1233 Reform. Legg. Eecles. Tit. de Hæresibus. cap. xx. (Cardwell’s Ed., Oxford, 1850, p. 20).—Cf. Tit. de Matrimonio c. ix. (p. 44).

1234 Strype’s Eccles. Memor. III. 20. This story derives additional piquancy from the fact that this Dr. Weston was somewhat notorious for uncleanness and was subsequently deprived of the Deanery of Windsor for adultery (Ibid. pp. 111-2).

1235 1 Mary c. 2 (Parl. Hist. I. 609-10).—Burnet II. 255.

1236 Strype’s Eccles. Memorials, III. 52.

1237 Burnet II. Append. 264. According to Strype, Bonner’s impatience did not wait for the royal injunctions, for in February he deprived of their livings all the married priests in his diocese of London and commanded them to bring all their wives within a fortnight in order that they might be divorced.—Memorials of Cranmer, Bk. III. chap. 8.

Julius III. issued a Bull, March 8th, 1554, defining Cardinal Pole’s legatine powers, among which was that of removing the excommunication from married clerks and legitimating their children, the fathers being removed from function and benefice, separated from their wives, and subjected to penance (Cardwell’s Documentary Annals, I. 131). This was the course adopted for a time, but as the kingdom was not yet formally reconciled to Rome, the action had was under the local authorities.

1238 Strype’s Eccles. Memor. III. Append. 33.—In the same place (p. 31) may be found a copy of the summons served upon offenders of this class.

1239 Burnet II. 275 and Append. 256.—Rymer (T. XV. pp. 376-77) gives a similar commission dated March 9th, issued to Stephen Gardiner to eject the canons and prebendaries of Westminster in the same summary manner. The proceedings throughout England were doubtless framed on these models.

1240 Burnet II. Append. 260.

1241 Bishop Poynette wrote a book entitled “An Apologie on the Godly Marriadge of Priestes,” in rejoinder to Martin’s “Traictise declaryng and plainly prouyng that the pretensed marriage of priestes and professed persones is no marriage,” which was a reply to Poynette’s previous work. Bale also issued a bitter attack on Bonner’s Articles (Cardwell’s Documentary Annals, I. 135) and Dr. Parker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, published a voluminous rejoinder to Martin.

1242 Wilkins IV. 96-7.

1243 Burnet II. 276; III. 225-6.

1244 A specimen of the form of restitution subscribed by those who were restored on profession of amendment and repentance has been preserved—“Whereas ... I the said Robert do now lament and bewail my life past, and the offence by me committed; intending firmly by God’s grace hereafter to lead a pure, chast, and continent life ... and do here before my competent judge and ordinary most humbly require absolution of and from all such censures and pains of the laws as by my said offence and ungodly behavior I have incurred and deserved: promising firmly ... never to return to the said Agnes Staunton as to my wife or concubine, &c.”—(Wilkins IV. 104).

1245 Strype’s Memorials of Cranmer, Bk. III. chap. 8.—Nov. 14th, 1554, we find a record of four priests doing penance in white shirts and holding candles at Paul’s Cross, London, while Harpsfield preached a sermon.—Strype’s Eccles. Memor. III. 203.

1246 Parl. Hist. I. 616.

1247 The Bull is dated December 24, 1554 (Wilkins IV. 111).—Parliament repealed the attainder of Cardinal Pole, November 22d, and on the 24th he arrived in London as legate (Burnet II. 261-2).

1248 1 and 2 Phil. and Mary c. 8 (Parl. Hist. I. 624). The title of the bill shows that, though the Parliament was almost exclusively Catholic, it was disposed to make its obedience to Rome the price for obtaining confirmation of the abbey lands—“A Bill for repealing all statutes, articles, and provisoes made against the See Apostolique of Rome, since the 20th of Henry VIII., and for the establishment of all spiritual and ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the laity.”

1249 2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, c. 4 (Parl. Hist. pp. 626-8).

