Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On Monks (Book II)
Chapter 26: The Same Asserted from the Responses of Pontiffs and Emperors
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).
Thirdly, it is to be proved by some responses of the ancient and holy Pontiffs. And first Clement (Book 3 of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 1): “Wherefore,” he says, “one ought not to make profession rashly, but with counsel and consideration. For it is better not to vow it than to vow and not to render.” He speaks of widows.
Siricius (epistle 1, chapter 6) says that neither the public laws nor the ecclesiastical rights in any way permit marriage to monks or nuns after a vow.
Innocent I (epistle 2, chapter 12) says that those who after a vow have married are adulteresses of Christ — that is, sacrilegious.
Leo I (in the epistle to Rusticus, bishop of Narbonne, which is the 90th, chapter 13): “A superior,” he says, “undertaken by a monk of his own choice and will, cannot be deserted without sin. For what one has vowed to God, he ought also to render.” The same he says in the following chapter of nuns.
Gelasius (epistle 1, chapter 22): “We have learned,” he says, “that certain men rashly associate themselves with sacred virgins, and after a purpose dedicated to God mingle unchaste and sacrilegious covenants; whom it is just forthwith to thrust out from sacred communion, and by no means to receive except through public and proved penance,” etc. The same (chapter 23) he says, that widows too sin if after a vow they marry.
Finally, Gregory I (Book 1, epistle 33, to Venantius): “Consider,” he says, “with how great danger in the divine judgment thou wilt be worthy, who hast withdrawn thyself from almighty God, to whom under the monastic habit thou hadst devoted thyself,” etc. And (epistle 40 to Anthemius) he commands that monks, if they take wives, ought to be separated and sent back to the monasteries.
To these let there be added also the responses of political princes. For Eusebius writes (Book 4 On the Life of Constantine) that there was abrogated by Constantine the ancient law of the Romans, by which men barren, or bereft of children, were deprived of hereditary succession. And the cause of the abrogation he writes to have been on account of those who for the sake of religion and piety by vow cultivated celibacy, lest the political law should seem to wish to punish piety. Again, when in the time of Julian the Apostate certain men had begun to seek sacred virgins in marriage, Jovinian, the Christian Emperor who succeeded Julian, made a law that he should be beheaded who was caught either seeking a sacred virgin in marriage, or even looking on her impurely. This history Sozomen writes (Book 6 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 3), and that law still exists in the Code (Law Si quis, De Episcopis et Clericis). Which law, if it had been observed at this time, Martin Luther, with not a few of his, would most justly have lost his head.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XXVI. Idem asseritur ex responsis Pontificum et Imperatorum. Tertio, probanda est responsis aliquot veterum et sanctorum Pontificum. Ac pri¬ mum Clemens lib. III. Constitut. Apostol. c. I : « Quare, inquit, oportet non temere facere professionem, sed cum concilio et consideratione. Praestat enim, eam non vo¬ vere, quam vovere , et non reddere. » De viduis loquitur. Siricius epist. I , cap. 6. dicit, nec publicas leges, nec jura Ecclesiastica ullo modo per¬ mittere Monachis vel Sanctimonialibus nup¬ tias post votum. Innocentius I, epistol. 2. cap. 12. dicit, eas, quae post votum nupserunt, esse adul¬ teras Christi, id est, sacrilegas. Leo I, epistola ad Rusticum Narbonensem Episcopum; quae, est 90. cap. 13 : « Praepo¬ situm, inquit, Monachi proprio arbitrio et voluntate susceptum, deseri non potest abs¬ que peccato. Quod enim quis vovit Deo, debet, et reddere.» Idem dicit capite sequenti de Sanctimonialibus. H Gelasius epist. I, cap. 22 : « Virginibus, inquit, sacris temere se quosdam sociare co¬ gnovimus, et post dicatum Deo propositum incsesta foedera sacrilegaque miscere, quos protinus aequum est a sacra communione detrudi, et nisi per publicam, probatamque poenitentiam omnino non recipi, etc. » Idem cap. 23. dicit, viduas etiam peccare, si post votum nubant. Denique, Gregorius I, lib. I. epist. 33. ad Venantium : « Considera, inquit, quanto periculo in divino judicio dignus eris, qui temetipsum Deo omnipotenti, cui sub mo- nachali habitu devoveras, substraxisti, etc.» Et epist. 40 ad Anthemium, jubet Monachos si uxores ducant, debere separari, et remitti ad monasteria. His accedant responsa etiam Principum .politicorum. Scribit enim Eusebius lib. IV. de vita Constantini , fuisse abrogatam a Constantino antiquam legem Romanorum, qua privabantur successione hsereditaria homines steriles, vel orbati liberis. Causam autem abrogationis scribit fuisse propter eos. CAPUT XXVII. 569 qui religionis et pietatis gratia ex voto coeli¬ batum colebant, ne videretur lex politica pietatem velle punire. Rursus, cum tempore Juliani Apostatse coepissent quidam sacras Virgines in conjugium petere, Jovinianus Imperator Christianus, qui Juliano successit, legem tulit, ut capite plecteretur, qui sacram Virginem, vel ad conjugium petere, vel etiam impudice aspicere deprehensus fuisset. Scribit hanc historiam Sozomenus lib. VI. hist. Eccles. cap.3. et exstat adhuc ea lex in Codice, L. Si quis, de Episcopis et Clericis. Quae lex si hoc tempore observata fuisset, Martinus Lutherus, cum non paucis ex suis, justissime caput amisisset.