[73] Constit. Apostol. Lib. IV. c. 14; VI. 11, 14, 26, 27, 28; VIII. 30.
[74] Lactant. Instit. Divin. VI. xvi. xxiii.
[75] The fiftieth canon was omitted by Dionysius Exiguus, but was subsequently admitted by the church, notwithstanding that it proves in the clearest manner the full enjoyment of marriage by all grades of the clergy. The sixth canon (numbered fifth in the full collection) which prohibits the separation of ecclesiastics from their wives, was likewise accepted, although in the eighteenth century Cabassut stigmatizes it as heretical.
[76] Conc. Carthag. IV. c. 1.
[77] Thus Tibullus (Lib. I. El. I.)—
“Vos quoque abesse procul jubeo, discedite ab aris,
Queis tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus.
Casta placent Superis.”
Cf. Juvenal, VI. 534-5.—Ælii Lamprid. Alex. Sever. XXIX.—Porphyr. de Abstinent. II. 50; IV. 6, 7.—Arriani de Epictet. Disertt. Lib. III. c. xxi.—I. Cor. vii. 5.
[78] Diod. Sicul. I. 80.—Hieron. adv. Jovin. II. 13.—Plut. de Isid. et Osirid. 2.—Lucian. de Syria Dea XV.—Sil. Ital. Punicor. III. 21-8.—Cf. Virg. Æneid. VI. 661.—Pausan. VII. XXV. 8. Egyptian customs in this respect may perhaps be traced to the vow of continence made by Isis after the death of her husband-brother, Osiris (Diod. Sicul. I. 27). The Emperor Julian’s neo-platonic explanation of the Syrian asceticism (Orat V.) is not without analogy to some of the rhapsodies of the fathers in the praise of virginity.