Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and accents remain but all other spelling and
punctuation remains unchanged.
Footnote 1219 is missing. The footnote from a different edition has
been included for information.
More doubtful typographical errors:
Page 341 They succeeded in making way with him. way changed to away.
Footnote 1620 reads L’Esaminatore, 15 Ott. 1867. This has been changed
to 15 Oct.
The footnotes are located at the end of the book.
Italics are represented thus _italic_.
SACERDOTAL CELIBACY
IN THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
AN
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF
SACERDOTAL CELIBACY
IN THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
BY
HENRY C. LEA.
SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED.
Οὐ γαρ θεου ἐστι κινειν ἐπι τα παρα φυσιν.
ATHENAGORÆ _pro Christianis Legatio_.
BOSTON
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
New York 11 East Seventeenth Street
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1884
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by
HENRY C. LEA,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress. All rights reserved.
DORNAN, PRINTER.
PREFACE.
The following work was written several years since, simply as an
historical study, and with little expectation of its publication.
Recent movements in several portions of the great Christian Church seem
to indicate, however, that a record of ascetic celibacy, as developed
in the past, may not be without interest to those who are watching the
tendencies of the present.
So far as I am aware, no work of the kind exists in English literature,
and those which have appeared in the Continental languages are almost
exclusively of a controversial character. It has been my aim to avoid
polemics, and I have therefore sought merely to state facts as I have
found them, without regard to their bearing on either side of the
questions involved. As those questions have long been the subject
of ardent disputation, it has seemed proper to substantiate every
statement with a reference to its authority.
The scope of the work is designedly confined to the enforced celibacy
of the sacerdotal class. The vast history of monachism has therefore
only been touched upon incidentally when it served to throw light upon
the rise and progress of religious asceticism. The various celibate
communities which have arisen in this country, such as the Dunkers
and Shakers, are likewise excluded from the plan of the volume. These
limitations occasion me less regret since the appearance of M. de
Montalembert’s “Monks of the West” and Mr. W. Hepworth Dixon’s “New
America,” in which the student will probably find all that he may
require on these subjects.
Besides the controversial importance of the questions connected with
Christian asceticism, it has seemed to me that a brief history like
the present might perhaps possess interest for the general reader,
not only on account of the influence which ecclesiastical celibacy has
exerted, directly and indirectly, on the progress of civilization,
but also from the occasional glimpse into the interior life of past
ages afforded in reviewing the effect upon society of the policy of
the church as respects the relations of the sexes. The more ambitious
historian, in detailing the intrigues of the court and the vicissitudes
of the field, must of necessity neglect the minuter incidents which
illustrate the habits, the morals, and the modes of thought of bygone
generations. From such materials a monograph like this is constructed,
and it may not be unworthy the attention of those who deem that the
life of nations does not consist exclusively of political revolutions
and military achievements.
PHILADELPHIA, May, 1867.
* * * * *
In reprinting this work such changes have been made as further reading
and reflection have seemed to render advisable. The first two and the
last sections have been wholly rewritten, and numerous additions have
been made throughout the volume. To accommodate as far as possible the
considerable amount of matter thus introduced, I have omitted from the
footnotes all extracts which merely verified without illustrating the
text.
PHILADELPHIA, December, 1883.
CONTENTS.
A. D. PAGE
Influence of the church on modern civilization 17
Effect of celibacy in moulding its destiny 19
I.—ASCETICISM.
Character of early Judaism 21
Oriental and Hellenic influences 23
Growth of asceticism 25
Pauline Christianity 26
Admission that celibacy is of post-apostolic origin 28
II.—THE ANTE-NICENE CHURCH.
Early ascetic tendencies 31
Exaggerated in the heresies 33
Influence of Buddhism 34
Objection to second marriages 36
c. 150 “Digami” rejected from the ministry 37
Application of the Levitical rule 38
Growth of asceticism—self-mutilation 40
Vows of virginity and their results 41
c. 280 Influence of Manichæism 43
Condemnation of marriage 45
305 First injunction of celibacy, by the Council of
Elvira 50
314 Disregarded elsewhere 51
III.—THE COUNCIL OF NICÆA.
Growing centralization of the church 52
325 The first general council 53
It prohibits the residence of suspected women 53
The story of Paphnutius 56
325-350 Married priests not as yet interfered with 58
IV.—LEGISLATION.
348-400 Enforcement of voluntary vows 59
Prohibition of female ministry 60
362 Reaction—the Council of Gangra 61
384 Celibacy adopted by the Latin church 64
385 Decretal of Siricius 65
V.—ENFORCEMENT OF CELIBACY.
Resistance to enforced asceticism 67
390 Jovinian 69
404 Vigilantius 70
390-419 The church of Africa yields 73
401 Compromise of the Cis-Alpine church 75
Popular assistance in enforcing celibacy 77
Effect of enforced celibacy on clerical morals 78
General demoralization of society 81
VI.—THE EASTERN CHURCH.
Divergence between the East and the West 83
381 Compulsory celibacy unknown in the East 84
400 Council of Constantinople—Antony of Ephesus—Synesius 85
430 First enforcement of celibacy in Thessaly 86
Celibacy not obligatory 86
528-548 Legislation of Justinian 86
680 The Quinisext in Trullo—Discipline unchanged 88
900 Final legislation of Leo the Philosopher 90
The Nestorians—clerical marriage permitted 91
The Abyssinian church 92
VII.—MONACHISM.
