Original Douay–Rheims Annotations1 Timothy 3

A good work.

^◦ Nothing (saith S. Augustine) in this life, and specially in this time, is easier, pleasanter, or more acceptable to men, than the office of a Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, if the thing be done only for fashion sake and flatteringly: but nothing before God more miserable, more lamentable, more damnable. Again, There is nothing in this life and specially at this time, harder, more laborious, or more dangerous, than the office of a Bishop, Priest, or Deacon: but before God nothing more blessed, if they war in such sort as our Captain commandeth. August. ep. 148.

• ◦ The great charge, & great merit, of Ecclesiastical functions.

A Bishop.

^◦ That which is here spoken of a Bishop (because the words Bishop & Priest in the new Testament be often taken indifferently for both or either of the twain, as is noted in another place) the same is meant of every Priest also: though the qualities here required, ought to be more singular in the Bishop, than in the Priest, according to the difference of their degrees, dignities, and callings.

• ◦ The Apostle under the name of Bishop instructeth Priests also.

Of one wife.

^[1] Certain Bishops of Vigilantius' sect (whether upon false construction of this text, or through the filthiness of their fleshly lust) would take none to the Clergy, except they would be married first, not believing (saith S. Hierom advers. Vigilant. c. 1.) that any single man liveth chastely, shewing how holily they live themselves, that suspect ill of every man, and will not give the Sacrament (of Order) to the Clergy, unless they see their wives have great bellies, and children wailing at their mother's breasts. Our Protestants though they be of Vigilantius' sect, yet they are scarce come so far, to command every Priest to be married. Nevertheless they mislike them that will not marry, so much the worse, and they suspect ill of every single person in the Church, thinking the gift of chastity to be very rare among them, & they do not only make the state of marriage equal to chaste single life, with the Heretic Iovinian, but they are bold to say sometimes, that the Bishop or Priest may do his duty and charge better married, than single: expressly against S. Paul ^[2], who affirmeth that the unmarried think of the things that belong to God, and that the married be diversely distracted and entangled with the world.

• 1 The heretics' opinion concerning Priests' marriage.
• 2 1. Cor. 7.

^[1] The Apostle then, by this place we now treat of, neither commandeth, nor counseleth, nor wisheth, nor would have Bishops or Priests to marry, or such only to be received as have been married: but, that such an one as hath been married (so it were but once, and that to a virgin) may be made Bishop or Priest. Which is no more than an inhibition that none having been twice married or being bigamus, should be admitted to that Holy Order. And this exposition only is agreeable to the practice of the whole Church, the definition of ancient Councels, the doctrine of all the Fathers without exception, and the Apostles' tradition. Which sense S. Chrysostom wholly followeth upon the Epistle to Titus (though here he follow not wholly the same sense.) Ho. 2. in ep. ad Tit. S. Ambrose also upon this place, and most plainly and largely in his 82. Epistle post med. giving the cause why bigamus cannot be made Bishop or Priest, in fine affirmeth, not only the Apostle but the holy Councel of Nice to have taken order that none should be received into the Clergy, that were twice married. S. Hierom Ep. 83. ad Oceanum c. 2. & ep. 2. c. 18. ep. 11. c. 2 expressly writeth that the Clergy is made of such as have had but one wife, at least after Baptism: for he thought that if one were often married when he was yet no Christian, he might notwithstanding be ordered Bishop or Priest. But S. Ambrose ep. 82. S. Augustine de bono Coniug. c. 18. S. Innocentius the first ep. 2. c. 5. 6. to. 1. Concil. S. Leo, ep. 87. ^[2] S. Gregory, & after them the whole Church, exclude those also which have been twice married when so-ever. whereof S. Augustine giveth goodly reason and example in the place alleged. S. Leo ep. 87 addeth further, & proveth that the man is counted bigamus ^[3], & not the husband of one wife, in respect of Holy Orders, not only if he hath had two wives, but if his one wife were not a virgin. which being observed in the high Priests of the old law ^[4], must needs be much rather kept now. See also the book de Ecclesiasticis dogmatibus c. 72, in S. Augustine's works.

• 1 S. Paul's place, of one wife, excludeth bigamos from holy Orders.
• 2 * li. 2. ep. 25.
• 3 Who are counted bigami.
• 4 Levit. 22.

^[1]

• 1 The heretical Clergy nothing regardeth the Apostle's prescription of one wife.

