Marriage and the church (Panormitane; Jewel; Parker Society, ed., The works of John Jewel, 1848, 3rd portion)

Text: "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women..." Daniel 11:37 "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry..." 1 Timothy 4:1-3

Quote:


   So saith Panormitane: Credo, pro bono et salute animarum, quod esset salubre statutum, ut . . . non valentes . . . continere possint contrahere; quia, experientia docente, contrarius prorsus effectus sequitur ex illa lege continentiæ; cum hodie non vivant spiritualiter, nec sint mundi; sed maculentur illicito coitu, cum ipsorum gravissimo peccato; ubi cum propria uxore esset castitas. . . . Unde deberet ecclesia facere sicut bonus medicus; ut si medicina, experientia docente, potius officiat quam prosit, eam tollat. Et utinam idem esset in omnibus constitutionibus positivis24! "I believe it were a good law, and for the wealth and safety of souls, that such as cannot live chaste may contract matrimony. For we learn by experience that of the law of continent or single life the contrary effect hath followed: forasmuch as now-a-days they live not spiritually, nor be clean and chaste, but with their great sin are defiled with unlawful copulation; whereas with their own wives they should live chastely. Therefore the church ought to do as the skilful physician useth to do, who, if he see by experience that his medicine hurteth rather than doth good, taketh it clean away. And would God the same way were taken with all positive constitutions!"

   [24 Panorm. sup. Tert. Decretal. Lugd. 1534. De Cleric. Conj. Tit. iii. cap. 6. fol. 16; where maculantur, eorum gravissimo, and officit.]

Jewel, John; Parker Society (Great Britain), ed., The works of John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, Cambridge, Eng.: Printed at the University Press, 1848, 3rd portion: Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae. An Apology of the Church of England. The Defence of the Apology, Parts I—III, pp. 427-428.

Online Source: archive.org/details/parkersocietyfor30park

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