maintain their observance. In 530 a constitution of Justinian calls
attention to the regulation prohibiting the marriage of deacons and
subdeacons, and in view of the little respect paid to it, the Emperor
proceeds to declare the children of such unions spurious (not even
nothi or naturales) and incompetent to inherit anything; the wife is
likewise incapacitated from inheritance, and the whole estate of the
father is escheated to the church—the severity of which may perhaps
be a fair measure of the extent of the evil which it was intended
to repress.[162] Five years later Justinian recurs to the subject,
and lays down the received regulations in all their details. Any
one who keeps a concubine, or who has married a divorced woman or a
second wife, is to be held ineligible to the diaconate or priesthood.
Any member of those orders or of the subdiaconate who takes a wife
or a concubine, whether publicly or secretly, is thereupon to be
degraded and to lose all clerical privileges; and though the strongest
preference is expressed for those who though married preserve
strict continence, the very phrase employed indicates that this was
altogether a matter of choice, and that previous conjugal relations
were not subject to any legislative interference.[163] These same
regulations were repeated some ten years later in a law, promulgated
about 545,[164] which was preserved throughout the whole period of
Greek jurisprudence, being inserted by Leo the Philosopher in his
Basilica,[165] quoted by Photius in the Nomocanon, and referred to as
still in force by Balsamon in the thirteenth century.[166] At the same
time Justinian tacitly admits the failure of previous efforts when he
adds a provision by which an unmarried postulant for the diaconate is
obliged to pledge himself not to marry, and any bishop permitting such
marriage is threatened with degradation.[167]
Bishops, however, were subjected to the full severity of the Latin
discipline. As early as 528, Justinian ordered that no one should be
eligible to the episcopate who was burdened with either children or
grandchildren, giving as a reason the engrossing duties of the office,
which required that the whole mind and soul should be devoted to them,
and still more significantly hinting the indecency of converting to the
use of the prelate’s family the wealth bestowed by the faithful on the
church for pious uses and for charity.[168] It is probable that this
was not strictly observed, for in 535, when repeating the injunction,
and adding a restriction on conjugal intercourse, he intimates that no
inquiry shall be made into infractions previously occurring, but that
it shall be rigidly enforced for the future.[169] The decision was
final as regards the absence of a wife, for it was again alluded to in
548, and that law is carried through the Nomocanon and Basilica.[170]
The absence of children as a prerequisite to the episcopate, however,
was not insisted upon so pertinaciously, for Leo the Philosopher,
after the compilation of the Basilica, issued a constitution allowing
the ordination of bishops who had legitimate offspring, arguing that
brothers and other relatives were equally prone to withdraw them from
the duties of their position.[171]
* * * * *
It is not worth while to enter into the interminable controversy
respecting the council held at Constantinople in 680, the canons of
which were promulgated in 692, and which is known to polemics as the
_Quinisext in Trullo_. The Greeks maintain that it was Œcumenic,
and its legislation binding upon Christendom; the Latins, that it
was provincial and schismatic; but whether Pope Agatho acceded to
its canons or not; whether a century later Adrian I. admitted them,
or whether their authentication by the second council of Nicæa gave
them authority over the whole church or not, are questions of little
practical importance for our purpose, for they never were really
incorporated into the law of the West, and they are only to be regarded
as forming a portion of the received ecclesiastical jurisprudence of
the East. In one sense, however, their bearing upon the Latin church
is interesting, for, in spite of them, Rome maintained communion with
Constantinople for more than a century and a half, and the schism which
then took place arose from altogether different causes. In the West,
therefore, celibacy was only a point of discipline, of no doctrinal
importance, and not a matter of heresy, as we shall see it afterwards
become under the stimulus afforded by Protestant controversy.
