the same with celibacy; but it is chiefly used in speaking of the single life of the Popish clergy, or the obligation they are under to abstain from marriage. In this sense we say the law of celibate. Monks and religious take a vow of celibate; and what is more, of chastity.

The church of Rome imposes an universal celibacy on all its clergy, from the pope to the lowest deacon and subdeacon. The advocates for this usage pretend, that a vow of perpetual celibacy was required in the ancient church as a condition of ordination, even from the earliest apostolic ages. But the contrary is evident from numerous examples of bishops and archbishops, who lived in a state of matrimony, without any prejudice to their ordination or their function. It is generally agreed that most of the apostles were married. Some say all of them, except St Paul and St John. Others say St Paul himself was married, because he writes to his jek-fellow, whom they interpret his wife. Be this as it will, in the next ages after the apostles, we have accounts of divers married bishops, presbyters, and deacons, without any reproach or mark of dishonour set on them: e.g. Valens, presbyter of Philippi, mentioned by Polycarp; and Charaxmon, bishop of Nilus. Novatus was a married presbyter of Carthage, as we learn from Cyprian; who himself was also a married man, as Pagi confesses; and so was Cecilius the presbyter who converted him; and Numidius another presbyter of Carthage. The reply which the Romanists give to this is, that all married persons, when they came to be ordained, promised to live separate from their wives by consent, which answered the vow of celibacy in other persons. But this is not only said without proof, but against it. For Novatus presbyter of Carthage, was certainly allowed to cohabit with his wife after ordination; as appears from the charge that Cyprian brings against him, that he had struck and abused his wife, and thereby caused her to miscarry. There seems indeed to have been, in some cases, a tendency towards the introduction of such a law, by one or two zealots; but the motion was no sooner made, than it was quashed by the authority of wiser men. Thus Eusebius observes, that Pinytus, bishop of Gnothi in Crete, was for laying the law of celibacy upon his brethren; but Dionysius bishop of Corinth wrote to him, that he should consider the weakness of men, and not impose that heavy burden on them. In the council of Nice, anno 325, the motion was renewed for a law to oblige the clergy