sometimes even does not dream of the necessary resources. The thought of his children will be sufficient to prevent a married clergyman from yielding to the impulses of his heart. Indigence, which expects from him nothing more than barren exhortation, will be little benefitted by the contents of his purse. Moreover, in society and the company of females, there are certain disadvantages which are not to be regarded by men of a secular life, because they result necessarily from an order of things which is itself necessary, at least, for the generality of mankind. We cannot say the same of a priest; his dignity would be mortally wounded by any ludicrous position. A grave violation of duty in the wife of a chief magistrate, would inflict a greater injury upon her husband, than could be caused by the misconduct of any other woman. Why so? Because the dignity of the chief magistracy is something holy and venerable, which assimilates it to the priesthood. How much more serious would be the injury, were it to fall upon the priesthood itself? pastor and his flock, are of so sacred and delicate a nature that they cannot be confided to men who are not absolutely superior to other men. Auricular confession alone would require a celibatary clergy. The sex who are to be particularly considered on this point would never repose entire confidence in a married priest: but to write on this subject, is no easy matter. The sects so unfortunately separated from Catholic unity, in permitting the marriage of the clergy, have betrayed a total want of firm. ness, but not of conscience. In withholding this privilege from bishops, and in refusing to ordain priests before they are married, they utter their own condemnation; and still more do they confute their system when they consign to a monastery the widowed priest, who is yet perhaps in the flower of his age, and inflamed with all the ardor of amorous sentiment. By such a discipline as this, they openly avow that no priest can marry; while at the same time they contend, that the spirit of toleration and the paucity of subjects may justify the admission of a married layman to ordination. The sophistry of this belief is obvious; for instead of simply ordaining a candidate already married, they go further, and compel him to marry in order to ordain him; and thus, by the very violation of an ancient law, do they unequivocally acknowledge it. Not only do the foibles of the wife cast a shade upon the character of the sacerdotal husband; he himself in common with all who are bound by the conjugal tie, is not secure against the occasion of crime. They who pretend to reason upon the great question of clerical celibacy, invariably start with a sophism: they suppose that marriage is a state of purity, while it is pure only for those who To understand the consequences of this are pure. A wife, if not loved, is a danger- fatal discipline, it is necessary to study them ous individual, and she is dangerous, if loved: closely. The abject condition of the priestand a man may be irreproachable in the eyes hood in those countries which are subject to of the world, while he desecrates the altar of it, can be conceived only by such as have God. Even a lawful union will produce witnessed it. De Tott, in his Memoirs has habits without begetting wisdom. How many been guilty of no exaggeration in his rematrimonial alliances are spotless in the sight marks upon this subject. Who would be. of heaven? Very few indeed. But if human lieve that in a country where the marriage weakness has established a conventional tol- of the clergy is gravely spoken of as an exceleration of certain abuses, this general law is lent regulation, an individual would consider not applicable to the priest, because he is it an insult to be called the son of a priest? viewed by mankind in the mirror which re- The details that might be furnished under this flects all the excellence of the priestly char-head, would be highly gratifying to the cuacter, and they will never excuse any im-riosity of the reader, and would indeed be useperfection in the copy, how slight soever its ful, in some respect; but we prefer to abstain variation from the standard model. from any observations that would reflect cenThe institutions of Christianity, are so ele-sure upon a body which contains some very vated, so sublime, the relations between the estimable men, as far as we are enabled to judge them at the distance in which they are thor and faithful guardian of holy unions, and the no less active opponent of all licentiousness; which is mild without weakness; which is terrible and yet full of love; the invaluable supplement of reason, of probity, of honor, and of all human resources, at the very moment when they acknowledge themselves powerless; the rich and ever-flowing fountain of reconciliations, restitutions, amends, effica blessings of heaven; the attendant also at his dying bed, whispering the most impressive exhortations, uttering the most affectionate farewell, and bidding him in the name of God, DEPART; this wonderful and supernatural Borrowing my armor, as much as possible, from the enemy's camp, I shall adduce the remarkable testimony of the Russian prelate whom I have already cited. His