 35-7, 42, 47, 56.—Cf. Beal’s Catena pp. 209-14.—Burnouf, Introduction à l’histoire du Buddhisme indien. 2e Éd. pp. 245-8.

186 Beal’s Chinese Pilgrims pp. xxxviii., xl., 155-9.—Schlagintweit’s Buddhism in Tibet, pp. 164-5.—Wheeler’s Hist. of India, III. 270.—Proc. Roy. Geog. Society, in London “Reader” Nov. 17, 1866.

187 I. Tim. v. 3-14. cf. Act. IX. 39-41. In the time of Tertullian these women were regularly ordained (Ad Uxor. Lib. I. c. 7). This was forbidden by the council of Nicæa (can. 19) and by that of Laodicea (can. 11) in 372. In 451, however, we see by the council of Chalcedon (can. 15) that the ancient practice had been revived. The authorities on the question will be found very fully given by Chr. Lupus (Scholion in Can. 15 Concil. Chalced.—Opp. II. 90 sqq.). Even as late as the middle of the ninth century stringent rules were promulgated to punish the marriage of deaconesses (Capitul. Add. III. Cap. 75.—Baluz. I. 1191).

188 Volo ergo juniores [viduas] nubere, filios procreare, matresfamilias esse, nullam occasionem dare adversario—I. Tim. v. 14.

189 See Leon. I. Epist. lxxxvii. cap. 2. (Harduin. I. 1775). This was not so in the earlier periods. Tertullian (De Præscription. iii.), in alluding to the various classes of ecclesiastics, places the widows immediately after the order of deacons, and before the virgins.

190 Nothing is so illogical as the logic resorted to in order to prove foregone conclusions. Donato Calvi (apud Panzini, Pubblica Confessione di un Prigioneiro, Torino, 1865, p. 111) quotes the texts Matt. XIX. 12, Luke XIV. 33 and Matt. XIX. 21, 27, and then triumphantly concludes—“Ben lice conchiudere chiaramente da’sacri Vangeli raccogliersi fossero gli Apostoli veri religiosi coi tre voti della religione legati.”

191 If further proof of this be required, beyond what has already been incidentally adduced, it is to be found in the 19th canon of the council of Ancyra, held about the year 314. By this, the vow of celibacy or virginity when broken only rendered the offender incapable of receiving holy orders. He was to be treated as a “digamus,” showing evidently that no punishment was inflicted, beyond the disability which attached to second marriages.

Even in the time of St. Augustin monks were frequently married, as we learn from his remarks concerning the heretics who styled themselves Apostolici and who gloried in their superior asceticism—“eo quod in suam communionem non reciperent utentes conjugibus et res proprias possidentes; quales habet Catholica [ecclesia] et monachos et clericos plurimos.”—Augustin. de Hæresib. No. XL.

Even Epiphanius, the ardent admirer of virginity, when controverting the errors of the same sect, declares that those who cannot persevere in their vows had better marry and reconcile themselves by penitence to the church rather than to sin in secret—“Melius est lapsum a cursu palam sibi uxorem sumere secundum legem et a virginitate multo tempore pœnitentiam agere et sic rursus ad ecclesiam induci, etc.”—Panar. Hæres. LXI.

We shall see hereafter how long it took to enforce the strict segregation of the cenobite from the world.

192 St. Jerome vindicates for Paul the priority which was commonly ascribed to Antony, but he fully admits that the latter is entitled to the credit of popularizing the practice.—“Alii, autem, in quam opinionem vulgus omne consentit, asserunt Antonium hujus propositi caput, quod ex parte verum est: non enim tam ipse ante omnes fuit, quam ab eo omnium incitata sunt studia,” etc.—Hieron. Vit. Pauli cap. 1.—Epist. XXII. ad Eustoch. cap. 36.

Jerome also asserts that monachism was unknown in Palestine and Syria until it was introduced there by Hilarion, a disciple of St. Antony.—Vit. Hilarion. cap. 14.

193 Instit. Divin. Lib. VI. cap. 10.—Cf. c. 17.

194 As early as the commencement of the fourth century, we find Faustus, in his “tu quoque” defence of Manichæism, asserting that in the Christian churches the number of professed virgins exceeded that of women not bound by vows.—Augustin, contra Faust. Manich. Lib. XXX. c. iv.

195 Propter luxum vanitatemque præsumptam.—Concil. Cæsaraug. I. ann. 381 c. vi.—Disobedience to the prohibition is threatened with prolonged suspension from communion.