1250 Mag. Bull. Roman. T. I. p. 809.

1251 Original Letters, Parker Soc. Pub. p. 149.

1252 Parl. Hist. I. 626; II. 342.

1253 Card. Poli Constit. Legat. Decret. v. (Wilkins IV. 800).

1254 Strype’s Parker, Book II. chap. vi. In 1561 the remains were exhumed from the stables of Dr. Marshall, the previous dean of Christ’s Church, and reburied in the church, the precaution being taken of mingling them with the bones of St. Frideswide, so as to prevent any future profanation in case of another revolution of religion. The affair excited considerable attention at the time, and produced the following epigram:

1255 “That none of those priests that were, under the pretence of lawfull matrimony, married, and now reconciled, do privilie resorte to their pretensed wives, or suffer the same to resorte unto them. And that those priests do in no wise henceforth withdrawe themselves from the mynisterie and office of priesthodde under the paine of the lawes”—Pole’s Injunctions in Diocese of Gloucester (Wilkins IV. 146).

1256 Wilkins IV. 157. Thus in the visitation of the diocese of Lincoln, the vicar of Spaldwick was presented for scandalizing his flock by carrying in his arms his child by a wife from whom he had been separated. At the same time a priest of Caisho named Nix was subjected to penance for consorting with his former wife, but was permitted to resume his functions—Strype’s Eccles. Memor. III. 293.

1257 Strype’s Eccles. Memor. III. 111-12.

1258 Wilkins IV. 169.

1259 1 Eliz. c. 1, 2, 4 (Parl. Hist. I. 646-76).

1260 Burnet, II. 386-95.

1261 Parker’s Correspondence, p. 66.—Sanders does not fail to make the most of this refusal to legalize priestly marriage by act of Parliament, and of the hesitation which rendered the final decision a mere toleration and not an approval. “Clerus enim in Anglia novus, partim ex apostatis nostris, partim ex hominibus mere laicis factus, ut est valde spiritualis, primo quoque tempore de nuptiis cogitabat; multumque sategit, ut conjugia Episcoporum Canonicorum et cæterorum ministorum legibus approbarentur; sed obtineri non potuit, quia vel turpe videbatur ministerio, vel reipublicæ perniciosum. Edovardus quidem sextus omnes canonicas et humanas prohibitiones circa clericorum aut etiam religiosorum connubia lege comitiali seu parlamentaria sustulerat; eam legem mox abrogavit Maria, nunc restituendam ac renovandam clamitant isti, sed non exaudiuntur: omnes tamen per totum fere regnum quia de dono [castitatis] (ut loquuntur) non sunt certi, non secundum leges, sed secundum indulgentiam; vel (ut illi dicunt) secundum scripturas, sed ad libidinem suam compositas, ineunt prima, secunda, vel etiam tertia conjugia, contra canones et morem non solum Latinorum sed etiam Græcorum; et prole ita abundant, ut ad illam sustentandam opibusque augendam, et populus supra modum gravetur, et ipsi misere beneficia sua expilent.”—De Schismate Anglicano, Lib. III. (Ingoldstatii, 1586, p. 299).