The canons of the Quinisext are very full upon all the questions
relating to celibacy, and show that great relaxation had occurred in
enforcing the regulations embodied in the laws of Justinian. Digami
must have become numerous in the church, for the prohibition of their
ordination is renewed, and all who had not released themselves from
such forbidden unions by June 15th of the preceding year are condemned
to suffer deposition. So marriage in orders had evidently become
frequent, for all guilty of it are enjoined to leave their wives, when,
after a short suspension, they are to be restored to their position,
though ineligible to promotion.[172] A much severer punishment is,
however, provided for those who should subsequently be guilty of the
same indiscretion, for all such infractions of the rule are visited
with absolute deposition[173]—thus proving that it had fallen into
desuetude, since those who sinned after its restoration were regarded
as much more culpable than those who had merely transgressed an
obsolete law. Even bishops had neglected the restrictions imposed upon
them by Justinian, for the council refers to prelates in Africa, Libya,
and elsewhere, who lived openly with their wives; and although this is
prohibited for the future under penalty of deposition, and although all
wives of those promoted to the episcopate are directed to be placed
in nunneries at a distance from their husbands, yet the remarkable
admission is made that this is done for the sake of the people, who
regarded such things as a scandal, and not for the purpose of changing
that which had been ordained by the Apostles.[174]
With regard to the future discipline of the great body of the clergy,
the council, after significantly acknowledging that the Roman church
required a promise of abstinence from married candidates for the
diaconate and priesthood, proceeds to state that it desires to adhere
to the Apostolic canon by keeping inviolate the conjugal relations of
those in holy orders, and by permitting them to associate with their
wives, only stipulating for continence during the time devoted to the
ministry of the sacraments. To put an end to all opposition to this
privilege, deposition is threatened against those who shall presume
to interfere between the clergy and their wives, and likewise against
all who, under pretence of religion, shall put their wives away. At
the same time, in order to promote the extension of the church, in the
foreign provinces, this latter penalty is remitted, as a concession to
the prejudices of the “Barbarians.”[175] How thoroughly in some regions
sacerdotal marriage had come to be the rule we learn from a reference
to Armenia, where the Levitical custom of the Hebrews was imitated, in
the creation of a sacerdotal caste, transmitted from father to son, and
confined to the priestly houses. This limitation is condemned by the
council, which orders that all who are worthy of ordination shall be
regarded as eligible.[176]
The Eastern church thus formally and in the most solemn manner recorded
its separate and independent discipline on this point, and refused to
be bound by the sacerdotalism of Rome. It thus maintained the customs
transmitted from the early period, when asceticism had commenced to
show itself, but it shrank from carrying out the principles involved
to their ultimate result, as was sternly attempted by the inexorable
logic of Rome. The system thus laid down was permanent, for throughout
the East the Quinisext was received unquestioningly as a general
council, and its decrees were authoritative and unalterable. It is
true that in the confusion of the two following centuries a laxity
of practice gradually crept in, by which those who desired to marry
were admitted to holy orders while single, and were granted two years
after ordination during which they were at liberty to take wives, but
this was acknowledged to be an abuse, and about the year 900 it was
formally prohibited by a constitution of Leo the Philosopher.[177]
Thus restored, the Greek church has preserved its early traditions
unaltered to the present day. Marriage in orders is not permitted, nor
are digami admissible, but the lower grades of the clergy are free
to marry, nor are they separated from their wives when promoted to
the sacred functions of the diaconate or priesthood. The bishops are
selected from the regular clergy or monks, and, being bound by the vow
of chastity, are of course unmarried and unable to marry. Thus the
legislation of Justinian is practically transmitted to the nineteenth
century. Even this restriction on the freedom of marriage renders it
difficult to preserve the purity of the priesthood, and the Greek
church, like the Latin, is forced occasionally to renew the Nicene
prohibition against the residence of suspected women.[178]
The strongly marked hereditary tendency, which is so distinguishing a
characteristic of mediæval European institutions has led, in Russia at
least, since the time of Peter the Great, to the customary transmission
of the priesthood, and even of individual churches, from father to
son, thus creating a sacerdotal caste. To such an extent has this
been carried that marriage is obligatory on the parish priest, and
custom requires that the wife shall be the daughter of a priest. Some
of the results of this are to be seen in a law of 1867, forbidding
for the future the aspirant to a cure from marrying the daughter of
his predecessor or undertaking to support the family of the late
incumbent as a condition precedent to obtaining the preferment. It
shows how entirely the duties of the clergy had been lost in the sense
of property and hereditary right attaching to benefices, leading
inevitably to the neglect or perfunctory performance of ecclesiastical
duties.[179] We shall see hereafter how narrowly the Latin church
escaped a similar transformation, and how prolonged was the struggle to
avoid it.