And by these few you may see how shamefully the state of the new heretical Clergy of our time is fallen from the Apostolic and all the Fathers' practice and doctrine herein. Who do not only take men once or twice married before, but (which was never heard of before in any person or part of the Catholic Church) they marry after they be Bishops or Priests, once, twice, and as often as their lusts require. whereas it was never lawful in God's Church to marry after Holy Orders. Neither is there one authentical example thereof in the world. ^[2] For those of whom Nice Councel speaketh, were married before, & were but tolerated only to use their wives: the Fathers in the same Councel providing expressly at the same time, that none from thence-forth should marry after they came to Holy Orders, ^[3] and that according to the ancient tradition of the Church, as Socrates and Sozomenus declare in most plain words. See Suidas in the word Paphnutius. ^[4] And in what country so ever they have been permitted to have carnal dealing even with their wives whom they had before, it was not according to the exact rule of the Apostles & Church's tradition, by which all that be in Holy Orders, should wholly abstain, not only from marrying, but even from their wives before married. Whereof thus writeth ^[5] S. Epiphanius hæres. 59 cont. Catharos. The holy preaching of God receiveth not, after Christ, them that marry again after their wife's departure, by reason of the great dignity and honour of Priesthood. And this the holy Church of God observeth with all sincerity. Yea she doth not receive the once married person that yet useth his wife and begetteth children: but only such an one she taketh to be Deacon, Priest, Bishop, or Subdeacon, as abstaineth from his one wife, or is a widower, specially where the holy canons be sincerely kept. ^[6] But thou wilt say unto me, that in certain places Priests, Deacons, and Subdeacons do yet beget children (belike this holy Father never heard of any Bishop that did so, and therefore he leaveth out that order, which he named with the order in the former part of the sentence) but that is not done according to order and rule, but according to man's mind, which by time slacketh, and for the great multitude (of Christian people) when there were not found sufficient for the ministry, &c. the rest of his words be goodly for that purpose.

^[1]

• 1 Eusebius.
• 2 None ever married after holy Orders.
• 3 Socrat. li. 1. c. 8. Sozom. li. 1. c. 22.
• 4 They that were made Priests of married men, abstained from their wives.
• 5 S. Epiphanius.
• 6 Marriage of Priests is contrary to the ancient canons.

Eusebius also Evan. demonst. li. 1. c. 9 saith, that such as be consecrated to the holy ministry, should abstain wholly from their wives which they had before. ^[2] S. Hierom Apolog. ad Pammach. c. 8. proveth, that such of the Apostles as were married, did so, and that the Clergy ought to do the same by their example. Yea in his time he testifieth ( Cont. Vigil. c. 1. ) that they did live single in a manner through the world, even in the East Church also. What, saith he, shall the Churches of the East do, what they of Ægypt, of the See Apostolic: which take to the Clergy, either virgins, or the continent and unmarried, or such as, if they have wives, cease to be husbands? And again he saith in Apolog. ad Pammach c. 3. (See also c. 8.) If married men like not well of this, let them not be angry with me, but with the holy Scriptures, with all Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and the whole company of Priests and Levites, that know they cannot offer sacrifices if they use the act of marriage. ^[3] S. Augustine de adult. Coniug. li. 2. c. 20. maketh it so plain a matter that all Priests should live chaste, that he writeth, that even such as were forced (as many were in the primitive Church) ^[4] to be of the Clergy, were bound to live chaste, yea and did it with great joy and felicity, never complaining of these necessities and intolerable burdens, or impossibilities of living chaste, as our fleshly company of new Ministers and Superintendents do now, that think it no life without women, much like to S. Augustine before his conversion, when he was yet a Manichee, who (as himself reporteth Confess. li. 6. c. 3. ) admiring in ^[5] S. Ambrose all other his imcomparable excellencies, yet counted all his felicities less, because he lacked a woman, without which he thought (in time of his infidelity) no man could live. But after his conversion thus he said to God of S. Ambrose: What hope he had, and against the tentations of his excellency what a fight he felt, or rather what a comfort and solace in tribulation, and his secret mouth which was within in his heart, what savoury and sweet joys it tasted of thy bread, neither could I conjecture, neither had I tried.

^[1]

• 1 Tertullian.
• 2 S. Hierom.
• 3 S. Augustine.
• 4 See S. Leo ep. 92. c. 3.
• 5 S. Ambrose.

See Tertullian li. 1. ad Uxorem. ^[2] S. Cyprian de singul. Clericor. the first Councel of Nice can. 3. Conc. Tolet. 2. can. 3. Conc. Aurelian. 3. can. 2. of Carthage the second cap. 2, of Neocæsarea cap. 1, of Ancyra cap. 10. ^[3] and you shall find that this was generally the Church's order even from the Apostles' time, though in some places by the licentiousness of many, it was sometime not so religiously looked unto. Whereby you may easily refute the impudent clamors of Heretics against Siricius, Gregory 7, and others, whom they falsely make the authors of the Clergies' single life.

• 2 S. Cyprian.
• 3 Councels.

Not a Neophyte.

