age of puberty can leave it with a clear conscience, but about those who have grown old and lingered a long while in this estate, I have not yet made up my mind^Conceming the priests, Paul speaks with entire' freedom. He says that the demons have forbidden them to marry/ I have no doubt that the voice of Paul is the voice of the Divine Majesty, and must be trusted in this as in other things. Therefore, even if they have consented to the devil's prohibition at the time of their initiation, nevertheless, now that they know the true state of the case and with whom they have made the compact, that compact ought to be broken with boldness.
This prohibition by the devil, so clearly proved by the words of God, strongly urges and compels me to approve the deed of the Bishop of Kemberg.* For God is not a deceiver or a liar when He says that this prohibition is of the devil. But if the compact has been made with the devil it cannot be bind- ing, since it was made in impious error, against God and with God's disapproval and condemnation. For he expressly calls those who are the authors of the prohibition "spirits of error." Why, then, do you hesitate to concur in this divine sentence, even against the gates of hell? . . . Moreover, celibacy is merely of human institution, and a man who has instituted it can also abolish it; therefore, any Christian can do the same. I would say this even though it had been in- stituted not by demons but by a good man. I have no such declaration of God concerning the monks, and, therefore, it is not safe to make the same assertions about them. I myself would not venture to act on such an assertion ; therefore I will not venture to advise another to do so. I wish we could bring it to pass that no one would henceforth become a monk, or would withdraw, in the years of physical desire. We must avoid offence, even in things that are permissible, unless we have a clear word of Scripture on our side.
That excellent man, Carlstadt, quotes* the saying of St. Paul, that the younger widows are to be refused and the widows of sixty to be chosen.* I only wish that that settled
- I Timothy W, 3, * BernhftrdL Vide supra, no. 489.
- In his Bcren Theses on Celibacy (June 20, 1531), ef. Barge, I, 47St Jicer*
Carlstadt, p. 176.
- 1 Timothy, v, 9, 11.
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