The Advice of Paphnutius was applauded by the whole Assembly, add the above-mentioned Historians, and the Point in Dispute was left undecided. In the Year 340. it was decreed, in the Council of Arles, that, no Man, incumbered with a Wife, should be admitted to Holy Orders, unless he promised, with his Wife’s Approbation and Consent, to abstain for ever from the conjugal Duty.

This is all I can find in the antient Records concerning the Continence or Celibacy of the Clergy, before the Time of Syricius. And hence it is manifest, that both Crichtonæus and Melanchthon were greatly mistaken; the former in affirming, which many have done after him, that Celibacy was first imposed upon the Clergy by Syricius[[1243]]; and the latter by confidently asserting, that Celibacy was not required of the Ministers of the Gospel by any Council, but by the Popes, in Opposition to all Councils and Synods[[1244]]. It must be owned, however, that this Law was not so generally observed before the Time of Syricius, as it was after. For it was not long after his Time before it became an established Point of Discipline in most of the Western Churches, not in virtue of his Letter, or of those which his Successors writ to the same Purpose, but because it was injoined by the Synods of each particular Nation. Thus it was established in Africa by the Council of Carthage in 390. in Gaul by one held at Orleans, by Two at Tours, and one at Agde; in Spain, by Three held at Toledo; in Germany, by the Councils of Aquisgranum, or Aix la Chapelle, of Worms, and of Mentz. We know of none in Britain: and that it did not even begin to take place here till the Arrival of Austin, in the Sixth Century, may be sufficiently proved from the Letters of that Monk to Gregory, and Gregory’s Answer to him; but of that more hereafter[[N23]].

[N23]. I cannot forbear taking notice here of an inexcusable Mistake in the Ecclesiastical History of England, by Nicolas Harpsfeld, Archdeacon of Canterbury, a Work in great Request abroad. That Writer tells us, that Restitutus Bishop of London assisted at the Council of Arles, and signed the above-mentioned Canon, forbidding a Man incumbered with a Wife to be admitted to Orders, unless he promised, with her Consent, to refrain from all Commerce with her after his Ordination. He leaves us to infer from thence, that this Canon was received in Britain[[1]]. But surely Harpsfeld must never have seen either the Subscriptions, or the Acts of that Council. Had he seen the Subscriptions, he had hardly omitted Two British Bishops out of Three. For, besides the Name of Restitutus, I find among the Subscriptions, the Names of Adelphus de colonia Londinensium, that is, as is commonly believed, of Colchester, and of Hibernus of Eboracum, or York. Had he seen the Acts, he had never been guilty of such a gross Mistake as to ascribe the above-mentioned Canon to the Council of Arles, at which Restitutus assisted, since that Council was held against the Donatists of Africa, in the Year 314. and not the least Mention was made there of the Celibacy of the Clergy[[2]]. The Second Council of Arles was held about Twenty-six Years after, and of that Council the said Canon is the Second.

[1]. Harp. Hist. Eccles. Anglican. p. 26.

[2]. Concil. t. 1. p. 1426-1429.

The present Practice of the Church of Rome, with respect to this Point.

As to the present Practice and Doctrine of the Church of Rome, with respect to this, in their Opinion, most essential Point of Ecclesiastical Discipline, no Man is allowed, after his Ordination, to marry, or to cohabit with the Wife he had married before: nay, in order to prevent all possible means even of any clandestine Commerce between them, the Woman must, by a solemn Vow of Chastity, renounce all Claims on her Husband, and, retiring into a Monastery, bind herself by a second Vow to continue there, without ever once going out, on any Pretence whatsoever, so long as her Husband lives, who cannot be admitted so much as to the Rank of a Subdeacon, till she is secured by these Two Vows. Such is the present Practice of the Church of Rome, though Subdeacons were allowed to marry long after the Time of Syricius, who, in his Letter, mentions only Deacons and Presbyters, and does not even oblige them to part with their Wives, but only excludes them from rising to a higher Degree in the Church. Pope Leo the Great, chosen in 440. was the first who extended the Law of Celibacy to the Subdeacons, commanding them, in a Letter, which he writ about the Year 442. to Rusticus Bishop of Narbonne, to abstain, as well as the Deacons, Presbyters, and Bishops, from all Commerce with their Wives. But this Law was observed by very few Churches. In the Time of Pope Gregory the Great, that is, in the Latter-end of the Sixth Century, it had not yet taken place, even in Sicily, though reckoned among the Suburbicarian Provinces: it was first introduced into that Island by him; but he allowed those to cohabit with their Wives, who had been ordained without a previous Promise to live continent, though he would not suffer them to be raised to a higher Degree without such a Promise. Bellarmine[[1245]], and the other Divines of the Church of Rome, to soften the Odium, which the hard, and commonly impracticable Command she lays on her Clergy, must reflect on her, represent Continency as a Virtue to be easily acquired. Their Ascetics seem better acquainted with the Difficulties and Struggles attending the Practice of that Virtue, than their Divines; for they prescribe, as the sole Means of attaining it, constant Prayer, frequent Fasting, macerating the rebelling Flesh with all kinds of Austerities, and principally the avoiding of all Female Company. And, if these be the sole Means of attaining it, I leave the Reader to judge how few of their Clergy do attain it.

In the primitive
Church, married and
unmarried Men
raised indiscrimin-
ately to Ecclesiastical
Dignities.