yet if they married after that, he says,' they were not to be separated from their husbands as adultresses; for their marriage was true marriage, and not adultery, as some: falsely argued." He says, "they offended highly in breaking their vow, but yet their marriage was valid; and in that case to separate them from their husbands, was only to make their husbands adulterers in marrying others whilst their wives were living." By parity of reason then the marriages of monks must be esteemed valid also, even supposing them under an equal obligation. And upon this account we find no instances of dissolving marriage in such cases left upon record in ancient history.

SECT. 24.-What Punishments ordinarily inflicted on Deserters.

Yet in process of time, because monks were presumed to be under some private obligation by assuming this way of living, some punishments were thought of, as proper to be inflicted on such as relinquished their station, and returned to a secular life again. By the first council of Orleans, a monk that had entered himself in a monastery, if he afterwards married a wife, was for ever after incapable of holy orders, but no other censure is passed upon him. St. Austin was for inflicting the same punishment on such as left their monastery without their own bishop's leave, as appears from his letter to Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, upon that subject. The civil law likewise excludes deserters from the privilege of ordination; for by a law of Honorius* they were to be delivered up to the Curia, or civil court of the city, there to serve all their lives; by which means they were rendered incapable of any office in the

1 Aug. de Bono Viduitat. c. 10. Qui dicunt talium nuptias non esse nuptias, sed potius adulteria, non mihi videntur satis acutè ac diligenter considerare quid dicant. Fallit eos quippe similitudo veritatis, &c. 2 Con. Aurel. i. c. 23. Monachus in monasterio conversus, si pellici posteà vel uxori fuerit sociatus, tantæ prævaricationis reus, nunquam ecclesiastici gradûs officium sortiatur. Aug. Ep. 76. ad Aurel. Ordini clericorum fit indignissima injuria, si desertores monasteriorum ad militiam clericatûs eligantur, &c. * Cod. Th. lib. xvi. tit. 2. leg. 39. Si qui

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professum sacræ religionis sponte dereliquerit, continuò sibi eum curia vindicet, &c.

2

Church, because curial and clerical offices were inconsistent with one another, as has been showed at large' in another place. Justinian added another punishment, "that if they were possessed of any substance, it should all be forfeited to the monastery which they deserted, while they themselves should be obliged to serve personally among the officials of the judge of the province where they lived." For by this time monasteries began to have estates and possessions in some places, though the most exact rules of the Egyptian monks were against it. The censures of the Church were likewise inflicted on deserting monks in the fifth century. Spalatensis thinks the first council that ever decreed excommunication against them, was the fourth council of Toledo, under Honorius, Anno 633. But he did not advert to a former canon of the council of Chalcedon, made near two hundred years before, which decreed, "that neither virgins consecrated to God, nor monks 5 should marry; and such as did so, should be excommunicated; only the bishop of the place might moderate the censure:" that is, if I rightly understand that canon, which is by some mistaken, he might shorten the term of their penance at his discretion; which was the only way of granting indulgences in the primitive Church. And from hence again it appears, that when it was thought a crime for a monk to marry, yet they did not think it a nullity when done, or presume to void it upon that score, but only oblige him to do penance for such a term as the bishop should think fit to impose upon him. And I suppose the Canons of St. Basil, and the council of Trullo," which speak of a penance of seven years or more, are to be understood with this limitation.

I have now put together all that I could think material to be said upon this subject of the monastic life; and some perhaps will think I have said too much, and others too little upon it; but I content myself to have said so much

1 Book iv. chap. iv. sect. 4. 2 Justin. Novel. v. c. 6. Si relinquens monasterium, ad quandam veniat militiam, aut ad aliam vitæ figuram: substantiâ ejus in monasterio remanente, ipse inter officiales clarissimi provinciæ judicis statuetur, &c. It Cod. lib. i. tit. 3. leg. 56. 8 Spalat. de Repub. lib. ii. cap. 12. n. 48. 4 Con. Tolet. iv. c. 54. & Con. Chalced. can. 16. Basil. can. 60. 7 Con. Trull. c. 44.

às seemed necessary to my own design, which was to give an account of ancient customs, and explain several laws and rules of the Church. They, whose curiosity leads them further, may easily have recourse to Cassian's Institutions and Collations, and Palladius's Historia Lausiaca, and Theodoret's Philotheus or Religious History,-books written particularly upon this subject by profest admirers of the monastic life. My method now leads me to say something briefly of the virgins and widows, that were also reckoned among the ascetics of the Church.

CHAP. IV.

The Case and State of Virgins and Widows in the Ancient Church.

SECT. 1.-Of the Distinction between Ecclesiastical and Monastical Virgins.

