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to approach their wives until the third day, Ex 19:15. Much less,
therefore, should the priests, who are about to receive Christ as our
Legislator, Lord and Savior, approach wives. Priests were commanded
likewise to wear linen thigh-bandages, to cover the shame of the flesh
(Ex. 28:42); which, says Beda, was a symbol of future continence among
priests. Also, when Ahimelech was about to give the blessed bread to the
servants of David he asked first if they had kept themselves from women
and David replied that they had for three days. 1 Kings 21 (1 Sam.
21:4, 5). Therefore, they who take the living Bread which came down from
heaven, John 6:32ff., should always be pure with respect to them. They
who ate the Passover had their loins girded, Ex. 12:11. Wherefore the
priests, who frequently eat Christ our Passover, ought to gird their
loins by continence and cleanliness, as the Lord commands them: "Be ye
clean," he says, "that bear the vessels of the Lord," Isa. 52:11. "Ye
shall be holy, for I am holy," Lev. 19:2. Therefore let priests serve
God "in holiness and righteousness all their days." Luke 1:75. Hence the
holy martyr Cyprian testifies that it was revealed to him by the Lord,
and he was most solemnly enjoined, to earnestly admonish the clergy
not to occupy a domicile in common with women. Hence, since sacerdotal
continence has been commanded by the pontiffs and revealed by God
and promised to God, by the priest in a special vow, it must not be
rejected. For this is required by the excellency of the sacrifice they
offer, the frequency of prayer, and liberty and purity of spirit, that
they care how to please God, according to the teaching of St. Paul. And
because this is manifestly the ancient heresy of Jovinian, which the
Roman Church condemned and Jerome refuted in his writings, and St.
Augustine said that this heresy was immediately extinguished and did not
attain to the corruption and abuse of priests, the princes ought not to
tolerate it to the perpetual shame and disgrace of the Roman Empire,
but should rather conform themselves to the Church universal, and not be
influenced by those things which are suggested to them. For as to what
Paul says, 1 Cor. 7:2: "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own
wife," Jerome replies that St. Paul is speaking of one who has not made
a vow, as Athanasius and Vulgarius understand the declaration of St.
Paul: "If a virgin marry, she hath not sinned." (1 Cor. 7:28), that her