of Greece, it had stood apart. The Romish Church gradually accommodated itself to this persuasion, because it had been imbibed by the people. Its Nuns succeeded to that place in public estimation which had been held by the Vestals; and its Clergy, in the observation of perpetual continence, offered to their profession a sacrifice not less meritorious and imposing than that to which the priests of Cybele submitted. These prejudices were strengthened by those notions drawn from the Oriental system of Dualism with which the Gnostics first, and the Manicheans afterwards, leavened the Christian world. A single life, therefore, was held holier than a married one for the clergy, even while their choice was free; and for those who lived in times of persecution, or who were employed in distant and dangerous missions, it was obviously better that they should contract no domestic engagements. But in ordinary seasons, and for the stationary clergy, the fitness lay on the other side; and the most unquestionable authorities show that during several centuries they were at full liberty to marry.

*This is explicitly admitted by Dr. Lingard (Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 69); and even Dr. Milner has not explicitly denied it (Strictures, p. 14) when he endeavours to make the reader infer that it was otherwise. Examples in abundance might be

But when the portentous tenet of transubstantiation had been introduced by scholastic subtlety, recommended by artificial miracles, and established at length by authority, then it was (in South's language) that "Satan began to play the white devil, by prohibiting, upon pretence of higher sacerdotal purity, the marriage of the clergy:" and a reason for enjoining celibacy was deduced from this doctrine, which, because it partakes equally of impurity and impiety, it is better to allude to than to repeat. By that time, indeed, the system of the Romish Church was

"So mixt with power and craft in every part,

That any shape but Truth might enter there." The excellent Sir Henry Wotton† has re

adduced from Gregorius Turonensis,... in one place he relates a stratagem by which the wife of a priest obtained a bishopric for her husband. (p. 116. Ed. 1561.) The ancient canons are full of regulations concerning the widows and children of the clergy. There is one by which no man could be ordained if his wife had been taken in adultery; and by which it is declared that if she commits the crime after his ordination, he must repudiate her, or, if he continue to live with her, be suspended from the ministry. (S. Martini Bracarensis Canones, p. 116. Can. 28. Ed. Lisbon, 1803.)

* Vol. iii. p. 463. Ed. 1823.

† Some Etonian should give us a careful edition of the remains of this excellent person, who deserved to have Izaak Walton for his biographer. It is very possible that more of his letters might be recovered.

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corded a saying of Sir Edmund Bacon, that Nature, if she be well studied, is the best moralist, and hath much good counsel hidden in her bosom." To the same effect it is said by the profound Poet† whom I have just quoted,

"Forsake not Nature, nor misunderstand her!

Her mysteries are read without Faith's eye-sight;
She speaketh in our flesh, and from our senses
Delivers down her wisdomes to our reason."

Indeed one proof of Christianity (and a convincing one it is) is deduced from its perfect adaptation to human nature, and its accordance with the best affections of the human heart. It requires the governance of unruly desires, not the suppression of the domestic charities,.. the sacrifice, not of our virtues, but of our vices. There are times and circumstances when it may be necessary to forsake "brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, for the Gospel's sake;" but this can only be in extraordinary times and circumstances, and then it may be well believed that He

"Who gives the burthen, gives the strength to bear."

Christianity calls for no such sacrifice in the

* Remains, p. 77. Ed. 1685.

† Lord Brooke.

regular course of things, either from priests or people; and wherever the sacrifice of natural affections, or the disruption of natural ties is enjoined, the injunction which thus offers violence to our nature is opposed to the spirit of Christianity.

None of your writers, Sir, have treated the question of clerical celibacy with more dexterity than Dr. Lingard. Let us take the fair side, as he has represented it, and then examine how far his representations are warranted by experience. "If it be granted," says he,* "that the clerical functions are of high importance to the welfare of the state, it must also be acknowledged that in the discharge of these functions the unmarried possesses great and numerous advantages over the married clergyman. Unincumbered with the cares of a family, he may dedicate his whole attention to the spiritual improvement of his parishioners: free from all anxiety respecting the future establishment of his children, he may expend without scruple the superfluity of his revenue in relieving the distresses of the sick, the aged, and the unfortunate. Had Augustine and his associates been involved in the embarrassments

of marriage, they would never have torn themselves from their homes and country, and have devoted the best portion of their lives to the conversion of distant and unknown barbarians. Had their successors seen themselves surrounded with numerous families, they would never have founded those charitable establishments, nor have erected those religious edifices that testify the use to which they devoted their riches, and still exist to reproach the parsimony of succeeding generations. But it is not from the impolicy of the institution that the Reformers attempted to justify the eagerness with which they emancipated themselves from the yoke. They contended that the law of clerical celibacy was unjust, because it deprived man of his natural rights, and exacted privations incompatible with his natural propensities. To this objection a rational answer was returned, that to accept the priestly character was a matter of election not of necessity; and that he who freely made it the object of his choice, chose at the same time the obligations annexed to it. The insinuation that a life of continency was above the power of man was treated with the contempt which it deserved. To those indeed whom habit had rendered the obse