* * * * *
One branch of the Eastern church, however, relaxed the rules of
the Quinisext. In 431, Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was
excommunicated for his heretical subtleties as to the nature of
the Godhead in Christ. Driven out from the Empire by the orthodox
authorities, his followers spread throughout Mesopotamia and Persia,
where, by the end of the century, their efforts had gradually converted
nearly the whole population. About the year 480, Barsuma, metropolitan
of Nisibi, added to his Nestorian heresy the guilt of marrying a nun,
when to justify himself he assembled a synod in which the privilege of
marriage was granted not only to priests, but even to monks. In 485,
Babueus, Patriarch of Seleucia, held a council which excommunicated
Barsuma and condemned his licentious doctrines; but, about ten years
later, a subsequent patriarch, Babeus, in the council of Seleucia,
obtained the enactment of canons conferring the privilege of marriage
on all ranks of the clergy, from monk to patriarch. Some forty years
later a debate recorded between the Patriarch Mar Aba and King Chosroes
shows that repeated marriages were common among all orders, but Mar
Aba subsequently issued a canon depriving patriarchs and bishops of
the right, and subjecting them to the rules of the Latin and Greek
churches.[180]
The career of the Nestorians shows that matrimony is not incompatible
with mission-work, for they were the most successful missionaries
on record. They penetrated throughout India, Tartary, and China. In
the latter empire they lasted until the thirteenth century; while in
India they not improbably exercised an influence in modifying the
doctrines of ancient Brahmanism,[181] and the Portuguese discoverers in
the fifteenth century found them flourishing in Malabar. So numerous
were they that during the existence of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem
they are described, in conjunction with the monophysite sect of the
Jacobines, as exceeding in numbers the inhabitants of the rest of
Christendom.[182]
* * * * *
Another segment of the Eastern church may properly receive attention
here. The Abyssinians and Coptic Christians of Egypt can scarcely
in truth be considered a part of the Greek church, as they are
monophysite in belief, and have in many particulars adopted Jewish
customs, such as circumcision, &c. Their observances as regards
marriage, however, tally closely with the canons of the Quinisext,
except that bishops are permitted to retain their wives. In the
sixteenth century, Bishop Zaga Zabo, who was sent as envoy to Portugal
by David, King of Abyssinia, left behind him a confession of faith
for the edification of the curious. In this document he describes
the discipline of his church as strict in forbidding the clericature
to illegitimates; marriage is not dissolved by ordination, but
second marriage, or marriage in orders, is prohibited, except under
dispensation from the Patriarch, a favor occasionally granted to
magnates for public reasons. Without such dispensation, the offender
is expelled from the priesthood, while a bishop or other ecclesiastic
convicted of having an illegitimate child is forthwith deprived of all
his benefices and possessions. Monasteries, moreover, were numerous and
monachal chastity was strictly enforced.[183] These rules, I presume,
are still in force. A recent traveller in those regions states that “if
a priest be married previous to his ordination, he is allowed to remain
so; but no one can marry after having entered the priesthood”—while a
mass of superstitious and ascetic observances has overlaid religion,
until little trace is left of original Christianity.[184]
VII.
MONACHISM.
