"Look at the convents of the nuns, places of debauchery! These abominable women have not chosen the Virgin, but Phryne and Messalina as their models. They prostrate themselves before the idol of Priapus!"
(Priapus was the male organ of generation, and was formerly to be seen throughout Europe, especially at public fountains.)
King Edgar of England wrote—
"What shall I say of the clergy? We find nothing among them but debauchery, excesses, orgies, and unchastity. Their abodes are propitious for solitude, and yet they dwell there not for pious meditation, but in order to lead lives of debauchery."
Pope Benedict VIII. at the Council of Pavia deplored the awful vices of the unmarried clergy.
Nicholas Clemangis says—
"The monasteries are no longer sanctuaries devoted to the divinity, but places of abomination and debauchery—rendez vous of young libertines. Indeed, to make a girl take the veil is equivalent to forcing her into prostitution."
The monks of the Middle Ages led a life full of orgies, equalling the dissipations of Tiberius at Capri. "The concubines and prostitutes were mistresses of the wealth of the monasteries and convents."
The good Catholic, Anselm of Bisate, wrote—
"The nuns are not more virtuous than the monks. Widows took the veil in order to be free, and not bound to one man."