[750] Can. 6 (29, see Hefele I. 217) Praeterea, quod dignum, pudicum et honestum est, suademus fratribus, ut sacerdotes et levitae cum uxoribus satis non cogant, quia ministerio quotidiano occupantur. Quicunque contra hanc constitutionem fecerit, a cleritatus honore deponatur."
[751] Can. 10 (Hefele, Conciliengesch. I. p. 230, 2te Aufl). The canon is adopted in the Corpus juris can. c. 8. Dist. 28. The Synod of Neo-Caesarea, between 314-325, can. 1, forbids the priests to marry on pain of deposition. This does not conflict with the other canon, and likewise passed into the Canon Law, c. 9, Dist. 28. See Hefele, I. 244.
[752] "Of those who come into the clergy unmarried, we permit only the readers and singers if they are so minded, to marry afterward."
[753] This important incident of Paphnutius rests on the unanimous testimony of the well informed historians Socrates (Hist. Eccl. I. 11), Sozoinen (H. E. I. 23), and Gelasius Cyzic. (Hist. Conc. Nic. II. 32); see Mansi, Harduin, and Hefele (I. 431-435). It agrees moreover with the directions of the Apost. Const. and Canons, and with the present practice of the Eastern churches on this subject. The objections of Baronius, Bellarmine, Valesius. and other Romanists are unfounded and refuted by Natalis Alexander, and Hefele (l.c.). Funk (R.C.)says: "Die Einwendungen, die qeqen den Bericht, vorgebracht wurden, sind völlig nichtig" (utterly futile).
[754] Euphoniously called suneisaktos, subiatroducta (introduced as a companion), agapete, soror. See Hefele, T. 380. Comp. on this canon W. Bright, Notes on the Canons of the First Four General Councils. Oxford, 1882, pp. 8, 9. A Council of Antioch had deposed Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, for this nasty practice, and for heresy. Euseb. H. E. VII. 30.
[755] Notwithstanding this canonical prohibition the disreputable practice continued. Chrysostom wrote a discourse "against persons echontas parthenous suneisaktous"and another urging the dedicated virgins not to live with them. Jerome complains of the "pestis agapetarum"(Ep. XXII. 14).
[756] Ep. XXII. "Laudo nuptias, laudo conjugium, sed quia mihi virgines generant." Comp. Ep. CXXIII.
[757] And the Roman Church seems to care more for the power, than for the purity of the clergy. Gregory VII., who used all his unflinching energy to enforce celibacy, said openly: "Non liberari potest ecclesia a servitude laicorum, nisi liberentur clerici ab uxoribus." As clerical celibacy is a matter of discipline, not of doctrine, the Pope might at any time abolish it, and Aeneas Sylvius, before he ascended the chair of Peter as Pius II. (1458 to 1464), remarked that marriage had been denied to priests for good and sufficient reasons, but that still stronger ones now required its restoration. The United Greeks and Maronites are allowed to retain their wives. Joseph II. proposed to extend the permission. During the French Revolution, and before the conclusion of the Concordat (1801), many priests and nuns were married. But the hierarchical interest always defeated in the end such movements, and preferred to keep the clergy aloof from the laity in order to exercise a greater power over it. "The Latin church," says Lea in his History of Celibacy, "is the most wonderful structure in history, and ere its leaders can consent to such a reform they must confess that its career, so full of proud recollections, has been an error."
[758] Comp. this History, Vol. VI., § 79, p. 473 sqq.
CHAPTER X:
MONTANISM.
§ 109. Literature.
Sources:
The prophetic utterances of Montanus, Prisca (or Priscilla) and Maximilla, scattered through Tertullian and other writers, collected by F. Münter. (Effata et Oracula Montanistarum, Hafniae, 1829), and by Bonwetsch, in his Gesch. des Mont. p. 197-200.
Tertullian's writings after a.d. 201, are the chief source, especially De Corona Militis; De Fuga in Persec.; De Cult. Feminarum; De Virg. Velandis; De Exhort. Castitatis; De Monogamia; De Paradiso; De Jejuniis; De Pudicitia; De Spectaculis; De Spe Fidelium. His seven books On Ecstasy, mentioned by Jerome, are lost. In his later anti-heretical writings (Adv. Marcionem; Adv. Valentin.; Adv. Praxean; De Anima; De Resurr. Carnis), Tertullian occasionally refers to the new dispensation of the Spirit. On the chronology of his writings see Uhlhorn: Fundamenta chronologiae Tertullianeae, (Gött. 1852), Bonwetsch: Die Schriften Tertullians nach der Zeit ihrer Abfassung (Bonn, 1878), and Harnack, in Brieger's "Zeitschrift für K. gesch." No. 11.