1262 Strype’s Annals, I. 81.

1263 Royal Injunctions of 1559, Art. XXIX. “Although there be no prohibition by the word of God, nor any example of the primitive church, but that the priests and ministers of the church may lawfully, for the avoiding of fornication, have an honest and sober wife, and that for the same purpose the same was by act of Parliament in the time of our dear brother King Edward the Sixth made lawful, whereupon a great number of the clergy of this realm were married and so continue; yet, because there hath grown offence and some slander to the church, by lack of discreet and sober behavior in many ministers of the church, both in chusing of their wives and undiscreet living with them, the remedy whereof is necessary to be sought; it is thought therefore very necessary that no manner of priest or deacon shall hereafter take to his wife any manner of woman without the advice and allowance first had upon good examination by the bishop of the same diocese and two justices of the peace of the same shire dwelling next to the place where the same woman hath made her most abode before her marriage; nor without the goodwill of the parents of the said woman if she have any living, or two of the next of her kinsfolks, or for lack of the knowledge of such, of her master or mistress where she serveth. And before she shall be contracted in any place, he shall make a good and certain proof thereof to the minister or to the congregation assembled for that purpose, which shall be upon some holy-day where divers may be present. And if any shall do otherwise, that then they shall not be permitted to minister either the word or the sacraments of the church, nor shall be capable of any ecclesiastical benefice. And for the marriages of any bishops, the same shall be allowed and approved by the metropolitan of the province and also by such commissioners as the Queen’s Majesty thereunto shall appoint. And if any master or dean or any head of any college shall purpose to marry, the same shall not be allowed but by such to whom the visitation of the same doth properly belong, who shall in any wise provide that the same turn not to the hindrance of their house”—(Wilkins IV. 186).

See also a letter of Theodore Beza, Zurich Letters, p. 247 (Parker Soc. Publications).

1264 Cardwell’s Documentary Annals, I. 309.

1265 Strype’s Parker, Book II. chap. v.—In 1569 the returns for the Archdeaconry of Canterbury show 135 married clergymen to 34 licensed preachers, and there is no mention of any unmarried men (Ib. III. xxiv.).

1266 In the English version, as given by Burnet (Vol. II. Append. 217), there are 42 articles, of which this is the 31st. In the Latin edition (Wilkins IV. 236), there are but 39 articles, this being the 32d, which is the arrangement according to the standard of the Anglican church.

1267 Wilkins IV. 189-91.—This commission was the commencement of the Court of High Commission, which played so lamentable a part in the troubles of the succeeding reigns. The result of its visitation in 1559 shows how little real conviction existed among the clergy who had been exposed to the capricious persecutions of alternating rulers. Out of 9400 beneficiaries in England under Mary, but 14 bishops, 6 abbots, 12 deans, 12 archdeacons, 15 heads of colleges, 50 prebendaries, and 80 rectors of parishes had abandoned their preferment on account of Protestantism (Burnet Vol. II. Append. 217), and of these it is fair to assume that the higher dignitaries at least had not been allowed to retain their positions.

1268 Wilkins IV. 253.—Strype’s Parker, App. liii.

1269 In 1576 she declared to Grindal, then Archbishop of Canterbury, “that it was good for the church to have few preachers, and that three or four might suffice for a county; and that the reading of the Homilies to the people was enough.”—Strype’s Life of Grindal, p. 221.—See also Strype’s Parker, Book II. chap. xx.

1270 Strickland, Life of Queen Elizabeth, Chap. IV.

1271 Strype’s Annals, I. 364-5.

1272 Parker’s Correspondence, pp. 146-8.

1273 Ibid. p. 152.

1274 Parker’s Correspondence, pp. 156-8.

1275 Wilkins IV. 269.

1276 Parker’s Correspondence, p. 259.

1277 Qui autem istis darent filias suas, ne protestantes quidem fere inveniebantur, nedum Catholici: primum quia existimant id esse per se infame, ut sint vel dicantur uxores presbyterorum. Secundo, quia juxta leges regni non sunt adhuc vera sed adulterina conjugia, ac proinde proles illegitima. Tertio quia non accrescit his uxoribus aut liberis suis ex maritorum loco aut honore in Republica ulla dignitas aut existimatio, quod est contra naturam veri matrimonii. Non enim Archiepiscopus, Episcopus, aliusve hodie prælatus in Anglia si sit conjugatus, tribuit quicquam ex eo honoris vel præeminentia uxori suæ, non magis quam si esset ejus tantum concubina. Hinc sit ut nec eas Elizabetha in aulam, nec principum uxores in consortium ullo modo admittant, ne Archiepiscoporum quidem vocatas conjuges; sed debent eas mariti domi continere, pro vasis tantem libidinis aut necessitatis suæ. Quæ istis ergo conditionibus, vel summis prælatis conjungerentur, cum honestiores paucæ aut nullæ reperiebantur, quas poterant habere accipere fuit necesse. Sed et aliis modis utcumque istorum hominum cupiditati per magistratum civilem impositum est frænum. Nam et Collegiorum alumni qui in Anglicanis universitatibus admodum multi erant, otioque ac saturitate panis abundabant, ac admodum provecti ætate erant, cupiebant et ipsi habere uxores; sed videbatur inconveniens, et id privilegii Collegiorum tantum Rectoribus concessum est, cum hac tamen exceptione, ut conjuges seorsim plerunque extra Collegia constituant, rariusque eas intromittant.—De Schismate Anglicano Lib. III. (Ingoldstat. 1586, p. 300).

