Imatges de pàgina
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66

66

Rules con

Ordination.

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In Spain there were Priests and Deacons, who, long after A. D. 385. their ordination, lived with their wives or with others, by XXXV. whom they had children, and alleged in defence of their cerning incontinency, the example of the priests of the old law. To this Siricius replies, that "amongst the Ancients it was customary for Priests to marry, because the Ministers of "the Altar were obliged to have a succession of the same "family, but that even they lived separate from their wives during the time of their ministration. But since Christ came to perfect the Law, Priests and Deacons are bound "by an inviolable decree, to observe, from the day of their "ordination, sobriety and continence, that they may be "well-pleasing to God, in the sacrifices which they daily "offer up unto him. Such Priests then as have sinned through "ignorance, and acknowledge their fault, shall continue in "the order in which they are, on condition that they live in "continence for the time to come; they who persist in their "fault shall be deprived of all Ecclesiastical functions." This is decreed generally for Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. The candidates for ordination used not to be examined with § 8. sufficient strictness, more particularly as to whether they had contracted more marriages than one, for which reason the Pope gives these rules: "He who from his infancy is devoted "to the service of the Church, must be baptized before the age of fourteen, and placed in the rank of Readers. If his "behaviour be approved to the age of thirty, and he have "lived with only one wife, whom he had married a virgin [Tim. 3.2.] "with the blessing of the Priest, he shall be an Acolyte and "Subdeacon. From this office he may rise to the order of "Deacon, if he be judged worthy of it, after having made a "promise of continence. When he shall have served worthily more than five years, he may enter into the Priesthood. "Ten years after this he may be promoted to the Episcopal "chair, if his faith and morals are approved. But a man § 10. "in advanced years, who desires to be received into the service "of the Church, shall not be received, but on condition of

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i Peter de Marca is of opinion that it was now for the first time made an Ecclesiastical law that Bishops, Priests, and Deacons should preserve conti

nence; and that previously it had been
a custom of the Church. Coustant shews
that he is probably mistaken, and that
the law had existed long before.

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A. D. 385. "his taking place amongst the Readers or Exorcists, imme'diately after his baptism; provided also that he hath had "but one wife, and hath married her a virgin. Two years "after he may become an Acolyte or Subdeacon for five "years, and thus rise to be a Deacon; then in time may be "promoted to the Priesthood or Episcopal office, if he be "chosen by the Clergy and people." This is the first Ecclesiastical ordinance which particularly appoints the age of those who are to enter into orders, and the intervals between the offices. We may see by this that the Church does not disapprove of laymen's offering themselves to be admitted § 11. into holy orders. A Clerk who had married a widow, or § 12. taken a second wife, is reduced to lay communion. Women are forbidden to live in the houses of Clerks, except such as Conc. Ni- are allowed by the Council of Nicæak.

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"It is our desire," says Siricius, "that such monks as shall "be deemed worthy, be admitted amongst the Clergy, upon "condition that if they be under thirty years of age, they "enter the lowest orders, pass through all the degrees, and "become Deacons or Priests at a more advanced age; but they are not to be promoted at once to the Episcopal § 14. "dignity. As the Church does not admit of Clerks doing "public penance, neither doth it admit any layman, who "has done public penance, to have the honour of being at "Clerk, even though he be reconciled, and absolved from his "sins. Indulgence is granted for past offences, in respect "those who have transgressed these rules through ignorance, "and have intruded themselves amongst the Clergy, though '[bigamus.] "penitents or not the husbands of but one wife'; on condition "however that they shall continue in their station, without "hopes of being promoted to any higher dignity." The Pope sending these decisions to the Bishop Himerius, entreats him to communicate them to all the Bishops, not only those of his province of Tarracona, but likewise to the Bishops of Carthagena, Botica, Lusitania, Gallicia, and the rest of the neighbouring provinces; by which last is understood Gallia Narbonensis'.

* Viz., a mother, a sister, an aunt, or such persons only as could be liable to no suspicion.

1 There is another chapter of this Decretal, found in a very ancient manuscript, and appended by Coustant, for

St.Jerome's

Palestine.

ad Paulin.

2

[18. p. 40.]

St. Jerome did not reside long at Rome after the death of A. D. 385. the Pope St. Damasus'. The reputation of his doctrine had XXXVI. created much jealousy amongst a great number of the Clergy, return into and the freedom which he used in reproving them for 1 Præf. S. their vices made them hate him. During his stay at Rome Hieron. in Lib. Didyhe wrote a small treatise concerning the means of preserving mi de S. Sp. virginity, which he directed to the virgin Eustochium, to. iv. P. 1. daughter of St. Paula, in which he warns her to avoid hypo- p. 494. crites of both sexes, and speaking of Clerks in particular, he Ep. 22. says: "There are some of them who aspire to the office of c. 12. "Priest or Deacon, that they may visit women with the "greater liberty. Their chief care is to be well dressed, 'neatly shod, and perfumed; they curl their hair with irons, "they have bright rings on their fingers, and they walk on "tiptoe, looking more like young bridegrooms, than Clerks. "Some of them make it their only business to know the "names and dwellings of ladies of quality, and discover their "inclinations. I will describe one of them, who is a master "in the art. He rises with the sun, the order of his visits is "fixed, he finds out the nearest ways, and the troublesome old man enters almost the very chambers in which they rest. "If he sees a cushion, a napkin, or any other little moveable "that is to his liking, he praises it, and admires the neatness

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of it, he takes it in his hand, then complains that he has "not something of that kind, and in short has snatched it away before it is given to him." St. Jerome after this mentions their avarice, saying that these interested Clerks, under pretence of giving blessings, reached out their hands to receive money, and so became dependent on those whom they were appointed to govern. In another place he complains of those who paid extraordinary attention to elderly people who had no children, and were ready to do them the meanest and most servile offices, that they might share in their estates.

