The Novelty of Popery Opposed to the Antiquity of True Christianity, Book 7 · Controversy 4 · Chapter 9
CHAP. 9. Confeſsion of the Adverſaries.
AENeas Sylvius who ſince was Pope, and was called Pius the II. in the end of ſecond Book of the hiſtory of the Council of Baſil, ſaith that when it was in queſtion of electing Felix Pope inſtead of Eugenius, ſome alleadged that it could not be becauſe he had been married, and had children. Upon which the ſame Aeneas relateth the reaſons propounded by others againſt it in a full Council, to which the Council adhered. Theſe are the words,(a)Illud autem quod de uxore dicitur, nihili pendo, cum non ſolum qui uxorem habuit, ſed uxorem adhuc habens queat aſſumi. Cur enim diſputant Doctores, an uxoratus electus in Papam uxori ſolvere debitum teneatur, niſi quoniam etiam conjugatus recipi poſſit? Fuerintque, ut ſcitis, in matrimonio Pontifices. Nec Petrus Apoſtolorum Princeps uxore caruit. Quid iſta modo objicimus? fortaſſe non eſſet pejus, ut ſacerdotes quamplures uxorati eſſent, quoniam multi ſalvarentur in ſacerdotio conjugato, &c. As for that which is ſaid of his wife, I make nothing of it, ſeeing that not only he that had a wife, but he that hath one, maybe elected. For to what purpoſe do the Doctors diſpute, whether a Pope that is married be bound to pay the due [benevolence] unto his wife, if a married man may not be admitted? And there have been married Popes, as you know; and St. Peter the Prince of the Apoſtles, was not without a wife. But why do we object theſe things? Perhaps it were never the worſe if many Prieſts were married, becauſe many ſhould be ſaved in matrimony who are damned in a barren Prieſthood. In the margent of that diſcourſe, there is this annotation, Read the fifth Epiſtle of Ignatius the Martyr, and you ſhall ſee that all the Apoſtles had wives. Read alſo Baptiſta Mantuanus in Faſtis, and you ſhall find that Hilary Biſhop of Poitiers had a lawfull wife. This is the ſame Pope Pius the ſecond who told us before, that for great reaſons women were taken from Prieſts, but that for better reaſons, they ought to be reſtored unto them.
The Roman Decree in the twenty third Diſtinction Can. His igitur, ſpeaks thus of Clarks,(b)Caſtimoniam non vi…lati corporis perpetuo obſervare ſtudeant; aut certe unius matrimonii vinculo faederentur. Let them ſtudy to keep alwayes the holineſs of an inviolate body, or at leaſt let them be allied with the bond of one marriage only.
In the one and thirtieth Diſtinction Can Aliter. The tradition of the Oriental Church is diverſe from that of this holy Roman Church. For their Prieſts, Deacons, and Subdeacons are married, &c.
In Cauſe 26. Queſt. 22. Can. Sors non eſt. (d)Copula ſacerdotalis nec Legali nec Evangelica vel Apoſtolica authoritate prohibetur, Eccleſiaſtica tamen lege penitus interdicitur.The marriage of Prieſts is not forbidden, neither by the authority of the Law, nor by that of the Goſpel; yet by the Eccleſiaſtical Law it is altogether forbidden.(c)Aliter ſe Orientalium traditio habet Eccleſiarum; Aliter hujus ſanctae Romanae Eccleſiae: Nam eorum ſacerdotes Diaconi aut Subdiaconi matrimonio copulantur. Iſtius autem Eccleſiae vel Occidentalium nullus ſacerdotum licentiam habet conjugium ſortiendi.
Pope Leo, the firſt in the eighty ſeventh Epiſtle,(e)Virginem uxorem accipiat, & alterius horum neſciat quae futura eſt uxor Pontificis. Let him marry a Virgin, and let that woman that muſt be a Biſhops wife, be altogether ignorant of another husbandsbed.
Polydorus Virgilius in the fifth book of the inventors of things, chap. 4.(f)Syricius circiter annum ſalutis 363. ſedere coepit, ſacerdotibus conjugio primus interdixit, nec ante Gregorium 7. an Domini 1074. conjugium Occidentalibus Sacerdotibus adimi potuit. Syricius began to ſit in the year 363. He was the firſt that forbad Prieſts to marry. And a little after, Before Gregory the ſeventh in the year of the Lord 1074. marriage could not be taken away from the Occidental Prieſts. Then he addeth, that this conſtrained chaſtity was ſo far from overcoming the conjugal chaſtity, that rather the fornication of Prieſts was thereby ſo much increaſed, that it defamed religion more then any other evil. Wherefore he wiſheth that marriage were reſtored unto them.
Caſſander a Canon of Collen in the chapter of the Celibat of Prieſts,(g)Reſtat ut in poſterum ordinandis hoc ſtatutum relaxetur, & more veteris Eccleſiae, & huc uſque Orientalium Eccleſiarum honeſti quoque mariti ad Eccleſiae miniſterium admittantur. It remaineth that hereafter this ſtatute may be relaxed for thoſe that ſhall be admitted into Orders; and that according to the cuſtom of the antient Church, and of the Eaſtern Churches untill now, honeſt married men be alſo admitted to the Miniſtery of the Church, and that they be permitted to uſe familiarity with their wives according to the Canon of the ſixth general Council, whereby it is determined that the marriages of Prieſts and Deacons ought by no means to be diſſolved, and that before their ordination they ought not to be conſtrained to profeſs chaſtity.