work, distinguished by the name of its author, and sanctioned, moreover, by the official press, has all the authority that could be expected fromcious conversions, and of all, after innocence, such a quarter. What does he think of the that is most pleasing in the sight of God; the discipline of his Church in relation to ce-attendant at the cradle of man to dispense the libacy? After having repelled an observation of Mosheim, he says: "It is my belief that matrimony has never been permitted to the doctors of the Church (priests), except in cases of necessity, and of great necessity; when, for instance, they who presented them-power, I repeat it, is to be found no where out selves for ordination not having the strength to deny themselves the privilege of marriage, no other could be found with better and more worthy dispositions. If these incontinent persons, therefore, are admitted to orders after their marriage, it is permitted by the Church, not from choice, but from accidental compulsion."* Such sentiments, coming from a man so well situated for close observation, and so opposed, moreover, to the Catholic system, cannot fail to excite astonishment. of the Catholic Church. Christianity, as it exists separated from that divine communion, has been for years an object of our study, and we have seen its priesthood impotent; trembling before those whom it should have caused to tremble. To the man who accuses himself of theft, it dares not reply, restore the ill-gotten goods: for the priest has no influence over the people. A married priest will invariably fall beneath the level of his character. The unquestionable superiority of the Catholic clergy is attributable solely to their vow of celibacy. ... We are not disposed to dwell upon the consequences of the anti-catholic discipline; but we cannot refrain from touching upon the ab- The learned editors of the British Library solute nullity of the priesthood that is subject have hazarded an assertion which deserves to to it, in its relations with the conscience of be examined. "If the clergy of the Catholic man. That admirable authority which ar- Church," say they, "had more generally posrested Theodosius at the vestibule of the tem-sessed the spirit of their vocation, in the true ple, Attila on his way to Rome, Louis XIV sense of the word, religion would not have before the altar of God; that still more won-suffered so much from the attacks of its enederful power which softens the petrified heart mies. . . . . Fortunately for the cause of reand restores its vitality, which penetrates into ligion, morals, and the happiness of a populous the palace and wrests from its unfeeling or country, the English clergy, whether of the thoughtless tenant the hoarded gold, to pour Anglican or Presbyterian confession, have a it into the bosom of the indigent; which very different kind of respectability, and hence shrinks from no difficulty, and overcomes do not furnish the same plea for the assaults every obstacle, to comfort a dejected soul or of their adversaries."* to enlighten it in the path to salvation; that influence which gently lays hold of a conscience to discover its secret troubles, and eradicate its vicious habits; which is the au * Met. Arch. Twer. lib. hist. &c. prol. c. 1. We might look through a thousand volumes without meeting with so bold an observation as this, which is another proof of the dreadful sway of prejudice over the strongest minds * British Lib. March, 1798, No. 53, p. 282. and the most estimable individuals. In the human, and by no means adequate to the Chrisfirst place, we are at a loss to see the ground tian ministry, which demands superhuman qualof comparison between the Catholic and Pro-ities, or sanctity, the fruit of divine grace. The testant clergy. The comparison to be admis-propositions which I here advance, might be sible, should confront priesthood with priest-sustained by numerous facts in point, but one hood; but there is no priesthood among the will suffice for the present purpose, and that sects of Protestantism; the priest has vanished) is the universal fall of the Protestant ministry with the sacrifice; and it is worthy of remark, in public opinion.* that wherever the reformation was introduced, Whatever may be thought of England, it is language, the infallible exponent of conscience, certain that in that country the degradation of immediately abolished the word priest. In the reformed clergy is the most remarkable. the time of Bacon, this word was considered Ecclesiastical property has become the patrias a term of insult. To speak, therefore, mony of the more respectable youth, who of the clergy of England, Scotland, &c., is a mingle in all the pleasures of the world, while departure from correct phraseology; for there they leave to "hired ministers the duty of is no clergy where there are no clergymen, just › praising God.” precisely as there is no military profession At the time when the question of Catholic without soldiers. A comparison then be- emancipation was so seriously and so boister tween the Catholic and the Protestant clergy, ously agitated in England, the Anglican clergy would not be better founded than a compari- were alluded to in Parliament in terms of such