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4

Several persons were offended' at this freedom of St. Jerome, Ep 8. [98. and took what he said as directed against themselves. They ad Demetr. p. 795.c.ult.

bidding the reference of Ecclesiastical matters to the civil power, and making it lawful for a Bishop to endeavour to rights to his Church which his

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predecessor may have lost through in-
capacity to maintain them, unprejudiced
by the previous Ecclesiastical decision.

Ep. 100.
[26. p. 63.]
ad Marcell.

1 Ep. 99. [28.] ad Asellam.

A. D. 385. attacked him with all kinds of calumnies, and found fault even with his manner of walking, his smile, his looks; his very simplicity was suspected. In short, their calumnies went so far as to attack his reputation, with regard to the women and virgins, to whom he explained the holy Scriptures, though from the time of his baptism his behaviour had been always entirely pure and disinterested, and that he saw no women, but such as were of exemplary piety, and exercised austere penitence. But in general the people of Rome murmured against the monks' that came from the East, looking ad Marcell, upon them as Greeks and impostors, who misled maidens Ep. 25. [22. of rank, and ruined them by a melancholy and austere

3

2 Ep. 23.

[19. in fin.

p. 59.] c. 6.

ad Paul.

adv. Ruff.

life.

St. Jerome therefore resolved to give way to their envy, and leave Rome in order to return into Palestine. So he Apolog.3. embarked' at Porto in the August of this year 385, with his c. 7. [to. iv. young brother Paulinianus, a Priest whose name was VincenP.2. p. 459.] tius, and some other monks. Several pious persons attended him to the ship, and just before he embarked he wrote a letter to St. Asella, acquainting her with the cause of his departure, referring his calumniators to the tribunal of Christ, and commending himself to those holy women whom he left at Rome. Being come to Rhegium, from thence he passed the Ionian sea and the Cyclades, and first landed in the island of [Bishop of Cyprus, where he was received by St. Epiphanius*. After this he went to Antioch, and visited the Bishop Paulinus, who attended him when he departed for Jerusalem, where he arrived in the middle of the winter. Then he went into Socr. v. 12. Egypt, and found a new Bishop' at Alexandria, for Timotheus died in the year 385, under the consulship of Arcadius and See Conc. Bauto, and was succeeded by Theophilus, who held the See 1792. iii. twenty-seven years. We have the answers of Timotheus to Mansi.] eighteen articles of cases of conscience, concerning the admiEp.65.[41. nistration of the Sacraments. St. Jerome came to Alexandria p.342.]c.1. ad Pam. et chiefly to see the celebrated blind man Didymus', and receive Ocean. instruction from him, though he himself at that time had p. 245. ad grey hairs, and was esteemed one of the most learned Doctors

Constan

tia.]

Labb. ii.

p. 1249.

p.

Ep. 51. [32.

Domn. See

8

6

c. 10, note of the Church. He resided one month with Didymus, proRuff. Inv. posing all his difficulties to him, upon the Scriptures; and it was at his request that Didymus composed three books of

[p. 422.]

9 Præf. ad

Ephes.

commentaries upon Hosea', and five upon Zachariah', to A. D. 385. supply what Origen had left undone.

1 Adv. Ruff. 3. [p. 465.]

4

Zachar.

2 Præf. in

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3. c. 7. [p.

Bar-ani

Whilst St. Jerome was on this journey, he visited the Præf. in monasteries of Egypt, and then immediately departed for Palestine, and retired to Bethlehem3. It was thought that Zachar. after having conversed with Didymus, he could not be further Adv. Ruff. instructed, yet he applied to a Jewish master', who, for a sum 461.] of money, came to teach him, but in the night time, for fear of [Named the other Jews'. It was at this time that St. Jerome undertook na.] the interpretation of some of the Epistles of St. Paul, in Ep. 65. [41.p.342.] the first place that to Philemon, then the Epistle to the c. 1. Galatians, and afterwards that to the Ephesians'. About this time died St. Cyril of Jerusalem, after having been often Pref. ad Ephes. banished from his See, and as often restored, and having held it eight years under Theodosius without molestation. remain eighteen catechetical discourses composed by explain the Creed to the Catechumens, and five 10 to explain to those who were newly baptized the three Sacraments which they had just received. St. Cyril was succeeded ch. 55. by John, who till then had led a monastic life.

6

7

Gal.

S. Hieron.

There Scr. Ecc.

him

9

c. 112.

to 9 [in adolesothers, centia. S. Hier.]

1o See below

The travels

Eustoch.

Fleury, xi.

52. [a lady From of rank,

St. Paula departed from Rome soon after St. Jerome, and XXXVII. embarked without any regard to the maternal tenderness of St.Paula. which might have prevented her from leaving her daughter Ruffina, who was then marriageable, and her son Toxotius, who was yet an infant". She took her daughter Eustochium" Ep. 27. [86.p.672.] with her, with very few of her servants, and went first into c. 2. 3. ad the island of Pontia, near the coasts of Italy, in order to visit the cells where St. Domitilla 12 had been in exile under the Emperor Domitian, three hundred years before. thence St. Paula sailed to the island of Cyprus, where she by Euseb. threw herself at the feet of St. Epiphanius, who retained her iii. 18.] ten days with him, in order to give her some rest, but she employed that time in visiting all the monasteries of the country, and distributing alms to the solitaries, who had repaired thither from all parts of the world, through the love which they had for that holy Bishop. She then embarked for Antioch, where she was detained a short time by the Bishop Paulinus. She departed from thence in the middle of the winter", riding upon an ass, instead of being carried by "[f3-5-6.] her eunuchs, as had hitherto been her custom.

19 [See ch.

19.]

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