Buddhist model of monachism 94
Apostolic order of widows 96
Devotees in the primitive church—no vows irrevocable 97
250-285 Paul the Thebæan and St. Antony 97
350-400 Increase of monachism 98
Early systems—vows not irrevocable 101
Greater strictness required of female devotees 103
c. 400 Marriages of nuns still valid 104
450-458 Conflicting legislation 105
Strictness of the Eastern church—Political necessity
of controlling monachism 106
390-456 Monks confined to their convents 108
532-545 Justinian renders monastic vows irrevocable 108
Disorders of Western monachism 109
528 St. Benedict of Nursia—vows not irrevocable
under his rule 111
590-604 Gregory I. enforces the inviolability of vows 113
Continued irregularities of monachism 115
VIII.—THE BARBARIANS.
The Church and the Barbarians 117
The Merovingian bishops 118
The Spanish Arians 120
589-711 Neglect of discipline in Spain 121
557-580 State of discipline in Italy 122
Dilapidation of ecclesiastical property 123
590-604 Reforms of Gregory the Great 123
IX.—THE CARLOVINGIANS.
Demoralization of the VII. and VIII. centuries 126
Reorganizing efforts of the Carlovingians 128
742-755 Labors of St. Boniface 131
Resistance of the married clergy 132
755 Pepin-le-Bref undertakes the reform 134
Sacerdotal celibacy reëstablished 135
Reforms of Charlemagne and Louis-le-Débonnaire—Their
inefficiency 135
840-912 Increasing demoralization under the later Carlovingians 139
874 Legal procedures prescribed by Hincmar 140
893 Sacerdotal marriage resumed 142
X.—THE TENTH CENTURY.
Barbarism of the tenth century—Debasement of
the papacy 144
Tendency to hereditary benefices—Dilapidation of
church property 145
938 Leo VII. vainly prohibits sacerdotal marriage 148
952 It is defended by St. Ulric of Augsburg 153
925-967 Unsuccessfully resisted by Ratherius of Verona
and Atto of Vercelli 150
Opposing influences among prelates 152
Relaxation of the canons 154
942-1054 Three Archbishops of Rouen 155
Indifference of Silvester II. 157
Celibacy practically obsolete 158
XI.—SAXON ENGLAND.
Corruption of the ancient British church 159
Asceticism of the Irish and Scottish churches 160
597 Celibacy introduced among the Saxons by St.
Augustin 161
Disorders in the Saxon nunneries 163
747, 787 Councils of Clovesho and Chelsea 164
Neglect of discipline in the ninth and tenth centuries 165
964 St. Dunstan undertakes a reformation 166
964-974 Energy of Edgar the Pacific 168
975 Reaction after the death of Edgar 170
1006 Failure of Dunstan’s reforms 171
1009 Council of Enham—Sacerdotal polygamy 172
1032 Legislation of Cnut 173
Sacerdotal marriage established 175
XII.—PETER DAMIANI.
1022 Council of Pavia—Efforts to restore discipline 178
1031 Council of Bourges 179
Clerical marriage and profligacy 180
Revival of asceticism—San Giovanni Gualberto 183
1046 Henry III. undertakes the reformation of the
church—Clement II. 184
St. Peter Damiani 185
1049 Leo IX. 187
Damiani’s Liber Gomorrhianus 188
Reformatory efforts of Leo—Councils of Rheims
and Mainz 188
1051-1053 Attempts to reform the Italian clergy 189
Failure of the Reformation 190
1058 The Papacy independent—Damiani and Hildebrand 192
1059 Appeal to the laity for assistance 194
1059 Council of Melfi—Deposition of Bishop of Trani 197
1060 Damiani endeavors to reform the prelates 198
The persecuted clergy organize resistance 199
1061 Schismatic election of Cadalus 200
He is supported by the married clergy 201
1063 Renewed efforts of Alexander II. and Damiani 202
Their failure 204
XIII.—MILAN.
Milan the centre of Manichæism 207
1045 Election of an archbishop—four disappointed competitors 209
Marriage universal among Milanese clergy 210
Landolfo and Arialdo excite the people 211
1056 Popular tumults—Plunder of the clergy 212
1058 The Synod of Fontaneto defends the married
priests 212
A furious civil war results 213
1059 Damiani obtains the submission of the clergy 213
1061 Milan embraces the party of Cadalus 215
Death of Landolfo—Erlembaldo takes his place 215
1062 His success 216
1066 Excommunication of Archbishop Guido—Martyrdom
of Arialdo 216
1067 Compromise and temporary truce 217
1069 Guido forced to resign—War between Gotefrido
and Azzo for the succession 218
1075 Death of Erlembaldo—Tedaldo archbishop in spite
of Gregory VII. 219
Influence of celibacy on the struggle 220
1093-1095 Triumph of sacerdotalism 221
Similar trouble throughout Tuscany 222
XIV.—HILDEBRAND.
1073 Election of Gregory VII.—His character 223
Necessity of celibacy to his scheme of theocratic
supremacy 225
1074 Synod of Rome—Repetition of previous canons 227
Attempts to enforce them throughout Europe—Resistance
of the clergy 228
Three bishops—Otho of Constance—Altmann of
Passau—Siegfrid of Mainz 229
1074 Gregory appeals to the laity 232
Resultant persecution of the clergy 234
1077 Violent resistance of the married clergy 236
Political complications 237
1085 Papalists and Imperialists both condemn sacerdotal
marriage 239
XV.—CENTRAL EUROPE.
