[126] Exortus est subito Vigilantius, seu verius Dormitantius, qui immundo spiritu pugnat contra Christi spiritum, et martyrum neget sepulchra veneranda, dammandas dicat esse vigilias; nunquam nisi in Pascha alleluia cantandum; continentiam hæresim; pudicitiam libidinis seminarium. Et quomodo Euphorbus in Pythagora renatus esse perhibetur, sic in isto Joviniani mens prava surrexit; ut et in illo et in hoc diaboli respondere cogamur insidiis.—Hieron. adv. Vigilant. c. 1.
[127] Proh nefas! episcopos sui sceleris dicitur habere consortes: si tamen episcopi nominandi sunt qui non ordinant diaconos nisi prius uxores duxerint; nulli cœlibi credentes pudicitiam, immo ostendentes quam sancte vivant qui male de omnibus suspicantur; et nisi prægnantes uxores viderint clericorum, infantesque de ulnis matrum vagientes, Christi sacramenta non tribuant.... Hoc docuit Dormitantius, libidini fræna permittens, et naturalem carnis ardorem, qui in adolescentia plerumque fervescit, suis hortatibus duplicans, immo extinguens coitu fœminarum, ut nihil sit quo distemus a porcis, etc.—Hieron. adv. Vigilant. c. 2.
[128] Præterea quod dignum, pudicum et honestum est, tenere ecclesia omnino debet, ut sacerdotes et levitæ cum uxoribus non misceantur.... Maxime ut vetus regula hoc habet ut quisquis corruptus baptizatus clericus esse voluisset, spondeat uxorem omnino non ducere.—Innocent. PP. I. Epist. ii. c. 9, 10.
[129] Ut incontinentes in officiis talibus positi, omni ecclesiastico honore priventur, nec admittantur ad tale ministerium, quod sola continentia oportet impleri.—As for those who could be proved to have seen the epistle of Siricius—“illi sunt modis omnibus submovendi.”—Innocent. PP. I. Epist. iii. c. 1.
[130] The observance of the rule and its effects are well illustrated in the story of Urbicus, Bishop of Clermont, and his unhappy wife, as naïvely related by Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc. L. I. c. 44).
[131] Ab universis episcopis dictum est: Omnibus placet, ut episcopi, presbyteri et diaconi, vel qui sacramenta contrectant, pudicitiæ custodes etiam ab uxoribus se abstineant.—Concil. Carthag. II. can. 2 (Cod. Eccles. African. can. 3).
[132] Aurelius episcopus dixit: Addimus fratres carissimi præterea, cum de quorundam clericorum, quamvis lectorum, erga uxores proprias incontinentia referretur, placuit, quod et in diversis conciliis firmatum est, ut subdiaconi, qui sacra mysteria contrectant, et diaconi et presbyteri, sed et episcopi, secundum priora statuta etiam ab uxoribus se contineant, ut tanquam non habentes videantur esse: quod nisi fecerint, ab ecclesiastico removeantur officio. Ceteros autem clericos ad hoc non cogi, nisi maturiori ætate. Ab universo concilio dictum est: Quæ vestra sanctitas est juste moderata, et sancta et Deo placita sunt, confirmamus.—Concil. Carthag. V. c. 3 (Cod. Eccles. Afric. c. 25).
The councils thus alluded to are probably the Roman Synods under Damasus and Siricius.
I give the version most favored by modern critics, but it should be observed that there is doubt concerning several important points. In the older collections of councils (e. g. Surius, Ed. 1567, T. I. p. 519-20) the canon indicates no compulsion for the orders beneath the diaconate, commencing “Placuit episcopos et presbyteros et diaconos” and ending “Cæteros autem clericos ad hoc non cogi sed secundum uniuscujusque ecclesiæ consuetudinem observari debere,” and this has probability in its favor, since the subdiaconate was not included in the restriction for nearly two centuries after this period, and the lower grades were never subjected to the rule.
The expression “secundum priora statuta” is probably the emendation of a copyist puzzled by the obscurity of “secundum propria statuta,” which latter is the reading given by Dionysius Exiguus. That it is the correct one is rendered almost certain by the Greek version, which is κατα τους ἰδιους ὁρους (Calixt. Conjug. Cleric, p. 350) which would seem to leave the matter very much to the preëxisting customs of the individual churches.