See also Florimund. Raemund. Histor. Memoral. Lib. VI. cap. xii.

Of course much allowance must be made for the statements of so keen a partisan as Sanders, and one who had suffered so much from those whom he satirized, yet he was a man of too much shrewdness to make statements which his contemporaries could recognize as entirely destitute of foundation.

Even to this day the position of the wives of the Anglican prelates is made a subject of ridicule by Catholic polemics. A recent Italian tract entitled “Il Celibato del sacerdozio Cattolico” remarks “Osservate piuttosto le mogli de’ vescovi e degli arcivescovi Anglicani, tenute esse in conto di concubine non hanno posto alcuno nella civile società.”—Panzini, Confessione di un Prigioniero, p. 472.

1278 Zurich Letters, Second Series, p. 359 (Parker Society, 1845). Wiburn was deprived for non-conformity in 1564, so that this must have been written subsequently (Strype’s Life of Grindal, p. 98).

1279 Zurich Letters, First Series, pp. 164, 179.

1280 “That, concerning Virginity and the Single Life, he handled the case so finely that to his thinking, if he should have believed him, he could not find three good Virgins since Christ’s time. And that so he left the Matter with an Exhortation to all to Mary, Mary. Further, That he said in that Sermon that single-living Men, that is to say unmaried, and especially unmaried priests, lived naught. And that there in that City were lately presented five or six unmaried priests that kept five or six whores apiece; though there were not above four unmaried priests in the City in all.”—Strype’s Annals, I. 349.

1281 “Where he alledgeth that he never called Priests Wives Whores, it is untrue. For three Women going through his Park, wherein is a path for footmen, he supposing they had been Priests Wives called unto them, Ye shall not come through my Park and no such Priests Whores.”—Ibid. p. 358.

1282 See a tract published against the rebels, attributed by Strype to Sir Thomas Smith, which ridicules the advocates of celibacy with a vigor reminding us of the Beggars’ Petition.—“This is a quarrel wholly like the old Rebels Complaint of Enclosing of Commons. Many of your Disordered and evil disposed Wives are much agrieved that Priests, which were wont to be Common be now made Several. Hinc illæ lachrymæ. There is Grief indeed, and Truth it is, and so shall you find it. Few Women storm against the marriage of priests, calling it unlawful and incensing Men against it, but such as have been Priests Harlots or fain would be. Content your Wives yourselves and let Priests have their own.”—Strype’s Annals, I. 558.

1283 A causidico, medicastro, ipsaque artificum farragine, ecclesiæ rector aut vicarius contemnitur et fit ludibrio. Gentis et familiæ nitor sacris ordinibus pollutus censetur: fœminisque natalitio insignibus unicum inculcatur sæpius præceptum, ne modestiæ naufragium faciant, aut (quod idem auribus tam delicatulis sonat) ne clerico se nuptas dari patiantur.—T. Wood, Angliæ Notitia (Macaulay’s Hist. Engl. Chap. III.).

Lord Macaulay attributes the degraded position of the clergy to their indigence and want of influence. These causes doubtless had their effect, but the peculiar repugnance towards clerical marriage ascribed to all respectable women had a deeper origin than simply the beggarly stipends attached to the majority of English livings.