Depression of the Catholic party—Sacerdotal marriage
connived at 241
1089 Urban II. renews the persecution 242
1094 Contumacy of the German priesthood 243
1105 Deposition of Henry IV.—Germany restored to
Catholic unity 244
1118-1175 Sacerdotal marriage nevertheless common 245
1092-1257 First introduction of celibacy in Hungary 248
1197-1279 Introduction of celibacy in Poland 251
1213-1248 Disregard of the canons in Sweden 252
1117-1266 Their enforcement in Denmark 253
1219-1271 Their neglect in Friesland 254
XVI.—FRANCE.
1056-1064 Efforts to introduce sacerdotal celibacy 255
1074-1078 Contumacy of the clergy 256
1080 William the Conqueror intervenes—First allusion
to licenses to sin 257
Successful resistance of the Norman and Breton
clergy 258
1076-1094 Troubles in Flanders 259
Confusion caused by the attempted reform 262
1095 Council of Clermont—Its canons disregarded 263
Condition of the monastic establishments 264
Hereditary transmission of benefices 265
Miracles invoked in aid of the reform 266
1119 Calixtus II. commences a new reform 267
Resistance of the Norman priesthood 268
Abelard and Heloise—Standard of morals erected
by the church 269
1212 Continuance of clerical marriage 270
XVII.—NORMAN ENGLAND.
1066 Canons not enforced by William I. 271
1076 First effort made by the Council of Winchester 272
1102 St. Anselm undertakes the reform—Council of
London 273
Resistance of the priests—Failure of the movement 275
1104 Henry I. uses the reform as a financial expedient 276
1108 He enforces outward obedience 277
1126 Stubborn contumacy of the priesthood 279
1129 Henry again speculates on clerical immorality 280
1138-1171 Disorders of the English church 281
Consorts of priests no longer termed wives 283
1208 King John discovers their financial value 283
Venality of the ecclesiastical officials 284
“Focariæ” still universal 285
1215 Indignation of the clergy at the reforms of Innocent
III. 286
1237 Cardinal Otto and the Council of London 288
Popular poems concerning the reform 289
1250-1268 Gradual extinction of clerical marriage in England 290
Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 292
Fruitless legislation against concubinage 293
12th-15th C. Sacerdotal marriage in Wales 293
XVIII.—IRELAND AND SCOTLAND.
Degradation of the Irish church prior to the
twelfth century 295
1130-1149 Reforms of St. Malachi—Influence of Rome 296
Monastic character of the reformed church 297
1186-1320 Condition of the church in the English Pale 298
Degeneration of the Scottish Culdees 299
1124-1153 David I. reforms the church and reestablishes
celibacy 300
1225-1268 Immorality of the Scottish clergy 301
XIX.—SPAIN.
11th Cent. Independent barbarism of the Spanish church—Marriage
universal 302
1068-1080 Encroachments of Rome—sacerdotal marriage condemned 303
1101-1129 Reforms of Diego Gelmirez—Marriage not interfered
with 305
1260 Legislation of Alfonso the Wise—Concubinage
universal 308
1323 Concubinage organized as a safeguard by the laity 310
Corruption throughout the middle ages 311
XX.—GENERAL LEGISLATION.
1123 Marriage now first dissolved by Holy Orders 313
1130 The innovation not as yet enforced 314
1139 Sacerdotal marriage formally declared void by the
Second Council of Lateran 315
1148 Confirmed by the Council of Rheims—Denied by
Gratian 316
1150 The new doctrine receives no obedience 318
1158-1181 Alexander III. insists upon it 319
But excepts immoral ecclesiastics 320
Conflict of rules and exceptions 322
1206-1255 Case of Bossaert d’Avesnes 323
Alexander III. proposes to restore clerical marriage 325
1187-1198 Efforts of the popes to enforce the canons 326
1215 Fourth Council of Lateran—Triumph of Sacerdotalism 327
XXI.—RESULTS.
Recognition of the obligation of celibacy 330
Increase of immorality 331
13th-15th C. Fruitless attempts to restrain corruption 333
1231 Recognition of children of ecclesiastics 335
1225-1416 Efforts to restrict hereditary transmission 338
1317 Recognition of concubinage 339
Successful resistance to reform 340
12th-15th C. Morals of the papal court 341
Influence on society of sacerdotal celibacy 346
Influence of monachism 357
XXII.—THE MILITARY ORDERS.
1120 Knights of St. John vowed to celibacy 362
1128 Knights of the Temple vowed to celibacy 362
1175 Knights of St. James of the Sword allowed to
marry 363
1441 Marriage permitted to the Order of Calatrava 364
1496 And to the Orders of Avis and Jesus Christ 365
1167 Order of St. Michael allowed to marry once 365
Reforms attempted in the Order of St. John 366
The Teutonic Knights 366
XXIII.—THE HERESIES.
