Tomline on Article XXXII: Of the Marriage of Priests

There was scarcely any point more canvassed at the time of the Reformation, than the right of the clergy to marry. The celibacy of the Romish clergy was with reason considered to be a prin- ciple cause of their irregular and dissolute lives ; and the wisest of the Reformers were exceedingly anxious to abolish a practice which had been in- jurious to the interests of religion, by its tendency to corrupt the morals of those who ought to be examples of virtue to the rest of mankind.

The marriage of priests was so far from being forbidden by the Mosaic institution, that the priesthood was confined to the descendants of one family, and consequently there was not only a permission, but an -obligation upon the Jewish

«^ priests,

AUT. XXXII.] T7nrty-nine . Articles. 517

priests, to marry ; and hence we conclude, that there is no natural inconsistency, or even unsuit- ableness, between the married state and the duties of the ministers of religion.

There is not a single text in the New Testa- ment which can be interpreted into a prohibition against the marriage of the clergy under the Gos- pel dispensation, but, on the contrary, there are many passages, from which we may infer, that they are allowed the same liberty upon this sub. ject as other men enjoy. • One of the twdve Apostles, nanaely St. Peter, was certainlya mar- ried man (a) ; and it is supposed that several of. the others were likewise. Philip, one of the seven, deacons, was also a married man (b) ; and if Christ did not require celibacy in the first preachers of .the. Gospel, there is no reason to think that it is necessary in their suc- cessors. St. Paul says, ” Let every man have his own wife . (c) f and that, ” marriage is honourable in all (d)y’ without excepting those who are . employed in the public offices of reli- gion. And he expressly says, that ” a bishop must be the husband of one wife (e) f and he gives the same direction concerning elders (f) or

priests,

L L 3

518^ Hrpasitim 6/ the [pabt in»

priests, and deacons (g).” When Aqila tre- veDed about to preach the Gospel, he was not only married, but his wife Priscilla accompanifid him (k) ; and St. Paul insists that he mit have claimed die privilege ’ of carrying about a sister or wife (i)f as other Apostles did.” — The ” for- bidding to marry (k)” is mentioned as a cha- racter of the apostasy of the latter times. Hence itappears,that bishops, priests, and deacons,

ARE not commanded BY GOD’s LAW, EITHER

ABSTAIN FROM MARRIAGE, that is, the^arenot bound at the time of their ordination to vow, or enter into a solemn engagement, that they wOI not marry, or to abstain from marriage without any such vow.

Therefore it is lawful for them, as

FOR ALL other CHRISTIAN MEN, TO MARRY JUDGE THE SAME TO SERVE BETTER TO GOD^

LiNEss. This is a necessary consequence of the former part of the Article, since it is not compe- tent to the church to deprive the clergy of any of those natural rights in which Christ has left them free ; or, if it should be contended that any church may prohibit its clergy from marry- ing,

(g) 1 Tim.c.3. V. 13. (h) Acts, c. 18. v. 2.

(i) 1 Cor. c. g. y. 5. (k) 1 Tim. c. 4. v. 3.

AET. xx:i^ii.] Thirty^mie Artkks. 519

ingy it undoubtecUy has no authority which can be binding upon succeeding times, or upon Christians of other communities. We admit of no laws of perpetual and universal obligation, which are not founded in Scripture.

It is certain that the ministers of the Gospd were allowed to marry for sevend centuries after the days of the Apostles (I). There are now extant two books of Tertullian, a presbyter of the second century, addressed to his wife ; and we have also a lettar from Hilary of Poictiers, writ** ten to his daughter when he was in entile, and from what can be collected concerning her age, it seems probable that she was bom when he was bishop. At the same time it must be oWned that many things are said in praise of a single life in the writings of the antient fathers, -and that some attempts were made very early to impose celibacy upon the clergy. The allowed necessity of a Christian’s separating himself from the criminal pleasures and pursuits of this world, soon con- nected the ideas of holiness and solitude ; and the reputed sanctity qf those persons who con- demned themselves to live alone in the desertsy attached a degree of merit to celibacy, and by degrees led to those monastic institutions which have produced such various mischief, though not

without

(I) Vide Bingham’s Ant. b. 4. c. 5.

L L 4

520 ’ Exposition of the [part in

without a mixture of some good. Siricius, Who according to Dufresnoy, died in the year 399, was the first pope that forbade the marriage of the clergy; but it is probable that this prohibition was but little regarded, as the celibacy of the clergy seems not to have been completely esta- blished till the papacy of Gregory the Seventh, at the end of the eleventh century, and even then it was loudly complained of . by many writers. The history of the following centuries abundantly proves the bad effects of this abuse of church power.

ART. xxxiii.] Thirty-nine Articles. 521

Notes

• (a) Matt. c. 8. v. 14. (b) Acts, c. 2i.y. 8 & (c) 1 Cor. c. 7. V. 2. (d) Heb. c. 13. v. 4. (t) iTimt c. 3. v.^ 1. (f) Tit c. 1. v. «.