Why We Resist The Doctrines Of The Church of Rome
Part 12 in a series of articles by A.G. Ashdown, from The Protestant Alliance
Reproduced by Manchester Orange Order under kind permission from The Protestant Alliance.
CLERICAL AND MONASTIC CELIBACY
The Church of Rome insists that there are seven sacraments of the Christian Church, On the ground of Scripture, only two can be maintained, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Rome however, includes marriage in her seven. It is quite surprising that a Church that is so sacerdotal in its teaching should preclude a large part of her membership holding important offices from one of its sacraments, that of marriage. Yet this is plainly true, for she denies marriage to her priests and the membership of her monastic orders.
Of all the marks of a false Church given to us in the Scriptures this is one of the plainest and most important. The New Testament is clear in its prophetic message that the Church would be affected by the rise of false teachers and false doctrines. Our Lord Himself warned of the rise of false prophets and false christs. The warnings of the Apostles against the rise of error and its teachers are too numerous to detail in a short article. However the Apostle Paul is specific in stating that one of the errors that would arise would be
“Forbidding to marry” (1Timothy 4:3). This is more evident in the Roman Catholic Church than in any other. The Orthodox Churches of the East do not require the lower orders of clergy to refrain from marriage.
THE BIBLICAL TEACHING
The Bible clearly states that “Marriage is honourable in all”
(Hebrews 13:4). Popes have not followed the Apostle Peter in this respect, for they have been unmarried, officially, although many in the past have had mistresses by whom they have had children, often causing great trouble in the Roman Church as they have intruded them into various offices of the Church. Quite often the ladies involved have been the power behind the Papal throne.
The Apostle Peter, however (who, it is claimed, was the first pope) was a married man, for our Lord healed his wife’s mother
(Mark 1:30-31). She is also referred to in Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians
(1Corrinthians 9:5). Paul directed that both Bishops (elders) and Deacons should be “the husband of one wife”
(Titus 1:6; Timothy 3:2). These Scriptures show that the leaders of the early Church were in the main married men. Paul stated that he, as an Apostle, had the right to lead about a sister in Christ as a wife. There was no prohibition of marriage of the leaders or ministers of the original Christian Church and there is no ground in Scripture upon which this teaching can be based.
THE INTRODUCTION OF THIS ERROR
The Early Church was affected by the religions and philosophies current at that time, its people had come out of those pagan religions and were not always clear of them. Many had strange unscriptural notions. Some thought that all matter was evil, some that normal married relationships were evil in themselves. These ideas filtered into some parts of the Church. The great idea eventually arose that in order to live a holy life it was necessary to leave the world and live as a hermit in a desert or on some mountain. Some even lived on a pillar exposed to the weather. Others who were hermits gathered together in companies. Some modelled their communities on the Jewish sect the Essenes, whose communities dwelt in the southern Judean desert. They, however, were not celibate.
This gave rise to the idea that the celibate life was holier than the married. There were important people in the Church in the 3rd Century that thought very highly of virginity, such as Jerome. He was a monk, the translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible, which he did at Bethlehem. Some taught and believed that the original sin of our first parents was the physical relationship of marriage, a totally unscriptural idea. The old pagan religions had celibate vestal virgins and some celibate priests. Out of all this came the idea of a celibate priesthood and the introduction of monastic orders of both men and women. At the Council of Nicea in 325 an attempt was made to make celibacy compulsory for the clergy. It failed.
Pope Siricius in 388 endeavoured to enforce it. Thereafter, at successive synods efforts were made to enforce it, in 441 at Orange, 452 at Arles, 453 at Angers, 461 at Tours and 465 at Vannes. In 536 and 541 edicts enforcing celibacy on the clergy were issued by Justinian as were regulations for the punishment of those who did not obey. During the 6th Century various Councils sought to enforce it and passed resolutions to check clerical marriage.
Gregory the Great was in favour of it. He tried to curb the evils that grew out of it. By 650 clerical celibacy was enforced among the clergy. In 650 a Council at Trullian decreed that married Bishops should separate from their wives and that the wives should become nuns. Other orders of clergy were allowed to retain their wives. At Rome in 721 further cannons were enacted to prohibit clerical marriage. In 868 at Worms it was prohibited for all the clergy. By the end of the ninth century many scandals and evils had arisen as a result of it. In spite of this at a Council that met at Augsburgh in 952 and in 969 in England efforts were made to enforce it. At the time of the Reformation it was the ground of much complaint, both from the clergy and the laity.
One of the scandals that arose from it was that in some places the clergy could obtain a licence from the Bishop to have a concubine. This became a source of considerable revenue for some Bishops and was swept away in the Reformation. Married clergy were the order of the day. Archbishop Cranmer was a married man. Luther and the reformed clergy of his Church were married men.
THE MONASTIC SYSTEM
This system has always been a great evil. Luther is reported to have said that if anyone achieved Heaven by monkery that person would have been himself. The depriving of a large part of the Church of a natural and God blessed family life
(Proverbs 18:22) is a grave error. By the time the monasteries were dissolved in 1538 the whole system had fallen into ruin, undoubtedly the result of setting up in the Church a system that was both contrary to nature and the Word of God.
Many of the nuns and monks do useful social work, but it could well be done apart from the monastic system. The truth is that the celibacy of the clergy and monastic orders has enriched the Roman Church and given the Papacy great power over people who are thus enslaved. It has also led to the rise of sodomy in Roman Catholic orphanages and institutions. In more recent times many men have left the Roman priesthood because of the pressure brought to bear on them as a result of celibacy. Departure from the Scriptures is ever an evil course.