Asceticism of mediæval Manichæism 367
Difficulty of combating it 369
1146 Antisacerdotalism—The Petrobrusians and Henricians 370
1148 Éon de l’Étoile 371
c. 1160 The Waldenses 372
1294 Antisacerdotalism of the Franciscans—The Fraticelli 375
1341 John of Pirna 378
1377 Wickliffe 378
1394 The Lollards denounce clerical celibacy 381
1415-1438 The Hussites—They maintain ascetic celibacy 382
1411-1414 Brethren of the Cross—Men of Intelligence 385
1488-1498 Savonarola 386
XXIV.—THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Demoralization of the sacerdotal body 388
1418 Futile efforts of the Council of Constance 390
1422 Efforts of Martin V. 392
Undiminished corruption and symptoms of revolt 393
1435 The Council of Bâle attempts a reform 395
Impotence of the Basilian canons—Venality of
the papal court 396
1484-1500 Condition of the church in Italy, France, England,
Spain, Germany, and Hungary 398
1496 Relaxation of monastic discipline 402
1476 John of Nicklaushausen 405
Sacerdotal marriage advocated as a remedy 405
1479 John of Oberwesel 407
1485 Heresy of Jean Laillier 408
XXV.—THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY.
Irreverential spirit of the sixteenth century 410
1510 Complaints of the Germans against the church 411
Immobility of the church 412
Popular movement—Luther and Erasmus 413
1518 Official opposition to the abuses of the church 416
1517-1520 Luther neglects the question of celibacy—his
gradual progress 417
1521 First examples of sacerdotal marriage 419
Approved by Carlostadt—Disapproved by Luther 419
1522 Zwingli demands sacerdotal marriage—Luther
adopts it 421
1524 Efforts of the church to repress the movement 423
Popular approbation—Protection in high quarters 424
1523-1524 Emancipation of nuns and monks 425
1525 Marriage of Luther 425
Causes of popular acquiescence in the change 427
Extreme immorality of the clergy 427
Admitted by the Catholics to justify heresy 430
1522-1526 Erasmus advocates clerical marriage 432
Assistance from ambition of temporal princes 434
1530 Efforts at reunion—Confession of Augsburg 435
Failure of reconciliation—League of Schmalkalden 438
The Anabaptists 438
1532-1541 Partial toleration—Difficulties concerning the
Abbey lands 439
1548 The Interim—Sacerdotal marriage tolerated 441
1552 The Reformation established by the Transaction
of Passau 443
XXVI.—THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.
Conservative tendencies of England 444
1500-1523 John Colet and Sir Thomas More 445
1524 Difficulties of the situation—Wolsey undertakes
the destruction of monachism 447
1528 General suppression of the smaller houses 448
1532 Henry VIII.’s quarrel with Rome 449
1535 General visitation of monasteries, and suppression
of most of them 451
Popular opinions—The Beggars’ Petition 453
1536 Popular discontent—The Pilgrimage of Grace 455
1537-1546 Final suppression of the religious houses 456
Fate of their inmates 460
1535-1541 Irish monastic establishments destroyed 461
Henry still insists on celibacy 461
Efforts to procure its relaxation 463
1537 Uncertainty of the subject in the public mind 465
1539 Henry’s firmness—Act of the Six Articles 466
Persecution of the married clergy 469
1540 Modification of the Six Articles 471
1547 Accession of Edward VI.—Repeal of the Six
Articles 472
1548-1549 Full liberty of marriage accorded to the clergy 473
Armed opposition of the people 474
1552 Adoption of the Forty-two Articles 475
Difficulty of removing popular convictions 476
1553 Accession of Queen Mary—Legislation of Edward
repealed 477
1554 The married clergy separated and deprived 478
Suffering of the clergy in consequence 480
England reconciled to Rome—Church lands not
recalled 482
1555 Cardinal Pole’s Legatine Constitutions 483
1557 More stringent legislation required—Revival of
the old troubles 485
1558 Accession of Queen Elizabeth 486
1559 Delay in authorizing marriage—Uncertainty of
the married clergy 487
Elizabeth yields, but imposes degrading restrictions
on clerical marriage 488
1563 The Thirty-nine Articles—Increased emphasis of
permission to marry 490
Elizabeth maintains her prejudices 491
Disrepute of sacerdotal marriage—Evil effects on
the Anglican clergy 494
XXVII.—CALVINISM.
1559-1640 The Huguenot Churches 498
The Reformation in Scotland 501
Corruption of the Scottish church in the sixteenth
century 501
1542-1559 Efforts at internal reform—their fruitlessness 504
Marriage assumed as a matter of course by the
Protestants 506
Temporal motives assisting the Reformation 507
Poverty of the Scottish church establishment 508
Influence of celibacy on the struggle 509
1560 No formal recognition of clerical marriage thought
necessary 512
XXVIII.—THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.
1524-1536 Efforts at internal reform 514
Universal demand for a general council—Convoked
at Mantua in 1536 519
1542-1547 Assembles at Trent—it labors to separate, not to
reunite the churches 520
1551-1552 Reassembles at Trent—is again broken up 521
1562 Again assembles for the last time 522
1536 Paul III. essays an internal reform without result 522
1548 Charles V. tries to reform the German church 524
1548-1551 Local reformatory synods—their failure 525
1560 Clerical marriage demanded as a last resort 529
Clerical corruption urged as the reason 530
1563 The French court joins in the demand 533
1560 The question prejudged 533
1563 The council makes celibacy a point of faith 536
Attempts a reformation 538
1563-1564 The German princes continue their efforts 539
Essays of Cassander and Wicelius 542
1564 Maximilian II. renews the attempt 543
His requests peremptorily rejected 544
XXIX.—THE POST-TRIDENTINE CHURCH.