son between the parish priests of France or bitterness and mistrust, that foreigners were Italy, and the lawyers or physicians of Eng- much more surprised at it than the people at land and Scotland. But even did we give to home. No Englishman has expressed these the word clergy its widest signification and sentiments more forcibly than Dr. King, a suppose it to comprehend the ministers of any clergyman of Great Britain. The English Christian denomination, the vast superiority Church," he says,† "has suffered from no of the Catholic priesthood in point of merit source more than from the avarice and ambiand standing, over every other clerical body, tion of its bishops. Chandler, Willis, Potter, will be as apparent as the noon-day sun. This Gibson, Sherlock, all died shamefully rich. twofold superiority may be considered as one Some have left behind them upwards of one and the same excellence; because, for an hundred thousand guineas!!! They were, order like that of the Catholic clergy, a high perhaps, very great theologians; but they cerstanding in public opinion is inseparable from tainly had no claim to the epithet of good the possession of great merit. Every mem- Christians. The money which they accumuber of the Catholic clergy, from the sove-lated to enrich their families, belonged to God, reign pontiff to the simplest clerk, is always to the Church and to the poor. It was no confronted with the beau ideal of ecclesiastical trivial misfortune for the cause of Christianity excellence, and consequently is judged with-in England, that at the period of our separaout mercy. The most trivial fault is a crimetion from Popery the clergy were allowed to for him, while among the Protestant clergy amarry; for, as might have been foreseen, our serious fault is looked upon as a mere bagatelle, as if it occurred among men of the world. What is a Protestant minister? It is a man dressed in black, who mounts into the pulpit on Sunday, to say some good things. But any honest man could perform this office, and it is not incompatible with the foibles of an honest man. Probity is the grand qualification that is required in men of this class, a virtue merely Bacon's works, vol. iv. p. 472. ecclesiastics since that time have occupied themselves solely with their wives and their children. The dignitaries of the Church could easily provide for their families with the aid of their large revenues; but the inferior clergy, unable with their slender incomes to establish their children in the world, soon * Vide Esprit de St. Francois de Sales, part 3, ch. 23. Political and Literary Anecdotes, &c. See Edinburgh Review, July, 1819. spread over the kingdom swarms of mendi-subscribe to no confession of faith, except for cants. I do not examine here whether con- the sake of public order, and for no other obtinency is an indispensable virtue in him who ject than to maintain, among the members of serves at the altar; I must observe, however, the same communion, an exterior harmony. that our government makes no difference be- No confession is to be considered a rule of tween a bishop's wife and his concubine.* faith, properly so called; because Protestants The former has no station or precedence in acknowledge no other rule than the holy society, nor does she share the dignity or scripture."* When therefore a preacher of rank of her husband; while a simple knight, this description ascends the pulpit, how can whose distinction, like that of a bishop, is he prove that he believes what he says? how perpetual, imparts to his wife a certain rank, can he ascertain, moreover, that he is not an together with a title. As a member of the object of raillery for the audience before him? republic of letters, I have often desired the Methinks I hear every listener saying to him re-enactment of the canons that prohibited with a sceptic smile: "I really believe that he marriage among the clergy. To episcopal believed that I believed it."† celibacy we are indebted for all the magnificent "The doctrine of a reformed Church," says grants that distinguish our two universities; but, ( Gibbon, “has nothing in common with the since the period of the Reformation, those two knowledge and belief of those who compose seats of learning have had few benefactors it; and if the clergy of the present day assent among the members of the hierarchy. If the to the forms of orthodoxy, or to established rich donations of Laud and Sheldon have an creeds, they do it, either with a smile of ineternal claim to our gratitude, it must be re-difference, or with a sigh of discontent. The membered that these two prelates were never prediction of the Catholics has been realized. married. I know not one among our right rev-The Arminians, Arians, Socinians, whose erends, since the beginning of the present cen-numbers are not to be estimated by their restury, who has been a distinguished patron ofpective congregations, have broken and disscience or of learned men; this, however, will carded the chain of religious truth." The not be a subject of wonderment for him whoopinion here expressed by Gibbon is that of considers the spirit of all these congé d'élire all enlightened Protestants in relation to their bishops-it certainly is not the