Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On Monks (Book II)
Chapter 10: The Same Asserted from Examples
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Monachis (De Membris Ecclesiae, Book II), On Monks (On the Members of the Church, Book II). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Secondly, it is proved by the examples of the primitive Church. For it is established that soon at the beginning of the nascent Church very many began to cultivate continence and the common life, all their goods being sold — which in the Old Testament had been most rare. Nor could there be any other cause of that novelty than the preaching of Christ and the Apostles. In Acts 4 we read that as many as were owners of fields and houses, these being sold, brought the prices to the feet of the Apostles. Whence this? but because they had heard that the Lord counseled it.
Further, so many eagerly seized continence that in Acts 21 we read that one Philip had four daughters, and all were virgins — whom certainly we ought to believe virgins not for a time only, but perpetually and by choice; for Luke reports this as something great, that, namely, one man had four virgin daughters. But what is great in having four virgin daughters who, when they are of age, are to marry? Add that Eusebius (Book 3 of the history, chapter 30), from Polycrates, teaches that the daughters of Philip grew old in virginity.
Besides, Philo the Jew, in the book On the Contemplative Life, testifies that very many in his time — that is, at the beginning of the Church — led a common and celibate life; for he says that such colleges of men existed in many parts of the world, both among the Greeks and among the barbarians, but especially in Egypt. Justin, almost the most ancient of the Greeks, in the Second Apology, before the middle, says that among no nation is celibacy so cultivated as among the Christians, where there are very many of both sexes remaining in virginity even to old age. Which same thing Tertullian, most ancient of the Latins, writes in the Apologeticus, chapter 9.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT X. Idem asseritur exemplis. Secundo probatur exemplis primitivae Ec¬ clesiae. Nam constat mox initio nascentis Ecclesiae plurimos coepisse colere continen¬ tiam, et vitam communem, rebus omnibus divenditis, quod in testamento veteri raris¬ simum fuerat. Nec potuit ejus novitatis alia esse causa nisi praedicatio Christi et Aposto¬ lorum. Actor. IV legimus, quotquot erant possessores agrorum et domorum, iis ven¬ ditis, pretia attulisse ad pedes Apostolorum. Unde hoc? nisi quia audierant Dominum id consuluisse. Porro continentiam tam multi certatim arripiebant, ut Actor.. XXI legamus, unum Philippum quatuor filias habuisse, et omnes virgines fuisse, quas certe non ad tempus aliquot virgines credere debemus, sed per¬ petuo, et ex electione; refert enim id Lucas tanquam aliquid magnum, quod videlicet uni homini essent quatuor filiae virgines. At quid magni est habere quatuor filias vir¬ gines, quae ubi maturae fuerint, nupturae sint? Adde, quod Euseb. lib. III hist. cap. 30. ex Policrate docet, filias Philippi in vir¬ ginitate consenuisse. Praeterea Philo Judaeus in lib. de vita con¬ templativa, testatur plurimos suo tempore, id est, initio Ecclesiae, vitam communem et coelibem duxisse ; ait enim, talia hominum collegia fuisse in multis orbis terrae parti¬ bus, tam apud Graecos, quam apud barba¬ ros, sed praecipue in yEgypto. Justinus ex Graecis ferme antiquissimus in Apologia se¬ cunda ante medium ait, apud nullam gen¬ tem ita coli coelibatum, ut apud Christianos, ubi sunt plurimi utriusque sexus usque ad senectutem in virginitate permanentes. Quod idem scribit Tertullianus antiquissimus Lati¬ norum in Apologetico, cap. 9. •