Reception of the Council of Trent except in
France 546
1566-1572 Pius V. endeavors to effect a reform 547
1568-1570 Labors of St. Charles Borromeo at Milan 550
1565-1597 Reforms vainly attempted by Italian councils 552
1569-1668 Condition of the church in Central Europe 553
Marriage still practised until 1628 556
Clerical immorality still a justification of heresy 556
1560-1624 Condition of the church in France 558
The residence of women conceded 561
The church in the Spanish Colonies 562
Abuse of the confessional 566
Abuse of the power of absolution 575
Influence of the casuistic spirit 578
XXX.—THE CHURCH AND THE REVOLUTION.
Sacerdotal marriage obsolete—Grandier, Du Pin,
Bossuet 581
1758-1800 The eighteenth century—Controversy reopened 582
1783 Joseph II. proposes to permit sacerdotal marriage 583
1760-1787 Clerical immorality undiminished 585
1789 The French Revolution 588
1789-1790 Confiscation of church property—Suppression of
monachism 589
1791 Celibacy deprived of legal protection—Marriage
of priests 590
1793 Marriage becomes a test of good citizenship 592
Persecution of the unmarried clergy 592
Resistance of the great body of the clergy 594
1795-1797 Married clergy repudiated by their bishops 595
1801 Celibacy restored by the Concordat 595
1801-1807 Clerical marriage continues—Napoleon decides
against it 597
XXXI.—THE CHURCH OF TO-DAY.
1815-1883 Vacillating policy in France as to clerical marriage 599
1821-1866 Various movements in favor of clerical marriage 601
Immobility of the church 603
1878 The Old Catholics adopt clerical marriage 604
Civil marriage laws opposed by the church 605
Celibacy not likely to be disturbed 607
1820-1867 Suppression of monastic orders 608
Vigor and improvement of modern monachism 611
Its influence in the field of education 616
1880 Suppression of unauthorized orders in France 621
Influence of celibacy on clerical morality 624
Its influence on the social organization 638
NOTE.
On Celibacy as a matter of faith under the Council
of Trent 640
SACERDOTAL CELIBACY.
The Latin church is the great fact which dominates the history of
modern civilization. All other agencies which moulded the destinies
of mediæval Europe were comparatively isolated or sporadic in their
manifestations. Thus in one place we may trace the beneficent influence
of commerce at work, in another the turbulent energy of the rising
Third Estate; the mortal contests of the feudal powers with each other
and with progress are waged in detached and convulsive struggles;
chivalry casts only occasional and evanescent flashes of light amid the
darkness of military barbarism; literature seeks to gain support from
any power which will condescend to lend transitory aid to the plaything
of the moment. Nowhere do we see combined effort, nowhere can we detect
a pervading impulse, irrespective of locality or of circumstance, save
in the imposing machinery of the church establishment. This meets us
at every point, and in every age, and in every sphere of action. In
the dim solitude of the cloister, the monk is training the minds which
are to mould the destinies of the period, while his roof is the refuge
of the desolate and the home of the stranger. In the tribunal, the
priest is wrestling with the baron, and is extending his more humane
and equitable code over a jurisdiction subjected to the caprices
of feudal or customary law, as applied by a class of ignorant and
arbitrary tyrants. In the royal palace, the hand of the ecclesiastic,
visible or invisible, is guiding the helm of state, regulating the
policy of nations, and converting the brute force of chivalry into the
supple instrument of his will. In Central Europe, lordly prelates,
with the temporal power and possessions of the highest princes, joined
to the exclusive pretensions of the church, make war and peace, and
are sovereign in all but name, owing no allegiance save to Emperors
whom they elect and Popes whose cause they share. Far above all, the
successor of St. Peter from his pontifical throne claims the whole of
Europe as his empire, and dictates terms to kings who crouch under
his reproof, or are crushed in the vain effort of rebellion. At the
other extremity of society, the humble minister of the altar, with his
delegated power over heaven and hell, wields in cottage as in castle an
authority hardly less potent, and sways the minds of the faithful with
his right to implicit obedience. Even art offers a willing submission
to the universal mistress, and seeks the embodiment of its noblest
aspirations in the lofty poise of the cathedral spire, the rainbow
glories of the painted window, and the stately rhythm of the solemn
chant.
This vast fabric of ecclesiastical supremacy presents one of the most
curious problems which the world’s history affords. A wide and absolute
authority, deriving its force from moral power alone, marshalling no
legions of its own in battle array, but permeating everything with
its influence, walking unarmed through deadly strife, rising with
renewed strength from every prostration, triumphing alike over the
savage nature of the barbarian and the enervated apathy of the Roman
tributary, blending discordant races and jarring nations into one great
brotherhood of subjection—such was the Papal hierarchy, a marvel and a
mystery. Well is it personified in Gregory VII., a fugitive from Rome,
without a rood of ground to call him master, a rival Pope lording it
in the Vatican, a triumphant Emperor vowed to internecine strife, yet
issuing his commands as sternly and as proudly to prince and potentate
as though he were the unquestioned suzerain of Europe, and listened to
as humbly by three-fourths of Christendom. The man wasted away in the
struggle; his death was but the accident of time: the church lived on,
and marched to inevitable victory.
