" He then adds: "It
is desirable that those called to the ministry of the altar espouse a
life of continence because holier and more angelic."
It is generally admitted that the vow of celibacy was not demanded of
the clergy in primitive Christian times. It was only after many years of
bitter debate and in response to the growing influence of the monastic
ideal, that celibacy finally came to be looked upon as the highest form
of Christian virtue, and was enforced upon the clergy. As in the case of
the vow of poverty, there certainly can be no reasonable objection to
the individual adoption of celibacy, if one is either disinclined to
marriage or feels that he can do better work unmarried. But neither
Scripture nor reason justifies the imposition of celibacy upon any man,
nor the view that a life of continence is holier than marriage. It may
be reverently said that God would be making an unreasonable demand upon
mankind, if the holiness He requires conflicted with the proper
satisfaction of those impulses He himself has deeply implanted in
human nature.
3. The Vow of Obedience. The monks were required to render absolute
obedience to the will of their superiors, as the representatives of God.
Dom Guigo, in his rules for the Carthusian Order, declares: "Moreover,
if the Prior commands one of his religious to take more food, or to
sleep for a longer time, in fact, whatever command may be given us by
our Superior, we are not allowed to disobey, lest we should disobey God
also, who commands us by the mouth of our Superior.
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