^[1] That which is spoken here properly and principally of the newly baptized (for so the word Neophyte doth signify) the Fathers extend also to all such as be but newly retired from profane occupations, civil government, warfare, or secular studies, of whom good trial must be taken before they ought to be preferred to the high dignity of Bishop or Priest. though for some special prerogative and excellency, it hath in certain persons been otherwise, as in S. Ambrose and some other notable men, Tertullian ( li. de præscript. ) noteth Heretics for their lightness in admitting every one without discretion to the Clergy. ^[2] Their Orders (saith he) are rash, light, inconstant: now they place Neophytes, then secular men, then our Apostatæs, that they may tie them by glory and preferment, whom with the truth they cannot. No where may a man sooner prosper and come forward, than in the camp of rebels, where to be only, is to deserve much. therefore one today a Bishop, tomorrow somewhat else: today a deacon, tomorrow Lector, that is, a Reader: today a Priest, tomorrow a lay man. for to lay men also they enjoin the functions of Priests. And S. Hierom ep. 83 ad Oceanum c. 4. saith of such, Yesterday a Catechumen or newly converted, today a Bishop: yesterday in the theatre, today in the Church: at night in the place of games and masteries, in the morning at the altar: a while ago a great patron of stage-players, now a consecrator of holy virgins. And in another place, Out of the bosom of Plato and Aristophanes they are chosen to a Bishopric, whose care is, not how to suck out the marrow of the Scriptures, but how to sooth the people's ears with flourishing declamations. Dialog. cont. Lucifer. c. 5.

• 1 None rashly to be admitted to the Clergy.
• 2 Heretics admit all sorts without exception.

Deacons.

^[1] Under the name of Deacons are here contained Subdeacons, as before under the name of Bishop, Priests also were comprehended. For to these four pertaineth the Apostle's precept and order touching one wise, and touching continency and chastity, as by the alleged Councels and Fathers ^[2] (namely by the words of S. Epiphanius) doth appear. For they only be in Holy Orders, as serving by their proper function about the Altar and the B. Sacrament: in respect whereof, the law of chastity pertaineth to them, and not to the four inferior Orders of Acolyti, Exorcistæ, lectores, and Ostiarij. ^[3] Who neither by precept nor vow be bound to perpetual chastity, as the others of the holy and height Orders be bound, both by precept and promise or solemn assent made when they took Subdeaconship.

^◦

All these degrees and orders to have been ever since Christ's time in the Church of God, it might be proved by all antiquity. But for as much as the Apostle's purpose is not here to reckon up all the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, it need not be treated of in this place. But we wish the learned to read the 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. chapters of the 4. Councel of Carthage, whereat S. Augustine was present: where they shall see the express callings, offices, and manner of ordering or creating all the said sorts, and shall well perceive these things to be most ancient and venerable. Let them read also Eusebuius' history, the 35. Chapter of the 6. book, where for all these orders he reciteth Cornelius epistle to Fabius, concerning Novatus. Likewise S. Cyprian in many places, namely ep. 55. nu. 1. Where see the notes upon the same, S. Hiero. ep. 2. c. 6. Of Subdeacon there is mention in S. Augustine. ep. 74. and ep. 20. de epistolis 22. in edit. Paris. S. Epiph. hær. 59. S. Cyprian ep. 24. S. Ignatius ep. 9. ad Antiochenos, and in the 43. canon of the Apostles. Conc. Tolet. 2. can. 1 & 3. Conc. Laodicen. can. 21. Epist. Epiph. apud Hiero. 60. c. 1.

• 1 The three holy orders, only bound to chastity.
• 2 Leo ep. 92. c. 3. Greg. li. 1, ep. 42.
• 3 The 4 inferior orders not bound to chastity.
• ◦ All the seven Orders ancient, even from Christ and the Apostles' time.

In the house of God.

^◦ All the world being God's, yet the Church only is his house, the Rector or Ruler whereof at this day. (saith S. Ambrose upon this place) is Damasus. Where let our loving brethren note well, how clear a case it was then, that the Pope of Rome was not the Governor only of one particular See. but of Christ's whole house, which is the Universal Church, whose Rector this day is Gregory the thirteenth.

• ◦ S. Ambrose calleth the B. of Rome Rector of the whole Church.

The pillar of truth.

^◦ This place pincheth all Heretics wonderfully, and so it ever did, and therefore they oppose themselves directly against the very letter and confessed sense of the same, that is, clean contrary to the Apostle. Some saying, the Church to be lost or hidden: some, to be fallen away from Christ these many ages: some, to be driven to a corner only of the world: some, that it is become a stewes and the seat of Antichrist: lastly the Protestants most plainly and directly, that it may and doth err, and hath shamefully erred for many hundred years together. And they say herein like themselves, and for the credit of their own doctrine, which cannot be true in very deed, except the Church err, even the Church of Christ, which is here called the house of the living God.