The investigations of the curious can hardly be deemed misapplied in
analyzing the elements of this impalpable but irresistible power, and
in examining the causes which have enabled it to preserve such unity
of action amid such diversity of environment, presenting everywhere
by turns a solid and united front to the opposing influences of
barbarism and civilization. In detaching one of these elements
from the group, and tracing out its successive vicissitudes, I may
therefore be pardoned for thinking the subject of sufficient interest
to warrant a minuteness of detail that would otherwise perhaps appear
disproportionate.
The Janizaries of the Porte were Christian children, recruited by
the most degrading tribute which tyrannical ingenuity has invented.
Torn from their homes in infancy, every tie severed that bound them
to the world around them; the past a blank, the future dependent
solely upon the master above them; existence limited to the circle of
their comrades, among whom they could rise, but whom they could never
leave; such was the corps which bore down the bravest of the Christian
chivalry and carried the standard of the Prophet in triumph to the
walls of Vienna. Mastering at length their master, they wrung from
him the privilege of marriage; and the class in becoming hereditary,
with human hopes and fears disconnected with the one idea of their
service, no longer presented the same invincible phalanx, and at last
became terrible only to the effeminate denizens of the seraglio. The
example is instructive, and it affords grounds for the assumption
that the canon which bound all the active ministers of the church to
perpetual celibacy, and thus created an impassable barrier between them
and the outer world, was one of the efficient instruments in creating
and consolidating both the temporal and spiritual power of the Roman
hierarchy.
I.
ASCETICISM.
The most striking contrast between the Mosaic Dispensation and the Law
of Christ is the materialism of the one, and the pure spiritualism
of the other. The Hebrew prophet threatens worldly punishments, and
promises fleshly rewards: the Son of Man teaches us to contemn the
treasures of this life, and directs all our fears and aspirations
towards eternity. The exaggeration of these teachings by the zeal of
fervent disciples led to the ascetic efforts to subjugate nature,
which present so curious a feature in religious history, and of which
those concerning the relations of the sexes form the subject of our
consideration.
This special phase of asceticism was altogether foreign to the
traditions of Israel, averse as they were to all restrictions upon the
full physical development of man. Enjoying, apparently, no conception
of a future existence, the earlier Hebrews had no incentive to
sacrifice the pleasures of the world for those of a Heaven of which
they knew nothing; nor was the gross polytheism, which the monotheistic
prophets combated, of a nature to lead to ascetic practices. The
worship of Ashera—probably identical with the Babylonian Beltis
or Mylitta—undoubtedly consecrated the sacrifice of chastity as a
religious rite, and those who revered the goddess of fertility as one
of the supreme deities were not likely to impose any restrictions on
the exercise of her powers.[1] We see, indeed, in the story of Judah
and Tamar, and in the lamentation of the daughter of Jephthah, that
virginity was regarded almost as a disgrace, and that child-bearing
was considered the noblest function of woman; while the institution of
levirate marriage shows an importance attributed to descendants in the
male line as marked as among the Hindu Arya. The hereditary character
of the priesthood, moreover, both as vested in the original Levites,
and the later Tsadukim and Baithusin, indicates conclusively that even
among the orthodox no special sanctity attached to continence, and
that the temporary abstinence from women required of those who handled
the hallowed articles of the altar (_I. Samuel xxi. 4-5_) was simply a
distinction drawn between the sacerdotal class and the laity, for in
the elaborate instructions as to uncleanness, there is no allusion made
to sexual indulgence, though the priest who had partaken of wine was
forbidden to enter the Tabernacle, and defilement arising from contact
with the dead was a disability (_Levit. x., xxi., xxii._),[2] while
the highest blessing that could be promised as a reward for obedience
to God was that “there shall not be male or female barren among you”
(_Deut. vii. 14_). In fact, the only manifestation of asceticism as a
religious ordinance, prior to the Second Temple, is seen in the vow of
the Nazirites, which consisted merely in allowing the hair to remain
unshorn, in the abstinence from wine and in avoiding the pollution
arising from contact with the dead. Slender as were these restrictions,
the ordinary term of a Nazirate was only thirty days, though it might
be assumed for life, as in the cases of Samson and Samuel; and the vows
for long terms were deemed sufficiently pleasing to God to serve as
means of propitiation, as in the case of Hannah, who thus secured her
offspring Samuel, and in that of Helena, Queen of Adiabene, who vowed
a Nazirate of seven years if her son Izaces should return in safety
from a campaign.[3] The few references to the custom in Scripture,
however, show that it was little used, and that it exercised no visible
influence over social life during the earlier periods.
