The same view continued long to be upheld as orthodox. It would be difficult to find a work published under auspices more authoritative than Andreas Forster’s “De Cœlibatu Clericorum Dissertatio,” a thesis publicly read in the University of Dillingen in 1782, printed by authority, and dedicated to Pius VI. At that time there were serious efforts making, in the bosom of the church itself, to overthrow the rule of celibacy, and there was no hesitation on the part of the ecclesiastical rulers to avow the full purport of the Tridentine canons. Forster accordingly does not scruple to declare the truth as to the orthodox doctrine, nor was exception taken to his assertion by the authorities whose imprimatur the volume bears. The condemnation of those, he says, who rashly assert that marriage can be contracted by those in orders or bound by solemn vows of chastity is a dogma of faith, while the definition that virginity is better than matrimony is a dogma of morals—“Pro certo nos tenemus et ab omnibus Catholicis tenendum esse firmiter adserimus, Ecclesiam in laudato consilio recte omnino definiisse ... melius esse ac beatius manere in virginitate aut cœlibatu quam jungi matrimonio. Recte porro damnasse eos qui matrimonium a clericis in SS. Ordinibus constitutis, vel a regularibus castitatem solemniter professis, valide posse contrahi temere adsererent. Et hoc ultimum ad Dogma Fidei, illud prius ad Dogma Morum proculdubio pertinet” (op. cit. § xxxi. Dilingæ, 1782). In full accordance with this was the line of argument adopted by the advocates of the church in 1831, when it became necessary to overrule the decision which had authorized the marriage of the priest Dumonteil. They represented that to permit the civil marriage of a priest was, in fact, to persecute the church, because “qui veut une religion la veut avec ses dogmes, et la chasteté du prêtre est un de ceux de l’église Catholique” (Bouhier de l’Écluse, de l’État du Prêtre en France, p. 31).

I do not doubt that the peculiar dialectics by which Bishop Dupanloup explained away all that was shocking in the Syllabus of December, 1864 (La Convention et l’Encyclique, Paris, 1865), might make out a tolerably fair line of argument to prove that the Tridentine fathers did not do what they meant to do. In the subtle insincerity which pervades the formulas of the Latin church, allowing either side of a question to be affirmed as opportunity serves, the formulas of Trent constitute no exception. Thus if the rule of celibacy were to be abrogated, I presume that it could be readily accomplished by doing away with the vow of chastity and assuming that the administering of that vow is merely a matter of discipline. The papal power to dispense from vows is likewise too well established to be called in question, as was shown by the decision of the council of Trent on that very matter. The Latin church, in fact, has ample resources to enable it to adopt any line of policy that its rulers may consider adapted to the exigencies of the present or of the future; and if it should, at any time, consider sacerdotal and cenobitic celibacy undesirable, I am perfectly willing to concede that it would find no difficulty in setting aside or eluding the Tridentine anathemas; yet none the less would those anathemas remain to show us what was the position which it occupied in the sixteenth century. Meanwhile it may be suggested to the orthodox who regard celibacy as merely disciplinary that the church holds both marriage and ordination to be sacraments, and that a definition that the two are incompatible and a decision as to which of the two must give way to the other can hardly in the nature of things, or by any rational use of language, be regarded as merely a matter of discipline. Those, indeed, who are inclined to take such view, may well bear in mind the fate of Panzini, who, regarding celibacy as a point of discipline, was condemned, in 1860, by the Roman Inquisition to twelve years’ incarceration for merely writing an essay, which never was printed, arguing in favor of its impolicy.

INDEX.

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

STUDIES IN CHURCH HISTORY.

The Rise of the Temporal Power—Benefit of Clergy—Excommunication—The Early Church and Slavery.

Second edition, revised. In one large royal 12mo. volume of 603 pages. Cloth, $2.50. Just issued.