1284 Rahlenbeck, L’Église de Liége, p. 49. The stern and self-centred soul which won for Idelette the hand of Calvin was unshaken to the last, as may be seen by his curious account of her death-bed, in a letter to Farel (Calvini Epistolæ, p. 111. Genevæ, 1617). His grief was doubtless sincere, but his friends were able to compliment him on his not allowing domestic affliction to interfere with his customary routine of labor (Ibid. p. 116).

1285 I have not access to the original, but quote the following from Quick’s “Synodicon in Gallia Reformata,” London, 1692—“Art. XXIV..... We do also reject those means which men presumed they had, whereby they might be redeemed before God; for they derogate from the satisfaction of the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ. Finally, We hold Purgatory to be none other than a cheat, which came out of the same shop: from which also proceeded monastical vows, pilgrimages, prohibition of marriage and the use of meats, a ceremonious observation of days, auricular confession, indulgences, and all other such matters, by which Grace and Salvation may be supposed to be deserved. Which things we reject, not only for the false opinion of merit which was affixed to them, but also because they are the inventions of men, and are a yoke laid by their sole authority upon conscience” (Quick I. xi.).—See also the Confession written by Calvin in 1562, to be laid before the Emperor Ferdinand (Calvini Epist. pp. 564-66).

1286 Discip. Chap. XIII. can. xxviii. (Quick, I. liii.).

1287 Ibid. Chap. I. can. xlvii.

1288 Chap. IV. Art. xii., Chap. XVI. Art. xiv. (Quick, I. 32, 38).

1289 Prelates of high position were not wanting to the list of married men. Carracioli, Bishop of Troyes, and Spifame, Bishop of Nevers, were of the number. Jean de Monluc, Bishop of Valence (brother of the celebrated Marshal Blaise de Monluc, whose cruelties to the Huguenots were so notorious), married without openly apostatizing, and died in the Catholic faith. Cardinal Odet de Châtillon, Bishop of Beauvais, and brother of the Admiral, became a declared Calvinist, married Mdlle. de Hauteville, and called himself Comte de Beauvais. He seems to have retained his benefices, and was still called by the Catholics M. le Cardinal, “Car il nous estoit fort à cœur,” says Brantôme (Discours 48), “de luy changer le nom qui luy avoit esté si bien seant.”

1290 Édit de Roussillon, Art. 7 (Isambert, Anciennes Lois Françaises, XV. 172). This edict was cited in the proceedings of the case of Dumonteil, about the year 1830, of which more hereafter.

1291 Édit de 1576, Art. 9.—Édit de Poitiers, Art. Secrets, No. 8 (Isambert, T. XV. pp. 283, 331).

1292 Concil. Rotomag. ann. 1581 cap. de Monasteriis § 32 (Harduin. X. 1253).

1293 Édit de Nantes, Art. Secrets, No. 39 (Isambert, T. XVI. p. 206).

1294 Grégoire, Hist, du Mariage des Prêtres en France, pp. 58-9.

1295 A decision rendered on the argument of the distinguished avocat général Omer Talon expressly states “que la prohibition du mariage des personnes constituées dans les ordres etant une loi de l’État aussi bien que de l’Église, un prêtre malgré sa profession de Calvinisme, était demeuré sujet aux lois de l’État, et dès lors n’avait pas pu valablement contracter mariage.”—Bouhier de l’Écluse, de l’État des Prêtres en France, Paris, 1842, p. 12.

1296 Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland, p. 3 (Ed. 1609).