As I have showed before that there were ascetics in the Church long before there were any monks; so it must here be noted, that there were virgins who made public and open profession of virginity, before the monastic life or name was known in the world. This appears from the writings of Cyprian and Tertullian, who speak of virgins dedicating themselves to Christ before there were any monasteries to receive them. These, for distinction's sake, are sometimes called ecclesiastical virgins, by the writers of the following ages, Sozomen,' and others, to distinguish them from such as embraced the monastic life, after monasteries began to multiply in the world. The ecclesiastical virgins were commonly enrolled in the canon or matricula of the Church, that is, in the catalogue of ecclesiastics, as we learm from Socrates, who speaks of them under that title. And hence they were sometimes called Canonica, canonical virgins, from their being registered in the canon or books of the Church. They differed from the monastic virgins chiefly in this, that they lived privately in their fathers' houses, and

1 Sozom. lib. viii. c. 23. Παρθένοι ἐκκλησιασικαί.

2 Socrat. lib. i. c. 17. Τὰς παρθένες τὰς ἀναγεγραμμένας ἐν τῷ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν κανόνι, &c.

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had their maintenance from their fathers, or in cases of necessity from the Church; but the others lived in communities, and upon their own labour, as we learn from the third council of Carthage and the writings of St. Austin. Spalatensis long ago observed this difference, and it is since acknowledged by Albaspinæus, Valesius,5 Cotelerius, and other learned men of the Romish Church. So that it is now out of dispute, that as the ascetics for the first three hundred years were not monks, so neither were the sacred virgins of the Church monastical virgins, or nuns confined to a cloister, as in after ages.

SECT. 2. Whether they were under any Profession of perpetual Virginity. If it be inquired how these were distinguished from other virgins, that were merely secular?—I conceive it was by some sort of profession of their intention to continue in that state all their lives; but whether that was a solemn vow, or a simple profession, is not agreed among learned writers. The learned editor of St. Cyprian, reckons they were under no obligation of any formal vow in the age of Cyprian, but yet were some way bound by the resolution and purpose of their own mind, and the public profession of virginity. And in this he seems to speak not only the common sense of Protestant writers, but the sense of that ancient author, who says, they dedicated themselves to Christ, yet so as that if either they would not, or could not persevere, it was better for them to marry, than to burn," or to be cast into fire for their offences, as his words may literally be translated. From whence it may be collected, that then the

mentes.

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Con. Carth. iii. can. 33. Ut virgines sacræ, si parentibus, à quibus custodiebantur, privatæ fuerint, episcopi providentiâ vel presbyteri, si episcopus absens est, in monasterio virginum gravioribus fœminis commendentur, &c. 2 Aug. de Morib. Eccles. c. 31. Lanificio corpus exercent, atque sustentant, vestesque ipsas fratribus tradunt, ab iis invicem quod victui opus est resuSpalat. de Repub. lib. ii. c. 11. n. 25. * Albaspin. Not. in Con. Eliber. can. 13. "Vales. Not. in Sozom. lib. viii. c. 23. Coteler. Not. in Constit. Apost. lib. viii. c. 13. Fell. Not. in Cypr. Ep. 4. Animi proposito et publicâ virginitatis professione, non voto astricCypr. Ep. 62. al. 4. ad Pompon. Si ex fide se Christo dicaverunt, pudicè et castè sine ullâ fabulâ perseverent; ita fortes et stabiles præmium virginitatis expectent. Si autem perseverare nolunt, vel non possunt; melius est nubant, quàm in ignem delictis suis cadant.

tæ.

profession of virginity was not so strict, as to make marrying after be thought a crime worthy of ecclesiastical

censure.

SECT. 3.-When first made liable to the Censures of the Church for Marrying against their Profession.

But in the following ages the censures of the Church were inflicted on them. The council of Ancyra1 determined universally against all such as having professed virginity afterward went against their profession, that they should be subjected to the same term of penance as digamists were used to be; that is, a year or two, as we learn from one of the Canons of St. Basil. The council of Chalcedon orders them to be excommunicated, if they married, but leaves the term of their penance to the bishop's discretion. The council of Valence, in France, is still more severe, forbidding them to be admitted immediately to penance; and when they were admitted, unless they made full and reasonable satisfaction to God, their restoration to communion was still to be deferred. Now from these canons, to mention no more, it evidently appears, that in the following ages next after the time of Cyprian, that is, in the fourth and fifth centuries, the censures of the Church were severer against the marriage of professed virgins than they were before; and they seem to have risen in proportion to the esteem and value, which men began to set upon celibacy and the monastic life.

SECT. 4.-The Marriage of Professed Virgins never declared null.

Yet two things are very observable amidst all the severity and rigour of those ages. First, that there never was any Church-decree for rescinding, or pronouncing null such marriages. The Emperor Jovian indeed, as Sozomen 5 re

1 Con. Ancyr. can. 19. Ὅσοι παρθενίαν ἐπαγγελλόμενοι, ἀθετῶσι τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν, τὸν τῶν διγάμων ὁρον ἐκπληρέτωσαν. 2 Basil. Ep. 4 Con. Valentin.

Canon. c. 4.

8 Con. Chalced: can. 16.

can. 2. De puellis, quæ se Deo voverunt, si ad terrenas nuptias sponte transierint, id custodiendum esse decrevimus, ut pœnitentia his non statim detur: et cùm data fuerit, nisi plenè satisfecerint Deo, in quantum ratio poposcerit, earundem communio differatur. 5 Sozom. lib. vi. c. 3.

VOL. II.

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