^[1]

• 1 Whence the Church hath this privilege never to err.
• ◦ The heretics say directly contrary to the Apostle, that the Church is not the pillar of truth.

But the Church which is the house of God, whose Rector (saith S. Ambrose) in his time was Damasus, and now Gregory the thirteenth, and in the Apostles' time S. Peter, is the pillar of truth, the establishment of all verity: therefore it cannot err. It hath the Spirit of God to lead it into all truth till the world's end ^[2]: therefore it cannot err. It is builded upon a rock ^[3], hell gates shall not prevail against it: therefore it cannot err. Christ is in it till the end of the world ^[4], he hath placed in it Apostles, Doctors, Pastors, and Rulers, to the consummation and full perfection of the whole body ^[5], that in the mean time we be not carried about with every blast of doctrine: therefore it cannot err. ^[6] He hath prayed for it, that it be sanctified in verity, ^[7] that the faith of the chief Governor thereof fail not: ^[8] it is his house, his spouse, his body, his lot, kingdom and inheritance, given him in this world: ^[9] he loveth it as his own flesh, and it cannot be divorced or separated from him: therefore it cannot err. the new Testament, Scriptures, Sacraments, and sacrifice cannot be changed, being the everlasting dowry of the Church, continued and never rightly occupied in any other Church but in this our Catholic Church: therefore it cannot err. And therefore all those points of doctrine, faith, and worship, which the Arians, Manichees, Protestants, Anabaptists, other old or new Heretics, untruly think to be errors in the Church, be no errors indeed, but themselves most shamefully are deceived, and so shall be still, till they enter again into this house of God, which is the pillar and ground of all truth: that is to say, not only itself free from all error in faith and religion, but the pillar and stay to lean unto in all doubts of doctrine, and to stand upon against all heresies and errors that ill times yield, without which there can be no certainty nor security. And therefore the holy Apostles, and Councels of Nice and Constantinople, made it an article of our Creed, to believe the Catholic and Apostolic Church. ^[10] Which is, not only to acknowledge that there is such a Church, as heretics falsely say: but that that which is called the Catholic Church, & known so to be, and communicateth with the See Apostolic, is the Church: and that we must believe, hear, and obey the same, as the touch stone, pillar, and firmament of truth. For, all this is comprised in that principle, I believe the Catholic Church. And therefore the Councel of Nice said, I believe in the Church ^[11], that is, I believe and trust the same in all things.

Neither can the Heretics escape by fleeing from the known visible Church, to the hid congregation or company of the Predestinate. For that is but a false phantastical apprehension of Wicleffe and his followers. The company of the Predestinate maketh not any one Society among themselves, ^◦ many of them being yet unborn, and many yet Infidels and heretics, and therefore be not of the one house of God which is here called, the pillar of truth. And those of the Predestinate that be already of the Church, make not a several company from the known Catholic Church, but are baptized, houseled, taught, they live and die in the common Catholic visible Church, or else they can neither receive Sacraments, nor salvation. S. Paul instructeth not Timothee how to teach, preach, correct, and converse in the invisible society of the Predestinate, but in the visible house of God. So that it must needs be the visible Church which cannot err.

^[1]

• 1 That the Church is the pillar of truth and cannot err, is proved by many reasons.
• 2 Io. 14, 16.
• 3 Mat. 16.
• 4 Mat. 28.
• 5 Eph. 4.
• 6 Io. 17.
• 7 Luc. 22.
• 8 Psal. 2.
• 9 Eph. 5.
• 10 The meaning of this article, I believe the Cath. Church.
• 11 πιστεύω εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν
• ◦ It is the visible Church that is the pillar of truth and cannot err.

If any make further question, how it can be that any company or society of men (as the Church is) can be void of error in faith, seeing all men may err: he must know that it is not by nature, but by privilege of Christ's presence, of the Holy Ghost's assistance, of our Lord's promise and prayer. See ^[2] S. Augustine upon these words of the 118. Psalm Conc. 13. Ne auferas de ore meo verbum veritatis usquequaque. Where he hath goodly speeches of this matter. For the same purpose also these words of ^[3] Lactantius are very notable. It is the Catholic Church only, that keepeth the true worship of God, this is the fountain of truth, this the house of faith, this the Temple of God: whither if any man enter not, or from which if any man go out, he is an alien and stranger from the hope of everlasting life and salvation, No man must by obstinate contention flatter himself, for it standeth upon life and salvation. &c. ^[4] S. Cyprian saith, The Church never departeth from that which she once hath known. Ep. 55. ad Cornel. nu. 3. ^[5] S. Ireneus saith, That the Apostles have laid up in the Church as in a rich treasure, all truth. And, that she keepeth with most sincere diligence, the

• 2 S. Augustine.
• 3 Lactantius.
• 4 S. Cyprian.
• 5 S. Irenæus.