About this time, that is, in the Year 405. Innocent, being consulted by Exuperius[[N50]] Bishop of Toulouse, concerning some Points of Discipline, answered him by a Decretal, containing the following Decisions: 1. That the Priests and Deacons, who were daily employed in sacrificing or baptizing, were not to be allowed the Use of Matrimony; that those, who were ignorant of the Decretal issued by Syricius, might be forgiven, upon their promising thenceforth to live continent; but, as to the rest, they should, as unworthy of Indulgence, be deposed. The Second Article relates to those, who, after Baptism, had led a wicked or sinful Life, and at the Point of Death desired the Communion. Innocent declares, that to such, according to the antient Discipline of the Church, which was more severe, Repentance was granted, and not the Communion; but, according to the present Practice, both were granted. By Repentance is here meant, according to the most probable Opinion, a Reconciliation with the Church; and, by the Communion, the Eucharist, which the Thirteenth Canon of the Council of Nice commands to be given to all dying Persons who desire it. Some doubted whether it was lawful for a Christian to discharge the Office of a Judge, in criminal Cases. Innocent therefore declares, in the Third Article, that no Penance ought to be imposed upon those who had condemned Criminals to the Rack, or even to Death, the Civil Power having been established by God for the Punishment of Criminals. As Women were, it seems, more frequently punished for Adultery than Men, some imagined that Crime not to be alike punishable in both. This Notion Innocent confutes in the Fourth Article; adding, that Women were more frequently punished, merely because the Husbands were more forward in accusing their Wives, than Wives were in accusing their Husbands. The Fifth Article is a Confirmation of the Third; for it only absolves from all Sins such as are obliged, by their Office, to prosecute or condemn Criminals. The Sixth Article excludes from the Communion of the Church all Men, who, after they have been parted from their Wives, marry other Women; and all Women, who, after they have been parted from their Husbands, marry other Men[[N51]]. The same Punishment is, by this Article, inflicted on those who marry them, but not on their Parents or Relations, provided they have been no-way accessory to that unlawful Contract. The last Article contains a Catalogue of the Canonical Books of Scripture, the same as are still acknowleged by the Church of Rome as Canonical. In the same Article, some Books are pointed out, that ought to be absolutely condemned and rejected[[1431]][[N52]]. These Directions, or Instructions, Innocent pretends to have drawn partly from Scripture, and partly from Tradition; and thanks Exuperius, because he had, by applying to him for a Solution to his Difficulties, engaged him to examine them with Attention, and thereby given him an Opportunity of learning what he had not known before. It is surprising he should have mentioned the Scripture, since the very first Article, debarring for ever married Men from the Use of Matrimony, is an open Contradiction to the Directions given by St. Paul to all married Persons, without Restraint or Distinction; Defraud you not one the other, except it be with Consent for a time, &c. and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your Incontinency[[1432]].
[N50]. Exuperius was, as we gather from Ausonius, a Native of Bourdeaux, one of the greatest Orators of his Time, and had governed Spain in Quality of Prefect. He afterwards withdrew from the World; embraced the Ecclesiastical State in the Place of his Nativity[[1]]; and was, for his eminent Virtues, raised to the See of Toulouse. He was chiefly commendable for his Charity to the Poor; though he bestowed the greater Part of it on Objects, perhaps, of all, the least worthy of his Compassion: for, by the Monk Sisennius, he sent considerable Sums into the East, to be distributed there among the Monks of Egypt and Palæstine[[2]]; which might have been better employed at home, Gaul being then threatened with an Invasion of the Vandals, Alans, and other barbarous Nations; who, accordingly, broke into that Province on the last Day of the Year 406. and made themselves Masters of Toulouse itself. It was, however, this Kindness of Exuperius to the Monks, that chiefly recommended him to Jerom[[3]], who often mentions him with the greatest Commendations[[4]], and even inscribed to him his Comment on Zechariah.
[1]. Paulin. ep. 20.
[2]. Hier. præf. in lib. 1, 2, & 3. Zech. & ep. 152.
[3]. Idem ibid.
[N51]. The matrimonial Bond is held, by the Church of Rome, indissoluble, and a Separation only allowed as to Bed and Board, even in Cases of Adultery; whence it follows, that so long as they both live, neither can marry, without being guilty of Adultery. There are, however, some annulling Impediments, as the Canonists style them, that is, Circumstances rendering the Marriage-contract null; and if any of these intervene, and is made to appear, the Parties are then declared not to have been married; and, consequently, free to marry whom they please. Till Innocent’s Time, Men, who had been parted from their Wives convicted of Adultery, were allowed to marry again. This Epiphanius tells us in express Terms; adding, that, agreeably to Scripture (no doubt to Matt. v. 32.), it could be no Crime to marry again; that those who married again were not excluded, on that score, from Life everlasting; and consequently ought not to be excluded from the Communion of the Church[[1]]. The Scope and Design of Epiphanius, throughout his Work, was to acquaint us with the several Heresies that sprung up in the Church, and to explain, in Opposition to them, the Catholic Doctrines. It must therefore have been deemed a Heresy in his Time, that is, towards the latter End of the Fourth Century, to think the matrimonial Bond indissoluble, even in Cases of Adultery, or to hold it unlawful for a Man to marry again, who had put away his Wife for the Cause of Fornication. But the Heresy became afterwards a Catholic Truth, and the Catholic Truth a Heresy. This Change, however, was not so much owing to Innocent’s Decretal, as to the Two Books, which St. Austin writ about the Year 419. to prove, that it is unlawful for a Husband, who has put away his Wife, even for Adultery, or for a Wife who has been thus put away, to marry again, while both are living. He founds his Opinion on that of St. Paul, The Wife is bound by the Law, as long as her Husband liveth[[2]]. But, instead of understanding that Passage with the Exception made by our Saviour himself, Whosoever shall put away his Wife, saving for the Cause of Fornication, &c. he endeavours, by many logical Distinctions, and unnatural Interpretations, to remove that Exception, though expressed by the Evangelist in the plainest Terms. He was therein, no doubt, misled, by the groundless, but then reigning, Notion, of an extraordinary Merit annexed to Celibacy; and therefore ends his Word with exhorting the Husbands, who have put away their Wives, to observe Continency, in Imitation of the Ecclesiastics, who observe it (says he) with the greatest Exactness, though it was not by their own Choice that some of them went into Orders. It may be questioned, whether, even then, the Continence of the unmarried Clergy was such as he represents it.
[1]. Epiph. hæref. 59.
[2]. 1 Corinth. vii. 39.
[N52]. These were several Books, styled The Acts of the Apostles, forged by Leucius, Nezocharis, and Leonides, and ascribed by them to some of the Apostles. Leucius was, by Sect, a Manichee, as appears from Austin, who confuted his Books[[1]]. Nezocharis and Leonides are, by Innocent, styled Philosophers. The Books of Leucius, in the latter End of the present Century, were anew declared Apocryphal by Pope Gelasius: The Books, says he in one of his Decretals, composed by Leucius, a Disciples of the Devil, are all Apocryphal[[2]].