The English reformers trod the ground of theological inquiry with the same manly step; and that firm step shook the monasteries to the dust. Those great and good men went back to the Scriptures, where they found at once the great realities of religion—a condemning law, a justifying Gospel, and a provision of grace for a life of true holiness. With these substantial principles in their hearts, they spurned whatever was trivial and spurious, and amid the fires of persecution, they reared the structure—a structure still unshaken—of religion for England, upon "the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Had there existed a taste for mysticism, a fondness for penitential austerities, a cringing deference to the fathers, among the divines of the time of Edward VI., such a disposition must, so far as known causes are to be calculated upon, have utterly spoiled the reformation in England; or have postponed it a hundred years.
[6] In the only places in the New Testament where celibacy is recommended, Matt. xix. 12, and 1 Cor. vii. 32, the reason is of this substantial and intelligible kind, namely, that in the case of individuals, placed in peculiar circumstances, a single life would be advantageous, inasmuch as it would give them better opportunity of serving the Lord without distraction. Precisely the same advice might sometimes with propriety be given to a soldier, or to a statesman: a high motive justifies a sacrifice of personal happiness. Nowhere in the discourses of our Lord, or in the writings of the apostles, is there to be discovered a trace of the monkish motives of celibacy—namely, the supposed superior sanctity of that state.
[7] "Grande est et immortale, pœne ultra naturam corpoream, superare luxuriam, et concupiscentiæ spasmeam adolescentiæ facibus accensam animi virtute restinguere, et spiritali conatu vim genuinæ oblectationis excludere, viveréque contra humani generis legem, despicere solatia conjugii, dulcedinem contemnere liberorum, quæcumque esse præsentis vitæ commoda possint, pro nihilo spe futurorum beatitudinis computare." The Epistle of Sulpitius de Virginitate, in which this passage occurs, contains, it should be confessed, much more good sense and good morality, in the latter part of it, than one would expect to find in conjunction with absurdities such as that above quoted. The annotator on the passage well says, that the Ascetics avoided the pleasures of domestic life, not because they were sweets, but because conjoined with great cares, which those escaped who lived in celibacy. Nor is it to be denied, says he, that married life is obnoxious to great and heavy inconveniences: nevertheless, if under those difficulties we live holily and religiously, our future recompense will surely not be less than as if, to be free from them we had embraced a single life.
[8] "Habitant plerique in eremo sine ullis tabernaculis quos Anachoretas vocant. Vivunt herbarum radicibus: nullo unquam certo loco consistunt, ne ab hominibus frequententur: quas nox coëgerit sedes habent.... Inter hujus (Sina) recessus Anachoreta esse aliquis ferebatur quem diu multumque quæsitum videre non potui, qui ferè jam ante quinquaginta annos à conversatione humanâ remotus, nullo vestis usu, setis corporis sui tectus, nuditatem suam divino munere vestiebat. Hic quoties eum religiosi viri adire voluerunt, cursu avia petens, congressus vitabat humanos. Uni tantummodo ferebatur se ante quinquennium præbuisse, qui credo potenti fide id obtinere promeruit: cui inter multa conloquia percunctanti, cur homines tantopere vitaret, respondisse perhibetur, Eum qui ab hominibus frequentaretur non posse ab angelis frequentari."—Sulp. Sev. Dialog. I.
[9] The two signal instances may be mentioned of Cyprian and Augustine, men whose honesty and sincerity will not be questioned by any one who himself possesses the sympathies of virtue and integrity. They were both carried by the spirit of their times almost to the last stage of credulity and self-delusion; but the latter much farther than the former.
[10] Origen, as every one knows, led the way in the Christian Church in this mode of interpretation. It is also well known that the monks, especially those of Alexandria, warmly espoused the cause of this ingenious writer against the bishops and clergy, who with equal warmth condemned his works as heretical.
[11] The charitable offices of the nuns in the hospitals of France ought always to be mentioned with respect and admiration.
[12] The "De Imitatione Christi" alone affords proof enough of the possibility of the existence of elevated piety in the monastery. It abounds also with indications of the petty persecution to which a spiritual monk was exposed among his brethren.
[13] Many of the ancient solitaries, far from living as their profession required, in seclusion, were accustomed to admit daily the visits of the multitude who flocked around them, to gaze at their austerities, to hear their harangues, or to be exorcised, or healed of their maladies. Symeon, "the man of the pillar," every day exhibited himself to a gaping crowd, collected often from distant countries. St. Anthony, more sincere in his love of retirement, when pestered by the plaudits of the vulgar in Lower Egypt, withdrew into a desert of the Thebaïs; yet even there he soon found himself surrounded, not only by dæmons, but worse, by admirers. See Athan. Op. Vita S. Antonii.