Perhaps the most permanently mischievous consequence of primitive asceticism was that which has established over the greater part of Christendom the rule of clerical celibacy.
"That one great branch of the Church should have so ordered the domestic life of the clergy for a thousand years that a priest should be in virtue of his office a suspected person and his house a suspected house, about which nearly every Church assembly that meets must pass a warning canon, is a standing blot upon Christianity which concerns us all."
That opinion of the present Bishop of Salisbury will commend itself as just to every student of mediæval history. In connection with this subject the reader may be referred to the learned discussion in chapter iv. of the Bishop's "Ministry of Grace." The chapter is entitled, "Christian Asceticism and the Celibacy of the Clergy," and is filled with curious learning and weighty judgments.
- ↑ See "History of European Morals," vol. ii. p. 320f, Eleventh Edition.