1297 Knox, pp. 15-16.—Calderwood’s Historie of the Kirk of Scotland, I. 83-5 (Wodrow Soc.).

1298 Knox, pp. 16-17.

1299 Buchanan. Rer. Scot. Hist. Lib. xv.—Robertson, Hist of Scot. B. II.—Knox, 71-2.—Calderwood I. 222.

1300 Buchanan. Lib. xv.

1301 Wilkins IV. 207.

1302 Concil. Edinburgens. ann. 1549 can. 1, 2 (Wilkins IV. 48).

1303 Wilkins IV. 207-10.—Knox, p. 129. It should be borne in mind in estimating these penalties that they are expressed in pounds Scots, which were about one-twelfth of the pound sterling. These canons, it appears, were not adopted without opposition. According to Knox, “But herefrom appealed the Bishop of Murray and other prelates, saying That they would abide the canon law. And so they might well enough do, so long as they remained Interpretors, Dispensators, Makers and Disannullers of the law ” (Op. cit. 119). It was doubtless on some such considerations that the Archbishop of St. Andrews relied when he consented to waive his exemption in this matter. His personal reputation may be estimated from the remark of Queen Mary when, in December, 1566, he performed the rite of baptism on James VI. She forbade him to use the popular ceremony of employing his saliva, giving a reason which was in the highest degree derogatory to his moral character (Sir J. Y. Simpson, in Proceedings of Epidemiological Society of London, Nov. 5th, 1860).

1304 Robertson, Hist. Scot. Bk. II.

1305 Thus the Parliament of 1560, which effected a settlement of the Reformed Religion, was urged to its duty by a Supplication presented in the name of “The Barons, Gentlemen, Burgesses, and other true Subjects of this Realm, professing the Lord Jesus within the same,” which, among its arguments against Catholicism, does not hesitate to assert—“Secondarily, seeing that the sacraments of Jesus Christ are most shamefully abused and profaned by that Romane Harlot and her sworne vassals, and also because that the true Discipline of the Ancient Church is utterly now among that Sect extinguished: For who within the Realme are more corrupt in life and manners than are they that are called the Clergie, living in whoredom and adultery, deflouring Virgins, corrupting Matrons, and doing all abomination without fear of punishment. We humbly, therefore, desire your Honors to finde remedy against the one and the other”—Knox, p. 255.

1306 This doctrine bore its full share in the history of the Scottish reformation. Two years after the execution of the protomartyr, Patrick Hamilton, in 1528, his sister Catharine was arraigned on account of her belief in justification through Christ. Learned divines urged upon her with prolix earnestness of disputation the necessity of works, until her patience gave way, and she rudely exclaimed, “Work here and work there, what kind of working is all this? No work can save me but the work of Christ my Saviour.” By the connivance of the king she was enabled to escape to England.—Calderwood’s Historie, I. 109.

1307 Knox, p. 283.

1308 Knox, p. 119.—Calderwood, I. 423.

1309 Thus the assembly of the church in 1562, drew up a remonstrance to the queen, in which they requested that “in every Parish some of the Tythes may be assigned to the sustentation and maintenance of the poor within the same: And likewise that some publike relief may be provided for the poor within Burroughs”—Knox, p. 339.

1310 Ibid. p. 278. The Book was signed at Edinburgh, Jan. 27, 1561, but only after the adoption of a proviso—“Provided that the Bishops, Abbots, Priors and other Prelates and Beneficed men, which else have adjoyned themselves to us, brooke the revenues of their Benefices during their lifetimes.”—Worldly wisdom certainly was not lost sight of in the ardor of a new and purer religion.

1311 Knox, 136.

1312 Calderwood’s Historie, I. 123-4.

1313 Knox, p. 65.—Knox’s characteristic comment on this is—“When he had said these words, they were all dumb, thinking it better to have ten concubines than one wife.”

1314 Calderwood I. 231 sqq.

1315 Knox, p. 130.—Calderwood I. 337 sqq.—Burnet vol. II. The implacable character of Scottish persecution is aptly illustrated by a proclamation issued by Cardinal Beatoun in 1540 for the purpose of spiting Sir Ralph Sadler, the English envoy at Edinburgh. It was during Lent, and the proclamation declared “that whosoever should buy an egg or eat an egg within those dioceses should forfeit no less than his body to be burnt as a heretic, and all his goods confiscate to the king”—Froude, Hist. Engl. IV. 54.

