namely, that the "professed" generally justify their high pretensions. But what happens when, as has in fact always been the case, monasteries and convents are known, by every body, to be sinks of pollution-the sewers of the open world, into which every thing descends that should shun the light! Shall we dare to imagine the effect that would be produced upon our English manners, supposing the celibate to be restored-under any imaginable modifications—and supposing that, after the first few years of fresh enthusiasm, it became, in frequent and notorious instances, just what we find it in the Nicene age, as described by Chrysostom's monasteries and convents, dispersed through the country, would breathe pestilence enough to reduce England, quickly, to the level of Spain and Italy; and mean time every thinking man in the land, would have become an infidel.

66

Yes, but," say the promoters of church principles, 66 we shall know how to obviate these extreme abuses: we shall go to work on a better-considered plan, and shall be provided against certain foreseen inconveniences. True-provision may be made against the shameless licentiousness of the Nicene monkery;-things may be better managed than they were then, and they have been; and it has been found possible to screw the system up much tighter than was at first attempted. But then this was done by the means which the church of Rome employs. The Romish monastic economy-none of its rigours excepted, is the only condition under which the celibate can be endured: and this is what we must come to. The learned and zealous persons who are now recommending celibacy and asceticism, well know that their present endeavours, public and private, can have no other end; and that they themselves do not recoil from such an issue, has become manifest.

THE INDIRECT INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC INSTITUTE UPON THE POSITION OF THE CLERGY.

No reader of ecclesiastical literature can need much to be said in proof of the assertion that the ascetic doctrine, and the institutions thence resulting, powerfully affected the temper, conduct, and official position of the clergy, in the Nicene age, as well as in later periods. In truth, it might be broadly affirmed, that monkery without and monkery within the hierarchical enclosure, comprise the sum and substance of church history, through many centuries. What it may be requisite to advance, on this subject, presents itself under these two general heads, namely the indirect influence of the extra-clerical monastic establishments upon the position and character of the clergy; and the direct effect of the usage of celibacy, upon the clergy themselves, and upon their relations with the laity. We take then the first of these topics, which embraces the following affirmations-That the ascetic orders-the virgins, monks, anchorets, constituted what may be called an ecclesiastical substratum, serving to give breadth, support, and altitude, to the ecclesiastical structure-That these orders were a class to be maintained, and therefore swelled the amount of funds administered by the clergy-That they were also a class largely contributing to those funds; and, That they were a class to be governed, and to be made use of, as aids and instruments in governing the laity.

A calm inquirer concerning the origin of episcopacy, is liable to be at first, not a little discouraged (if his predilections are in favour of that institution) by the clear

indications which meet him, on every side, of the strenuous endeavours of the ancient church to create for itself, and to consolidate, a complex hierarchical scheme, which, from an ample base, should tower to a proud height. Very manifest it is, that the Pontifex-the sovereign bishop, was to be seated at the apex of a lofty pyramid: hence the long list of church functionaries, and dependents, all, to the last and the lowest, personally interested in the support of the ecclesiastical edifice; and all looking up to the throne, as the fountain of honour and emolument. The facts, looked at in this light, give rise to a prejudice against episcopacy; and the most impartial mind may easily conceive a disgust, which would lead to a too hasty conclusion, a conclusion not sustained (as I humbly believe) by the evidence, when it comes to be more strictly analyzed.

Nevertheless, while we exempt the primitive episcopacy from the prejudice incidentally resulting from the facts adverted to, it is most evident that, at a very early time, great anxiety was manifested, and great industry used, tending to bring about what we find existing, in a settled form, in the Nicene age, namely-a complicated and broadly-bottomed hierarchical structure, which, while it furnished dignities, occupation, maintenance, and emoluments, to a large proportion of the Christian body, gave a decisive preponderance, ordinarily, to the clergy, as balanced against the laity. Particular circumstances allowed for, it would naturally happen that all who had a common interest with the clergy, would be found to stand on their side, and would sustain them, in any instance of contention with the people:-the people were in fact out-voted, and having been robbed of their proper representatives, and their due influence, by the insidious absorption into the clerical body of those

who should have acted as their tribunes, and retaining no control whatever over the funds of the church, they were either dealt with, at pleasure, by the sacerdotal college, or, as is usual in despotic governments, they expressed their will, and inspired some necessary fear, on signal occasions, in the irregular and dangerous mode of tumultuary proceedings, and of open violence-the natural remedies against usurpations of whatever kind.

The stability of a hierarchy (or of any monarchy) in its relations towards the people, and the power of the single chief toward the various members of the hierarchy itself, (or the aristocracy) alike demand not merely a numerous and diversified body of functionaries, regularly subordinated, from the highest to the lowest; but also, one or more collateral bodies, which, while constituting a portion of the whole, shall yet have a real independence, in respect of all but the highest authorities. This appears to be the secret of the monarchical constitution, civil, or religious; nor has any monarchy actually stood long, which has not so rested a portion of its weight upon side buttresses. Now, while the several ranks of the clergy, and the inferior church officers, down to the porters, and the sweepers of the aisles, constituted the bishop's ordinary state, he, and the few who worked the machine of government under his immediate control, felt a want, which was at length, and gradually, supplied. From how slender and unsightly a collection of materials, was that prodigious mass prepared which has in fact proved the real prop of the church, through the tempests of many centuries! A pitiable company of desolate old women, were, if we may say so, the rubble of the mole, which has propped the papacy from age to age.

There is reason to believe that, in the ancient world,

perilous as were many ordinary employments, now comparatively safe, dangerous as were navigation and land travelling, murderous as was war, reckless as were all governments of human life and welfare, prodigal of blood as were the public amusements, horrid as were the usages of slavery, and withal, wanting as was antiquity in the medical and surgical care of the lower classes— the average mortality of the male sex as compared with the other, vastly exceeded its proportion in modern times. And whereas, even now, widows are always many more than widowers, in ancient times, the number of women whose husbands had been snatched from them by violent and accidental deaths, was so great as that these "destitutes" constituted a class, so considerable as to attract peculiar regard. Heathenism might indeed take little account of its widows and orphans; but the gospel instantly brought them forward, as the especial objects of the regard of the church. The first, or one of the first duties of a primitive Christian society, was to take care of its widows; and as the tendency of all things, connected with a social economy, is, for what was at first incidental and liable to the guidance of occasions, to settle down into the fixed form of a regulated constitution, it was not long before the widows of the church, numerous as they were, came to make a standing class, or permanent order, situated, as we may say, on one side of the hierarchical structure. In what way

this class, with others similar, affected the bishop's power, as patron and fundholder, we shall presently see. Apart from this financial bearing of the widow-band, the appendage of a company of helpless women, might seem to add little that was enviable to episcopal grandeur; but with it, the consequences were important. Give to any one nothing better than an irresponsible