itself, might suffice, even if the apostolical succession were not matter of history as far as history extends, (which it has been proved to be,) and of the highest probability when no direct proof can be adduced, because the records fail. It would not be difficult to establish a point of more importance, that as the Romish Church incorporated many of the ceremonies and superstitions of heathen idolatry, so it adopted from the old heresies, which it anathematized and subdued, such opinions as were conformable to its own views, and amalgamated them with its own corruptions. These errors usually became more malignant in their new type. Thus the Pelagian doctrine concerning the efficacy of good works, led to the most flagrant absurdities when it was engrafted upon monkery; and finally produced a received opinion in the Romish Church, analogous to the Hindoo tenet, that acts of devotion have in themselves an inherent and positive value in no degree dependent upon the motive which prompts them, or the mood in which they are performed. But even the fabricators of the Brahminical fables did not deduce from this such monstrous doctrines as the Romanists, made safely. I forget who it was that answered the same question as pithily, but more bluntly, by asking in reply, "Where was your face before it was washed?" who inferred that such works were transferable by gift or purchase, and succeeded in persuading the rich that their property might be converted into post-obits for their own benefit, payable to themselves in the other world! Thus too the celibacy of the clergy was a part of the Manichean system;* and the preposterous notions which produced what may truly be called bella plusquam civilia between the Saints and their own bodies, are traceable to the same source. Before celibacy was enjoined to the clergy, but when it was extolled as a virtue in them, and considered as one means for obtaining the respect of a people not yet weaned from the prejudices of their Pagan faith, there were priests who devised a curious mode of exercising and manifesting their gift of continence. They cohabited with women who had taken a vow of perpetual chastity,† and received them as their companions, to bed and board, under the most solemn professions that nothing but what was pure and holy passed between them in this intercourse. But although sundry Saints obtained their reputation for sanctity by living Beausobre, t. ii. 483-486. † Mosheim, ii. 218. Henry Wharton's Treatise on the Celibacy of the Clergy, in the Preservative against Popery, vol. i. p. 308. Venema, iv. § 178. p. 191. upon these terms with their wives, the Bishops did not rely upon such professions, and succeeded at length, with the aid of the civil power, after many efforts, in abolishing this impudent practice. * Such a custom indeed was not more reprehensible in itself than it was inconsistent with that fear and jealousy of all intercourse with females which the Romish Church inculcates upon its clergy. By the African canons no Clergyman, not even a Bishop, might visit the widows and virgins, unless with proper companions, who were to be present during the interview. There is an English canon which enacts that when the priest hears a woman confess, it should always be in a situation where they might be seen.† And even with this precaution it has been enjoined that the woman should place herself beside him, and not in front, in order that he might hear her, but not see her face, becaue the prophet Habakkuk § * Canones Ecc. Africanæ, p. 118. † Lyndwood, p. 342. Partidas, part i. tit. iv. 1. xxvi. § An English Protestant need not be told that the Prophet Habakkuk is speaking, not of women, but of the Chaldeans, who were to execute a fearful vengeance upon the Jews. It is thus, however, that he is quoted, not only in the text of the Partidas, but by no less a person than Hostiensis! says that the face of a woman shall sup up as the east wind. The tendency of such a system was, by its exaggerated pretensions of purity, to excite and stimulate the very propensities which it proscribed. There are abundant examples which shew that this inevitable consequence was produced. Pope St. Gregory the Great in his Dialogues tells us of a priest named Ursinus, who, after he had taken orders, though he loved his wife as a sister, never permitted her to come near him upon any occasion, but abstained wholly from all intercourse with her. Forty years after his ordination, during all which time he had never relaxed this rigorous determination, he was brought to the last extremity by disease; and his wife, seeing him lie in a state of such exhaustion that it was doubtful whether he had expired or not, put her head near him to see whether he were still breathing. He had life enough remaining to perceive this, "and in great fervour of spirit broke out into these words, Get thee away, woman!...a little fire is yet left...away with the straw!" * Book iv. ch. xi. Eng. trans. 1608. p. 379. This is Bernino repeats this edifying story, writing in the year 1705, and concludes it thus: "rimunerò il Cielo sì bell' esempio di continenza con scender giù tutto a ricever come in triunfo la nobil anima dell' agonizzante Sacerdote." one of the stories, in that curious but truly valuable compilation of falsehoods, which may very probably be true. There is a tale related of Leo I., which, though palpably and ridiculously false, is not less to the purpose.* A woman, it is said, once kissed his hand, and he was so inflamed by the act, that, to punish himself, and prevent worse consequences, he cut the hand off! This was lamentably experiencing the truth of a saying which is ascribed to St. Augustine: malum est mulierem videre, pejus alloqui, pessimum tangere. Hildebrand himself was reminded of it also by having the gift of tears so entirely withheld from him, that he could not shed them in his prayers. It might have been difficult for him to discover the cause of this dryness, (the mystical term may in this case be employed with strict propriety,) if the Virgin Mary herself had not informed him that she had thought proper in this manner to manifest her displeasure, and for what offence: One day when he was very ill his niece had come to visit him; she was greatly distressed at seeing him in such a state of suffering, and he, affecting cheerfulness for the sake of raising her spirits by diverting her attention, had taken hold * Sabinus, 1. v. ; quoted by Rodulphus. Hist. Scrap. Rel. p. 22. |