Works of Joseph Hall, Book 1 · Section 24
SECT. XXIIII.
IN the authority it ſelfe, his Cauils are childiſh; Where Pius ſaid*Mariage vponupon good reaſon was forbidden to Prieſts, but vponupon greater reaſon ſeemes fit to bee reſtored. Refut. p. 109. Sacerdotibus magnâ ratione ſublatas nuptias, maiore reſtituendas videri: My firſt fault is, that I turne Sacerdotes, The Clergie, in ſtead of Prieſts; which word is of a larger extent, including alſo Biſhops: The ſilly man ſees not that I tranſlated it to his aduantage, againſt my owne; For, eueryevery Sacerdos is Clericus, not eueryevery Clericus, Sacerdos. Very frequently are Biſhops comprehended vnderunder the name of Sacerdotes, as well as of Clerus; and no leſſe vſuall vnderunder the name of Clerici, the ſuperior Orders are not comprehended. He is not worthy to write himſelfe Prieſt, that vnderſtands his Orders no better.
My ſecond error is, That I turned the laſt Clauſe of the Sentence, (Is to bee reſtored) whereas the words are, Reſtituendas videri. Here could be no fraud, whiles I ſet the Latine words in the Margine. The Man thinks of his (foreign) or his, Videtur quod ſic; probatur quod non; but if his Grammar had not been ill learned, he had known that (Videri) doth not alwaies ſignifie a doubtfull probability, but ſometimes a certaine euidence, as, Viſum est Spiritui Sancto & nobis; and Qui videbantur columna; Or (if his Logicke had fully taught him the Diſtinctions of Sunt and Videntur) this quarrell had beene ſpared. This Seeming was Being; Or, if this lawleſſe Lurker had euer had any taſte of the Ciuill or Canon Law, hee might hauehave beene able to conſtrue that Maxime, Quod quis per alium facit, per ſe facere videtur: and that iudged Caſe, Qui nomen debitoris legatum viuens exegerit, legatum ademiſſe videtur. In this ſtile ſpake this learned Pope, which my vnlearned Aduerſary cannot reach vntounto. For, if Pius, or Syluius, may hauehave leaue to comment vponupon himſelfe, when the queſtion was of ſuffecting Amadeus Duke of Sauoy, a maried man, in the roome of Eugenius; Ex quo conſtat (ſaith he) &c. It is apparent that not onelyonly hee, which hath beene maried, but hee that is maried, may bee aſſumed to the Popedome: and a little after; Fortaſſe peius non eſſet, &c. And perhaps it were not worſe, if more Prieſts had wiues, for many would be ſaued in a maried Prieſthood, which now in a ſingle Prieſthood are damned; hee ſaith directly, Damnantur, They are damned, not, They ſeem to be damned. And therefore to preuent this reall damnation, Mariage is really to be reſtored to them, not that it ſhould onelyonly ſeeme to be reſtored. To conclude, take Videri, for bare ſeeming, ſurely, it muſt be conſtrued, Videtur mihi; I Pope Pius thinke, or iudge, that it were fit that Prieſts ſhould hauehave the libertie of mariage reſtored againe to them; which together with ſublatas implyeth, that in former times Prieſts were maried; and as the caſe now ſtandeth, ought againe ſo to be. Which is the very ſame ſtate of this queſtion, which we auouch.
And in his Epiſtle to Iohn Freünd, Credimus te non infalſo v… conſilio, … think it is no ill counſell for thee (ſince thou canſt not containe) to ſeeke for a Wife; although that ſhould hauehave beene thought of, before thou didſt enter into holy Orders; but wee are not all Gods, that we can fore-ſee future things; ſince it is com… to this, that thou canſt not reſiſt the Law of thy Fleſh, it is better for thee a marry then to burne. Thus he. For which aduice, doubtleſſe he found good cauſe in his owne experience; who hauing beene imployed formerly in this Iland of ours, left two Baſtards behind him, the one, begotten of an Engliſh woman, the other, of a Scottiſh; The one whereof he commends to his Fathers Sy…ius, a Citizen of Sye…a; the other he confeſſes to his friend P. de No…ceto: But this indeed was before his Prieſthood; Afterwards, it is ſtrange what he… confeſſ… himſelfe in his 92 Epiſtle; Mihi herelù parum meriti est in caſtitate; Whiles he was Cardinall, he had his Concubine to whom at laſt hee gaue threeſcore Florens for her Dowry, Epiſt. 361.I cannot beaſ… of any merit in my chaſtity, for to tell the truth (Magis me Venus fugitat, quam ego illam hotter) Venus doth rather flie from me, then I abhorre it. It was not therefore out of ſpeculation, but ſenſe, not out of ſeeming, but certainty, that Syluius paſſes his Reſtituendas videri.
So now to ſhut vp this point, the bleſſed Apoſtle St. Paul, and (in his Attendance) Panormitan, Gratian, and Pius (in their cleere ſuffrages for vsus) are fully acquitted from the vaine cauils of my Detector; and God is on my ſide, the Church of Rome, on his Let Sincerity iudge which Scale of the Ballance is heauier.