The Monastic Orders occupy too prominent a place in ecclesiastical
history, and were too powerful an instrument both for good and evil,
to be passed over without some cursory allusion, although the secular
clergy is more particularly the subject of the present sketch, and the
rise and progress of monachism is a topic too extensive in its details
to be thoroughly considered in the space which can be allotted to it.
In this, as in some other forms of asceticism, we must look to Buddhism
for the model on which the Church fashioned her institutions. Ages
before the time of Sakyamuni, the life of the anchorite had become a
favorite mode of securing the _moksha_, or supreme good of absorption
in Brahma. Buddhism, in throwing open the way of salvation to all
mankind, popularized this, and thus multiplied enormously the crowd
of mendicants, who lived upon the charity of the faithful and who
abandoned all the cares and duties of life in the hope of advancing
a step in the scale of being and of ultimately obtaining the highest
bliss of admission to Nirvana. In the hopeless confusion of Hindu
chronology, it is impossible to define dates with exactness, but we
know that at a very early period these Bhikshus and Bhikshunis, or
mendicants of either sex, were organized in monasteries (Viharas or
Sangharamas) erected by the piety of the faithful, and were subjected
to definite rules, prominent among which were those of poverty and
chastity, which subsequently became the foundation of all the Western
orders. Probably the oldest existing scripture of Buddhism is the
Pratimoksha, or collection of rules for observance by the bhikshus,
which tradition, not without probability, ascribes to Sakyamuni
himself. In this, infraction of chastity falls under the first of the
four Parajika rules; it is classed, with murder, among the most serious
offences entailing excommunication and expulsion without forgiveness.
The solicitation of a woman comes within the scope of the thirteen
Sanghadisesa rules, entailing penance and probation, after which
the offender may be absolved by an assembly of not less than twenty
bhikshus. Other punishments are allotted for every suspicious act, and
the utmost care is shown in the regulations laid down for the minutest
details of social intercourse between the sexes.[185]
Under these rules, Buddhist monachism developed to an extent which
more than rivals that of its Western derivative. The remains of the
magnificent Viharas still to be seen in India testify at once to the
enormous multitudes which found shelter in them and to the munificent
piety of the monarchs and wealthy men who, as in Europe, sought to
purchase the favor of Heaven by founding and enlarging these retreats
for the devotee. In China, Buddhism was not introduced until the first
century A. D., and yet, by the middle of the seventh century, in
spite of repeated and severe persecutions, the number of monasteries
already amounted to 3716, while two hundred years later the persecuting
Emperor Wu-Tsung ordered the destruction of no less than 4600; and
at the present day it is estimated that there are 80,000 Buddhist
monks in the environs of Pekin alone. When, in the seventh century,
Hiouen-Thsang visited India, he describes the Sangharama of Nalanda
as containing ten thousand monks and novices; and the later pilgrim,
Fah-Hian, found fifty or sixty thousand in the island of Ceylon. In the
fourteenth century, the city of Ilchi, in Chinese Tartary, possessed
fourteen monasteries, averaging three thousand devotees in each; while
in Tibet, at the present time, there are in the vicinity of Lhassa
twelve great monasteries, containing a population of 18,500 lamas. In
Ladak, the proportion of lamas to the laity is as one to thirteen; in
Spiti, one to seven; and in Burmah, one to thirty.[186] Great as were
the proportions to which European monachism grew, it never attained
dimensions such as these.
It was some time, however, before the intercourse between East and West
led to the introduction of anchoritic and monastic customs. The first
rudimentary development of a tendency in such direction is to be found
in the vows, which, as stated in a previous section, had already, at an
early period in the history of the church, become common among female
devotees. In fact an order of widows, employed in charitable works and
supported from the offerings of the faithful, was apparently one of
the primitive institutions of the Apostles. To prevent any conflict
between the claims of the world and of the church, St. Paul directs
that they shall be childless and not less than sixty years of age, so
that on the one hand there might be no neglect of the first duty which
he recognized as owing to the family, nor, on the other hand, that the
devotee should be tempted by the flesh to quit the service which she
had undertaken.[187]
This admirable plan may be considered the germ of the countless
associations by which the church has in all ages earned the gratitude
of mankind by giving to Christianity its truest practical exposition.