It was a life and death struggle, in which quarter could neither be asked nor given.

1316 Knox, p. 263.

1317 Ibid. p. 304.

1318 Strype’s Parker, Book II. ch. xviii.

1319 The orator of the council of Cologne in 1527, sharply reminded the assembled prelates that they must set the example of obeying their own statutes, and that they could not expect the people to reverence the true church so long as it notoriously bade defiance to the laws of God and man. “Quasi præscribatur lex cujus sancitor voluerit esse exlex. Parendum enim est legi quam quisque sancit.... Audis præterea non licere plurimas habere uxores, quæ animum tuum alliciant; non decere domi alere tot scorta tot Veneres, quæ te continue exedunt, tuamque substantiam disperdunt.... His et aliis datur scandalum populo; præbetur offendiculum vulgo, cui hac tempestate vilet et contemptui est ordo quilibet sacer. Vilis plebs te sacerdotem nunc cachinnis atque ludibriis incessit et odit, qui calumniandi ansam ultro præbueris. Dicit namque: tot hic, aut ille, scorta domi suæ ex patrimonio Crucifixi nutrit, quo non sordida scorta, sed pauperes Christi forent sustentandi”—Concil. Colon. ann. 1527 (Hartzheim VI. 210-213).

So at the council of Augsburg, in 1548, the orator dwelt upon the advantage which the heretics derived from the sins of the clergy—“Non estis nescii, quemadmodum nos hæretici apud populum perpetuo traducant: nos scortatores, nos ambitiosos, nos avaros, nos ignavos, et rudes esse, nos otio semper, luxui et ventri servire, identidem vociferantur.... Superbe itaque illi: sed utinam non nimium sæpe vere: nam si vera potius hoc loco, quam plausibilia, dicenda sint; negare certe non possumus, quin maximam ad nos accusandos occasionem sæpe dederimus”—Concil. Augustan. ann. 1548 (Hartzheim VI. 388).

1320 Concil. Parisiens. ann. 1521 (Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 1018).

1321 Quisquis igitur contra sacrorum conciliorum et patrum decreta, sacerdotes, diaconos aut subdiaconos lege cœlibatus non teneri docuerit aut liberas illis concesserit nuptias, inter hæreticos, omni tergiversatione rejecta numeretur.—Concil. Paris. ann. 1528, Decret. 8.

This, I think, is the first authoritative promulgation of Damiani’s doctrine, which, as we shall hereafter see, was adopted and extended by the council of Trent.

1322 Ibid. can. 3, 27.

1323 Pierre de la Place, Estat de Rel. et Rep. Liv. III.

1324 Concil. Narbonnens. ann. 1551 can. 22 (Harduin. X. 468).

1325 Consilium de Emend. Eccles. (Le Plat, Monument. Concil. Trident. II. 598).

1326 Bull, ad Canonum (Mag. Bull. Roman. Ed. 1692, I. 682).

Alexander III., in prohibiting the sons of priests from enjoying their fathers’ benefices, had permitted it if a third party intervened, and a dispensation for the irregularity were obtained. The letter of this law was frequently observed, but its spirit eluded by nominally passing the preferment through the hands of a man of straw, and it was this abuse which Clement desired to eradicate.

1327 Consilium de Emend. Eccles. (Le Plat, Monument. Concil. Trident. II. 599).

1328 Wilkins IV. 209.

1329 Le Plat, V. 88. The opinion which was held of the venality of the Roman Court in such matters is forcibly expressed in the instructions given to Lanssac, the French ambassador at Trent. He is ordered to press the abolition of the Papal power of dispensation “attendu que nul n’en est refusé s’il a argent.”—Ibid. p. 153.

1330 Ejus sanctitati lex non sit præscribenda.—Ibid. p. 385.

1331 Tax. Sac. Pœnitent. Ed. Gibbings, p. 13.—This was only one carlino (the tenth part of a ducat, equal to about fourpence), more than the charge for the bastard of a layman.