ascetic life in the hearing of the people, who were taught to look upon those who professed it, as superhuman beings: in return, these unearthly personages gave their weight, as required, to the clergy, and actually moved on in phalanx when peculiarly needed the ascetics constituted a corps de reserve, which the Church might summon to her aid in critical moments. Under ordinary circumstances, as is easy to understand, these recluses, drawn as they were from the bosoms of families, and trained to silence toward the world, and to unlimited disclosures toward their spiritual guides, were the fittest instruments of that sort of clandestine management, by means of which the clergy may exercise a terrible despotism over private life. No family that had a daughter or a sister in the quire of virgins, could be exempt from anxieties. All this is well understood in catholic countries; but then in the nicene age, the license that prevailed among the ascetics left a much wider scope for this sort of dumb tyranny: the nuns not being actually incarcerated, might worm themselves through all the crevices of society, and at the same time, as they habitually confessed' to the clergy, and received instructions from them, they might be employed to effect any nefarious purpose. But what shall we say of that influence upon the morals and manners of the clergy-an unmarried clergy, which resulted from the access allowed them to convents? The less that is said on such a theme the better; yet it is indispensable to place it, in its outline at least, before the reader. If the worst enemy of the Church-if its infernal enemy, were supposed to have had the opportunity to devise a plan most certain to corrupt it, what better could he have done, than, first to stir deeply the sensibilities of human nature; then to impose celibacy on both sexes; then to screen both from the eye of the world; and then to allow the one free access to the other, under pretext of spiritual superintendence! Need any thing more be said? Are we to think such a constitution of things to have been the contrivance of infinite wisdom and goodness? Grant that paganism has established what was as bad; but certainly, it has sanctioned nothing worse. Under a luxurious climate, in countries where inveterate licentiousness had brought all sentiments and habits down to the lowest level, young women at the earliest age were snatched from their homes-the only places then where modesty still took refuge; they were congregated in dim seclusions, where they received visits from unmarried men, to whom, moreover, and in hours of tremulous excitement, they were to expose the inmost secrets of their hearts! This is that scheme which we are to admire, and to emulate, and to set agoing afresh among ourselves! THE DIRECT INFLUENCE OF THE CELIBATE We have only to follow the inevitable course of things, a very little way, and it will become evident that what has actually happened could not but have happened, and must always, unless under the most extraordinary circumstances, happen, wherever the principle of the ascetic life is embraced.-The doctrine that celibacy is a higher and a holier state than matrimony, and that it is a more excellent way,' and that virginity, as the fathers constantly express it, places a man near to God, is, let us suppose, broached in a christian community, and is put forward, whether modestly or fanatically, so as to enchain ardent minds. Such instantly profess this angelic excellence :-the people, not taught better, admire and applaud the specious instance of fervour and self-devotion; they gaze with awe and affection upon the 'holy' youth, or virgin; and this awe is just so much respect withdrawn from those, however excellent they may be, who fall short of so high a standard. But can there be any element of sanctity which is not eminently to be desired in those who administer holy things? The people will feel this congruity, and the ardent and ambitious among the clergy will keenly feel it too; and although other means of popularity should be wanting, this at least is at Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, pp. 208, 213. hand-the weak and enthusiastic, as well as the haughty and aspiring, will snatch at the distinction, and there will soon be a band of holy' priests and deacons, who, by the aid of the very qualities which have impelled them to walk on so arduous a path, will draw towards themselves the warmest feelings of the devout portion of the community. When things have proceeded thus far, many, who had been insensible to primary motives, will yield to such as are secondary; and they also will 'profess.' Thus the band of the 'chaste' will gradually have swollen to such a magnitude as to disturb the equilibrium of feeling throughout the Church: a new mode of speaking will have come in, adapted to this altered state of things;-' marriage is lawful, no doubt; to say otherwise were heretical; but yet how angelic is chastity and how fit is it, that those who wear spotless white at the altar, should also be inwardly and personally white! Whenever it is possible, let us receive the holy sacrament, from holy hands.' When once this comes to be said or felt, by the devout, the fate of the Church is sealed. Married priests rest thenceforward under an obloquy ;-they are not indeed driven from the altar; but they gladly give place there to those who can lift an unblushing front to heaven. More and more go over to the privileged company, and, while indemnifying themselves as they may, and all but a few will indemnify themselves, will yet claim, in public, the honours of continence, and