spirit of God, al- clergy, as we have been taught by a long exthough in their consecration they flatter them-perience. There is no medium, therefore, selves that they are called to the episcopacy for one of these ministers; because, if he by the Holy Ghost." What is chiefly remarkable in the stern criticism which we have just quoted, is the declaration of the writer that the marriage of the clergy is the cause of their degradation and of all the evils which flow from it. preaches a dogmatical truth, he is believed to be insincere; and if he does not preach it, he is accounted a man of no ability. If the writers whom we quoted at the commencement of this article had merely affirmed that the Catholic clergy would probably have It is to be observed also that there is some-averted great misfortunes, had they been at times thing in the character of that evangelical min-more generally and more fully impressed with istry, which forbids confidence and produces unpopularity. There is no authority, no rule, and consequently no uniform belief among the reformed sects. Their writers candidly admit "that a Protestant clergyman is bound to This expression is inexact, as it would imply something false. If the author intended a jest, it is not in good taste. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the highest dignitary in the English realm; yet his wife is called Mrs., while the wife of a marquis is called Lady, &c. VOL. I.-No. 11. the duties of their calling, the assertion, I think, would not have been questioned, even by the clergy themselves; for no Catholic priest is on a level with the sublimity of his functions, and he will always recognize in himself some degree of unworthiness at the contemplation of his august and holy character. But if a *Chevanne, professor of theol. at Lausanne. + I'credo ch'ei credette ch'io eredessi.--Dante. See Westminster Review, American edition, Vol. xiv. No. 1, Thirty-nine Articles. 3v suspicious delicacy; he alone could enter into an English residence by the influence of that very character which would have excluded another. The imbittered prejudice of three hundred years could not withhold its homage from the sanctity of religious celibacy. Mis trust vanished before the sacerdotal character; and the Englishman who perhaps had fre the prevalent notions against the single life of the clergy, had not the slightest misgivings in beholding his wife or his daughter under the tuition of a Catholic priest. Such is the power of conscience and its utter disregard of imagi partial relaxation of morality, the inevitable consequence of long continued repose, may be justly censured, we are nevertheless compelled to acknowledge that the Catholic clergy are incomparably superior to any other ecclesiastical body, in point of merit, as well as of consideration in society. The close of the last century and the beginning of the present furnished a memorable illustration of this re-quently spoken or written in accordance with mark. What a spectacle did the French clergy exhibit, when they were scattered over every foreign land! Is not the virtue which they practised, capable of silencing forever the declamation of our adversaries? Deprived of his ecclesiastical superiors, exposed to thenary opinions or unfounded assertions. most seductive occasions, and oftentimes in Religious women who had chosen a life of the flower of his age, forced to seek an asy-celibacy, shared also the glory of the priestlum among nations that were totally unac-hood. How often had a pretended philosophy quainted with the rigid discipline to which he had been accustomed, and that would have applauded a course of action which he had been taught to consider criminal, the French priest remained invariably faithful to his clerical vows. What was his support? What enabled him continually to retain his elevated position above the weaknesses of human na-purpose of acting the liberated nun. The ture? In England especially, where talent and virtue are duly appreciated, and the slightest failings are inexorably commented upon, did he win the public esteem. The man who presents himself at the house of an English-eign nations, and even to the American shores, man, in the capacity of a physician, a surgeon or a tutor, does not pass the sill of the door unless he is married. A protective prudence mistrusts every man whose desires have not some fixed and lawful object. The priest alone could lull the apprehensions of this declaimed against the forced vows and the victims of the cloister! When an assembly of fools, however, that did all they could to become knaves,* was sacrilegiously pleased to declare the vows of religion unlawful, and to open the gates of the cloister, it was necessary to hire an impudent member of the populace for the vestals of France displayed the intrepidity of their clerical brethren, in the dungeon and on the scaffold; and such of them as had been driven by the revolutionary storm over for far from yielding to the seductions that met [TO BE CONTINUED.] STAR-LIGHT. TO A FRIEND. STAR-LIGHT is round me--and the night-wind's moan In dying murmurs breathes its mystic tone; Calmed are the waters in their cradled bed, Their voices silent and their music fled: |