n for your
neighbour." Methinks the spite of such men as these my enemies
would have accused the very Christ Himself, or those belonging to
Him, prophets and apostles, or the other holy fathers, if such
spite had existed in their time, seeing that they associated in
such familiar intercourse with women, and this though they were
whole of body. On this point St. Augustine, in his book on the duty
of monks, proves that women followed our Lord Jesus Christ and the
apostles as inseparable companions, even accompanying them when
they preached (Chap. 4). "Faithful women," he says, "who were
possessed of worldly wealth went with them, and ministered to them
out of their wealth, so that they might lack none of those things
which belong to the substance of life." And if any one does not
believe that the apostles thus permitted saintly women to go about
with them wheresoever they preached the Gospel, let him listen to
the Gospel itself, and learn therefrom that in so doing they
followed the example of the Lord. For in the Gospel it is written
thus: "And it came to pass afterward, that He went throughout every
city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the
kingdom of God: and the twelve were with Him, and certain women,
which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called
Magdalene, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and
Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him of their
substance" (Luke viii, i-3).

Leo the Ninth, furthermore, in his reply to the letter of
Parmenianus concerning monastic zeal, says: "We unequivocally
declare that it is not permissible for a bishop, priest, deacon or
subdeacon to cast off all responsibility for his own wife on the
grounds of religious duty, so that he no longer provides her with
food and clothing; albeit he may not have carnal intercourse with
her. We read that thus did the holy apostles act, for St. Paul
says: 'Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as
other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?' (I
Cor. ix, 5). Observe, foolish man, that he does not say: 'have we
not power to embrace a sister, a wife,' but he says 'to lead
about,' meaning thereby that such women may lawfully be supported
by them out of the wages of their preaching, but that there must be
no carnal bond between them."

Certainly that Pharisee who spoke within himself of the Lord,
saying: "This man, if He were a prophet, would have known w