It combined a refuge for the desolate with a most efficient
organization for spreading the faith and administering charity; and
there was no thought of marring its utility by rendering it simply
an instrument for exaggerating and propagating asceticism. St. Paul,
indeed, expressly commands the younger ones to marry and bring up
children;[188] and he could little have anticipated the time when this
order of widows, so venerable in its origin and labors, would, by
the caprice of ascetic progress, come to be regarded as degraded in
comparison with the virgin spouses of Christ, who selfishly endeavored
to purchase their own salvation by shunning all the duties imposed
on them by the Creator.[189] Nor could he have imagined that, after
eighteen centuries, enthusiastic theologians would seriously argue that
Christ and his Apostles had founded regular religious orders, bound by
the three customary vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.[190]
In the early church, as has been already shown, all vows of continence
and dedication to the service of God were a matter of simple volition,
not only as to their inception, but also as to their duration. The male
or female devotee was at liberty to return to the world and to marry
at any time;[191] although during the purer periods of persecution,
such conduct was doubtless visited with disapprobation and was attended
with loss of reputation. As, moreover, there was no actual segregation
from the world and no sundering of family ties, there was no necessity
for special rules of discipline. When, under the Decian persecution,
Paul the Thebæan, and shortly afterwards St. Antony, retired to the
desert in order to satisfy a craving for ascetic mortification which
could only be satiated by solitude, and thus unconsciously founded the
vast society of Egyptian cenobites, they gave rise to what at length
became a new necessity.[192] The associations which gradually formed
themselves required some government, and the institution of monachism
became too important a portion of the church, both in numbers and
influence, to remain long without rules of discipline to regulate
its piety and to direct its powers. As yet, however, a portion of
the church, adhering to ancient tradition, looked reprovingly on
these exaggerated pietistic vagaries. Lactantius, for instance, in a
passage written subsequent to the conversion of Constantine, earnestly
denounces the life of a hermit as that of a beast rather than of a man,
and urges that the bonds of human society ought not to be broken, since
man cannot exist without his fellows.[193]
It was in vain to attempt to stem the tide which had now fairly set in,
nor is it difficult to understand the impulsion which drove so many
to abandon the world. No small portion of pastoral duty consisted in
exhortations to virginity, the praises of which were reiterated with
ever increasing vehemence, and the rewards of which, in this world
and the next, were magnified with constantly augmenting promises.
Indeed, a perusal of the writings of that age seems to render it
difficult to conceive how any truly devout soul could remain involved
in worldly duties and pleasures, when the abandonment of all the ties
and responsibilities imposed on man by Providence was represented as
rendering the path to heaven so much shorter and more certain, and when
every pulpit resounded with perpetual amplifications of the one theme.
Equally efficacious with the timid and slothful was the prospect of
a quiet retreat from the confusion and strife which the accelerating
decline of the empire rendered every day wilder and more hopeless;
while the crushing burdens of the state drove many, in spite of all
the efforts of the civil power, to seek their escape in the exemptions
accorded to those connected with the church. When to these classes
are added the penitents—prototypes of St. Mary of Egypt, who retired
to the desert as the only refuge from her profligate life, and for
seventeen years waged an endless struggle with the burning passions
which she could control but could not conquer—it is not difficult to
estimate how vast were the multitudes unconsciously engaged in laying
the foundations of that monastic structure which was eventually to
overshadow all Christendom.[194] Indeed, even the church itself at
times became alarmed at the increasing tendency, as when the council
of Saragossa, in 381, found it necessary to denounce the practice of
ecclesiastics abandoning their functions and embracing the monastic
life, which it assumes was done from unworthy motives.[195]