So much the better, for in that case Christ would come the sooner. * Siricius, Bishop of Rome A. D. 385, decided that mar- riage was inconsistent with the clerical office ; and was followed in this view by his successors. Great opposition, however, was ex- perienced in enforcing celibacy, and it required all the energy of Gregory VII. to have the decisions of councils carried into effect. Ultimately, however, the rule, so far as the clergy are concerned, was acquiesced in, and received the authoritative sanction of the Council of Trent. That Council decided,2 " Si quis dixerit, statum conjugalem anteponendum esse statui virginitatis, vel coelibatus, et non esse melius, et beatius manere in virginitate aut coelibatu, quam jungi matrimonio : anathema sit." On this assumed higher virtue of celibacy, in the preceding canon it was ordered : " Si quis dixerit, clericos in sacris ordinibus constitutos, vel regulares, castitatem solemniter professos, posse matrimonium contrahere, contractumque validum esse, non obstante lege ecclesiastica, vel voto : et oppositum nil aliud esse, quam damnare matrimonium ; posseque omnes contrahere matrimonium, qui non sentiunt se castitatis, etiam si earn voterint, habere donum ; anathema sit ; cum Deus id recte petentibus non deneget, nee patiatur nos supra id, quod possumus, tentari."
Although the doctrine that virginity, as the Roman Catechism expresses it, " summopere commendatur,', as being better, and more perfect and holy than a state of marriage, is made the ostensible ground of the enforced celibacy of the clergy, it is manifest that hierarchical reasons had much to do in making the Romish Church so strenuous in insisting that its clergy should be unmarried. This Gregory VII. avows when he says,8 " Non liberari potest ecclesia a servitute laicorum, nisi liberentur clerici ab uxoribus." And Melancthon felt authorized to say in refer- ence to the celibacy of the clergy in the Church of Rome, " Una est vera et sola causa tuendi coelibatus, ut opes commodius ad- ministrentur et splendor ordinis retineatur." 4
As the Reformation was a return to the Scriptures as the only infallible rule of faith and practice ; and as in the Scriptures mar- riage is exalted as a holy state, and no preeminence in excellence is assigned to celibacy or virginity ; and as the Reformers denied the authority of the Church to make laws to bind the conscience or to curtail the liberty with which Christ had made his people
1 Augustine, De Bono Conjugali, 10; Works, edit. Benedictines, Paris, 1837, vol. vi. p. 551, c.
* Sess. xxir., canon 10; Streitwolf, Libri Symbolici, Gbttingen, 1846, p. 91.
• Epiat. lib. iii. p. 7. 4 See Herzorc's Real-EncyMopadie, Art. " Cblibat."
876 PART in. Ch. XIX. — the law.
free, Protestants pronounced with one voice against the obliga- tion of monastic vows and of the celibacy of the clergy.
The Greek Church petrified at an early date. It assumed the form which it still retains, before the doctrine of the special sanc- tity of celibacy had gained ascendancy. It abides therefore by the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, and of Trullo, A. D. 692, which permitted marriage to priests and dea- cons. Those Greeks who are in communion with the Church of Rome enjoy the same liberty. Benedict XIV. declared in refer- ence to them, u Etsi expetendum quam maxime esset, ut Graeci, qui sunt in sacris ordinibus constituti, castitatem non secus ac Latini servarent. Nihilominus, ut eorum clerici, subdiaconi, diaconi et presbyteri uxores in eorum ministerio retineant, dum- modo ante sacros ordines, virgines, non viduas, neque corruptas duxerint, Romana non prohibet Ecclesia. Eos autem, qui viduam vel corruptam duxerunt, vel ad secunda vota, prima uxore mortua, convolarunt,ad subdiaconatum, diaconatum et presbyteratum pro- mo veri omnino prohibemus." * In the Russian Church the priests are required to be married men ; but second marriages are for them prohibited. The bishops are chosen from the monks and must be unmarried.
Marriage a Divine Institution.
Marriage is a divine institution. (1.) Because founded on the nature of man as constituted by God. He made man male and female, and ordained marriage as the indispensable condition of the continuance of the race. (2.) Marriage was instituted before the existence of civil society, and therefore cannot in its essential nature be a civil institution. As Adam and Eve were married not in virtue of any civil law, or by the intervention of a civil magistrate, so any man and woman cast together on a desert island, could lawfully take each other as husband and wife. It is a degradation of the institution to make it a mere civil con- tract. (3.) God commanded men to marry, when He com- manded them to increase, and multiply and replenish the earth. (4.) God in his word has prescribed the duties belonging to the marriage relation ; He has made known his will as to the parties
1 Bulla lvii. § 7-26 ; Magn. Bull. Rom., Luxemburg, 1752, vol. xvi. The controversies in the Chnrch on this subject are detailed by the leading modern ecclesiastical historians, as Neander, Gieseler, and Schaff. The merits of the question are discussed in numerous separate treatises, as well as in such books as Burnet's Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Jeremy Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium (in. iv. Works, London, 1828, vol. xiiL, pp. 549-616), Elliott's Delineation of Romanism, Thiersch's Vorlesungen uber Kathclicis- mus und Protestantismus, 2nd edit. Erlangen, 1848.
§ ll.J THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 877
who may lawfully be united in marriage ; He has determined the continuance of the relation ; and the causes which alone justify its dissolution. These matters are not subject to the will of the parties, or to the authority of the State. (5.) The vow of mutual fidelity made by husband and wife, is not made exclusively by each one to the other, but by each to God. When a man con- nects himself with a Christian Church he enters into covenant with his brethren in the Lord ; mutual obligations are assumed ; but nevertheless the covenant is made with God. He joins the Church in obedience to the will of God ; he promises to regulate his faith and practice by the divine word ; and the vow of fidelity is made to God. It is the same in marriage. It is a voluntary, mutual compact between husband and wife. They promise to be faithful to each other ; but nevertheless tTiey act in obedience to God, and promise to Him that they will live together as man and wife, according to his word. Any violation of the compact is, therefore, a violation of a vow made to God.
Marriage is not a sacrament in the sense which in baptism and the Lord's Supper are sacraments, nor in the sense of the Romish Church ; but it is none the less a sacred institution. Its solemnization is an office of religion. It should, therefore, be entered upon with due solemnity and in the fear of God ; and should be celebrated, i. e., the ceremony should be performed by a minister of Christ. He alone is authorized to see to it that the law of God is adhered to ; and he alone can receive and register the marriage vows as made to God. The civil magistrate can only witness it as a civil contract, and it is consequently to ignore its religious character and sanction to have it celebrated by a civil officer. As the essence of the marriage contract is the mutual compact of the parties in the sight of God and in the pres- ence of witnesses, it is not absolutely necessary that it should be celebrated by a minister of religion or even by a civil magistrate. It may be lawfully solemnized, as among the Quakers, without the intervention of either. Nevertheless as it is of the greatest importance that the religious nature of the institution should be kept in view, it is incumbent on Christians, so far as they them- selves are concerned, to insist that it should be solemnized as a religious service.
Marriage as a Civil Institution. As a man's being a servant of God and bound to make his word the rule of his faith and practice, is not inconsistent with his
378 PART HI. Ch. XIX. — the law.