Irenaeus: Adv. Haer. III. 11, 9; IV. 33, 6 and 7. (The references to Montanism are somewhat doubtful). Eusebius: H. E. V. 3. Epipan.: Haer. 48 and 49.
The anti-Montanist writings of Apolinarius (Apollinaris) of Hierapolis, Melito of Sardes, Miltiades (peri tou me dein propheten en ekstasei lalein), Apollonius, Serapion, Gaius, and an anonymous author quoted by Eusebius are lost. Comp. on the sources Soyres, l.c. p. 3-24, and Bonwetsch, l c. p. 16-55.
Works:
Theoph. Wernsdorf: Commentatio de Montanistis Saeculi II. vulgo creditis haereticis. Dantzig, 1781. A vindication of Montanism as being essentially agreed with the doctrines of the primitive church and unjustly condemned. Mosheim differs, but speaks favorably of it. So also Soyres. Arnold had espoused the cause of M. before, in his Kirchen-und Ketzerhistorie.
Mosheim: De Rebus Christ. ante Const. M. p. 410-425 (Murdock's transl I. 501-512).
Walch: Ketzerhistorie, I. 611-666.
Kirchner: De Montanistis. Jenae, 1832.
Neander: Antignosticus oder Geist aus Tertullian's Schriften. Berlin, 1825 (2d ed. 1847), and the second ed. of his Kirchengesch. 1843, Bd. II. 877-908 (Torrey's transl. Boston ed. vol. I. 506-526). Neander was the first to give a calm and impartial philosophical view of Montanism as the realistic antipode of idealistic Gnosticism.
A. Schwegler: Der Montanismus und die christl. Kirche des 2^tenJahrh. Tüb. 1841. Comp. his Nach-Apost. Zeitalter (Tüb. 1846). A very ingenious philosophical a-priori construction of history in the spirit of the Tübingen School. Schwegler denies the historical existence of Montanus, wrongly derives the system from Ebionism, and puts its essence in the doctrine of the Paraclete and the new supernatural epoch of revelation introduced by him. Against him wrote GEORGII in the "Deutsche Jahrbücher für Wissenschaft und Kunst," 1842.
Hilgenfeld: Die Glossolalie in der alten Kirche. Leipz. 1850.
Baur: Das Wesen des Montanismus nach den neusten Forschungen, in the "Theol. Jahrbücher." Tüb. 1851, p. 538 sqq.; and his Gesch. der Christl. Kirche, I. 235-245, 288-295 (3d ed. of 1863). Baur, like Schwegler, lays the chief stress on the doctrinal element, but refutes his view on the Ebionitic origin of Mont., and reviews it in its conflict with Gnosticism and episcopacy.
Niedner: K. Gesch. 253 sqq., 259 sqq.
Albrecht Ritschl: Entstehung der altkathol. Kirche, second ed. 1857, p. 402-550. R. justly emphasizes the practical and ethical features of the sect.
P. Gottwald: De Montanismo Tertulliani. Vratisl. 1862.
A. Reville: Tertullien et le Montanisme, in the "Revue des deux mondes," Nov. 1864. Also his essay in the "Nouvelle Revue de Theologic" for 1858.
R. A. Lipsius: Zur Quellenkritik des Epiphanios. Wien, 1865; and Die Quellen der ältesten Ketzergeschichte. Leipz. 1875.
Emile Ströhlin: Essai sur le Montanisme. Strasbourg, 1870.
John De Soyres: Montanism and the Primitive Church (Hulsean prize essay). Cambridge, 1878 (163 pa-es). With a useful chronological table.
G. Nathanael Bonwetsch (of Dorpat): Die Geschichte des Montanismus. Erlangen, 1881 (201 pages). The best book on the subject.
Renan: Marc-Aurèle (1882), ch. XIII. p. 207-225. Also his essay Le Montanisme, in the "Revue des deux mondes," Feb. 1881.
W. Belck: Geschichte des Montanismus. Leipzig, 1883.
Hilgenfeld: D. Ketzergesch. des Urchristenthums. Leipzig, 1884. (pp. 560-600.)
The subject is well treated by Dr. Möller in Herzog (revis. ed. Bd. X. 255-262); Bp. Hefele in Wetzer & Welter, Bd. VII. 252-268, and in his Conciliengesch. revised ed. Bd. I. 83 sqq.; and by Dr. Salmond in Smith & Wace, III. 935-945.
Comp. also the Lit. on Tertullian, § 196 (p. 818).