When the conquests of Cyrus released the Hebrews from captivity, the
close relations established with the Persians wrought no change in
this aspect of the Jewish faith. Mazdeism, in fact, was a religion
so wholesome and practical in its character that asceticism could
find little place among its prescribed observances, and the strict
maintenance of its priesthood in certain families who transmitted
their sacred lore from father to son, shows that no restrictions were
placed upon the ministers of Hormadz, or athravas,[4] though in the
later period of the Achæmenian empire, after the purity of ancient
Mazdeism had become corrupted, the priestesses of the Sun were required
to observe chastity, without necessarily being virgins.[5] With the
conquests of Alexander, however, Judaism was exposed to new influences,
and was brought into relation at once with Grecian thought and with
the subtle mysticism of India, with which intercourse became frequent
under the Greek empire. Beyond the Indus the Sankhya philosophy was
already venerable, which taught the nothingness of life, and that the
supreme good consisted in the absolute victory over all human wants
and desires.[6] Already Buddha had reduced this philosophy into a
system of religion, the professors of which were bound to chastity—a
rule impossible of observance by the world at large, but which became
obligatory upon its innumerable priests and monks, when it spread and
established itself as a church, thus furnishing the prototype which was
subsequently copied by Roman Christianity.[7] Already Brahmanism had
invented the classes of Vanaprasthas, Sannyasis, and others—ascetics
whose practices of self-mortification anticipated and excelled all
that is related of Christian Antonys and Simeons—although the ancestor
worship which required every man to provide descendants who should
keep alive the Sraddha in honor of the Pitris of his forefathers
postponed the entrance into the life of the anchorite until after he
should have fulfilled his parental duties:[8] and we know from the
references in the Greek writers to the Hindu gymnosophists how great
an impression these customs had made upon those to whom they were a
novelty.[9] Already the Yoga system had been framed, whereby absorption
into the Godhead was to be obtained by religious mendicancy, penances,
mortifications, and the severest severance of self from all external
surroundings.[10] All this had been founded on the primæval doctrine of
the Vedas with respect to the virtue of _Tapas_, or austere religious
abstraction, to which the most extravagant powers were attributed,
conferring upon its votaries the authority of gods.[11] With all the
absurdities of these beliefs and practices, they yet sprang from a
profound conviction of the superiority of the spiritual side of man’s
nature, and if their theory of the nothingness of mortal existence was
exaggerated, yet they tended to elevate the soul, at the expense, it
must be confessed, of a regard to the duties which man owes to society.
The influences arising from this system of religious philosophy, so
novel to the Semitic races, were tardy is making themselves felt upon
the Hebrews, but they became gradually apparent. The doctrine of a
future life with rewards and punishments, doubtless derived from
Chaldean and Mazdean sources during the Captivity and under the Persian
Empire, slowly made its way, and though opposed by the aristocratic
conservative party in power—the Tsadukim or Sadducees (descendants of
Zadoc, or just men)—it became one of the distinctive dogmas of the
Beth Sopherim or House of Scribes, composed of religious teachers,
trained in all the learning of the day, sprung from the people, and
eager to maintain their nationality against the temporizing policy of
their rulers.[12] At the breaking out of the Maccabean revolt against
Antiochus Epiphanes we find the nation divided into two factions, the
Sadducees, disposed rather to submit to the Hellenizing tyranny of
Antioch, and the Chassidim (the Assideans of the Authorized Version),
democratic reformers, ready for innovation and prepared to die in
defence of their faith. In the triumph of the Hasmonean revolution they
obtained control of the state, and in the development of the Oral Law
by the scribes, supplementing the Torah or Written Law, they engrafted
permanently their doctrines upon the ancestral belief. With the tenet
of spiritual immortality, there followed as a necessary consequence
the subordination of the present existence to life hereafter, which is
the direct incentive to asceticism. The religious exaltation of the
stormy period which intervened between the liberation from Antioch and
the subjugation to Rome afforded a favorable soil for the growth of
this tendency, and rendered the minds of the devout accessible to the
influences both of Eastern and of Western speculation. How powerful
eventually became the latter upon the Alexandrian Jews may be estimated
from the mysticism of Philo.
With their triumph over Antioch, the name of the Chassidim disappears
as that of an organized party, and in its place we find those of
two factions or sects—the Perushim (Pharisees) or Separatists, who
maintained an active warfare, temporal and theological, with the
Sadducees, and the Essenes, mystics, who bound themselves by vows,
generally including the Nazirate, and withdrew from active life for the
benefit of spiritual growth and meditation.
The Essenes cultivated the soil and sometimes even lived in cities, but
often dwelt as anchorites, using no artificial textures as clothing,
and no food save what was spontaneously produced. They mostly practised
daily ablutions and admitted neophytes to their society by the rite
of baptism after a novitiate of a year, followed by two years of
probation. Among those who did not live as hermits, property was held
in common, and marriage was abstained from, and it is to this latter
practice doubtless that reference was made by Christ in the text
“There be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom
of heaven’s sake.” The Essenes enjoyed high consideration among the
people; their teachings were listened to with respect, and they were
regarded as especially favored with the gifts of divination and
prophecy. There can be no doubt that John the Baptist was an Essene;
James of Jerusalem, brother of Jesus, was a Nazirite and probably an
Essene, and Christ himself may reasonably be regarded as trained in the
principles of the sect. His tendencies all lay in that direction, and
it is observable that while he is unsparing in his denunciations of
the Scribes, and Pharisees, and Sadducees, he never utters a word of
condemnation of the Essenes.[13]
It is thus easy to understand the refined spirituality of Christ’s
teachings, and the urgency with which he called the attention of man
from the gross temptations of earth to the higher things which should
fit him for the inheritance of eternal life. Yet his profound wisdom
led him to forbear from enjoining even the asceticism of the Essenes.
He allowed a moderate enjoyment of the gifts of the Creator; and when
he sternly rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees for imposing, in their
development of the Oral Law, burdens upon men not easily to be borne
by the weakness of human nature, he was far indeed from seeking to
render obligatory, or even to recommend, practices which only the
fervor of fanaticism could render endurable. No teacher before him had
ventured to form so lofty a conception of the marriage-tie. It was
an institution of God himself whereby man and wife became one flesh.