join in decrying, as sensual, the married priest. When it comes to be understood that it is marriage and not profligacy that is condemned, none but the few who retain some sense of virtue and piety will subject themselves to contempt for the mere sake of being able to call the woman they live with-wife. At length it is felt to be a measure, at once of discretion and of mercy, not to say necessity, to forbid universally, what has become the occasion of scandal and of invidious distinction: the last step therefore is taken, and holy celibacy, joining hands with detestable vices, celebrates its triumph. Fanaticism proclaims a high day, and blows her seven trumpets of lust, hypocrisy, cruelty, blasphemy, infidelity, madness, and misery; and the Church thenceforward sits enthroned upon the overthrown decencies of domestic life, and is encircled by an unmarried priesthood, the ministers and patterns of all evil. D D The social system then putrefies to the core, and the poison of its corruption sheds death on every side. In various degrees of aggravation, such have always, and in all countries, been the consequences of clerical celibacy; and clerical celibacy is the inevitable consequence of the doctrine that the virgin state is more holy than the married. Whether we speak of these things problematically, as what must happen, or historically, as what has always happened, is indifferent to our argument: the connexion of the effect with its cause is of the most intimate kind; nor can any exceptions be produced that should affect our conclusion. So long as religious celibacy rests upon the plain ground of utility, it will keep within very narrow bounds, and the practice may be exempt from peril; but the moment it is propounded as an object of spiritual ambition, or as a lofty distinction, many motives, and some of them of a very impure kind, will come into play, impelling multitudes to snatch this glory, who have sadly mistaken their personal call. Only one course of events can then follow-namely-the prevalence of frightful abuses. If religious celibacy be a glory and a beauty, in itself, the clergy must not leave this advantage to the laity. This were as if the brightest military courage—the freshest laurels of war, neglected by the officers in an army, were left to be the distinction of the privates. Then, if some of the clergy arrogate this professional virtue, all must at length pretend to it. The doctrine of Tertullian and of Cyprian is the alpha in a series, to which Hildebrand subjoined the omega; and the modern favourers of antiquity are setting agoing again, that, which, should it proceed, can have no other end. A small portion of men only (moments of excitement excepted) will adhere virtuously to a vow of continence: to expect any thing else is ridiculously absurd. But even if the proportion were large, as it possibly might become, for a time, and under unusual circumstances of religious animation, or of proselyting zeal, it remains to inquire what the effects of celibacy are upon the dispositions of the clergy-even supposing the best that can be imagined. This is a trite subject. The ministers of religion are, unavoidably, so far set off from the influence of ordinary motives, as to involve some peril to their humility, their candour, and their good sense; but to sever them from the social mass violently, by celibacy, is to aggravate tenfold all the ill tendencies of their position, and to render them morose, selfish, arrogant, prurient, trivial, fanatical, and perversely ambitious; in a word to induce habits and dispositions the most pernicious in their bearing upon private life, and dangerous in the highest degree to the state. The history of Europe has abundantly established these general principles, which few now dispute. The Lord knows what human nature is; and he has otherwise determined for his ministers, than that they should want the salutary and softening influences of domestic life; and here we come to a decisive instance in which the explicit law of God, being violently and without shame contradicted, and set aside, by the decisions of the Church, a choice must be made between the two authorities. On this particular ground, as I humbly venture to predict, the Oxford Tract church principles will either win a signal triumph-a triumph fatal to christianity, and to England; or-they will meet their merited fate, and be remembered only with pity. Feeling, as they must, how critical this question is, the promoters of nicene christianity will hardly do otherwise than evade a premature trial of their strength in respect to it. At the present moment, for them to say all they mean, and clearly to propound all they wish to see effected, would instantly bring hundreds of their disciples to their senses. Not indeed that these divines intend the remoter consequences of the course they are pursuing; but they intend that which must infallibly induce those consequences. It is peculiarly desirable that this momentous dissonance between church principles, and New Testament authority, should be calmly regarded.-Virginity is, says the Church, a holy condition, and a link of connexion between the human and the divine nature. Our Lord has consecrated it; and its high patroness is the Ever-Virgin-Mother, the Blessed Mary. Catholic antiquity gives its suffrage in favour of this doctrine, with uncommon animation and unanimity; and how pleasing, nay glorious, is the notion, and how enviable the privilege and the honour of those who walk on earth as angels, and who, although in the body, have renounced its humiliations! But then, if things be |