“What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder;”
and though he refrained from condemning abstention from wedlock, he
regarded it as possible only to those whose exceptional exaltation of
temperament might enable them to overcome the instincts and passions of
humanity.[14]
When the broad proselyting views and untiring energy of Paul, the
apostle of the Gentiles, were brought to bear upon the little circle of
mourning disciples, it was inevitable that a rupture should take place.
No one in the slightest degree familiar with the spirit of Judaism
at that day can have difficulty in understanding how those who still
regarded themselves as Jews, who looked upon their martyr, not as the
Son of God, but, in the words of Peter, as “Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you, by miracles and wonders and signs which
God did by him in the midst of you,” and who held, as is urged in the
Epistle of James, firmly to their Master’s injunction to preserve every
jot and tittle of the Law, should regard with growing distrust and
distaste the activity of the Pharisee Paul, who, like other Pharisees,
was ready to encompass land and sea to gain one proselyte, and, more
than this, was prepared to throw down the exclusive barriers of the
Law in order to invite all mankind to share in the glad tidings of
Salvation.[15] The division came in time, and as the Gentile church
spread and flourished, it stigmatized as heretics those who adhered
to the simple monotheistic reformed Judaism which Christ had taught.
These became known as the Ebionim, or Poor Men, Essenes, and others,
who followed Christ as a prophet inspired by God, who accepted all of
the apostles save Paul, whom they regarded as a transgressor of the
Law, holding their property in common, honoring virginity rather than
marriage, but uttering no precept upon the subject, and observing the
Written Law with rigid accuracy. They maintained a quiet existence for
four centuries, making no progress, but exciting no antagonism save on
the part of vituperative heresiologists, whose denunciations, however,
contain no rational grounds for regarding them otherwise than as the
successors of the original followers of Christ.[16]
Meanwhile, Pauline Christianity, launched on the tumultuous existence
of the Gentile world, had adapted itself to the passions and ambitions
of men, had availed itself both of their strength and of their
weakness, and had become a very different creed from that which had
been taught around the Sea of Galilee, and had seen its teacher
expiate on Calvary his revolt against the Oral Law. In its gradual
transformation through the ages, from Essenic and Ebionic simplicity
to the magnificent sacerdotalism of the Innocents and Gregories, it
has felt itself bound to find or make, in its earliest records, some
precedent for every innovation, and accordingly its ardent polemics
in modern times have endeavored to prove that the celibacy of its
ministers was, if not absolutely ordained, at least practised from the
earliest period. Much unnecessary logic and argument have been spent
upon this subject since the demand which arose for clerical marriage at
the Reformation forced the champions of the church to find scriptural
authority for the canon which enjoins celibacy. The fact is that prior
to the sixteenth century the fathers of the church had no scruple in
admitting that in primitive times the canon had no existence and the
custom was not observed. The reader may therefore well be spared a
disquisition upon a matter which may be held to be self-evident, and
be contented with a brief reference to some of the authorities of the
church who, prior to the Reformation, admitted that in primitive times
marriage was freely permitted to the ministers of Christ.
No doctor of the church did more than St. Jerome to impose the rule
of celibacy on its members, yet even he admits that at the beginning
there was no absolute injunction to that effect; and he endeavors to
apologize for the admission by arguing that infants must be nourished
with milk and not with solid food.[17] In the middle of the eleventh
century, during the controversy between Rome and Constantinople,
Rome had no scruple in admitting that the celebrated text of St.
Paul (_I. Cor. ix. 5_) meant that the apostles were married, though
subsequent commentators have exhausted so much ingenuity in explaining
it away.[18] A century later Gratian, the most learned canonist of
his time, in the “Decretum,” undertaken at the request of the papal
court, which has ever since maintained its position as the standard
of the canon law, felt no hesitation in admitting that, before the
adoption of the canon, marriage was everywhere undisturbed among
those in orders, as it continued to be in the Greek church.[19] The
reputation of St. Thomas Aquinas as a theologian was as unquestioned
as that of Gratian as a canonist, and the Angelic Doctor admitted as
freely as the canon lawyer that compulsory celibacy was an innovation
on the rules of the primitive church, which he endeavors to explain
by an argument contradictory to that of St. Jerome, for he says that
the greater sanctity of the earlier Christians rendered them superior
to the asceticism requisite to the purity of a degenerate age, even
as no modern warrior could emulate the exploit of Samson in throwing
himself amid a hostile army with no other weapon than a jaw-bone. He
even admits, what other authorities have denied, that Christ required
no separation between St. Peter and his wife.[20] There were in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries few more learned men than Giraldus
Cambrensis, whose orthodoxy was unquestioned, and who, as Archdeacon
of St. David’s, vigorously sought to enforce the rule of continence
upon his recalcitrant clergy. Yet in a strenuous exhortation to them to
mend the error of their ways in this respect, he admits that clerical
celibacy has no scriptural or apostolic warrant.[21] That this was
universally admitted at the time is manifested by Alfonso the Wise, of
Castile, about the middle of the thirteenth century, asserting the
fact in the most positive manner, while forbidding marriage to the
priests of his dominions, in the code known as Las Siete Partidas.[22]