A reply to Fulke, In defense of M. D. Allens scroll of articles, and booke of purgatorie. By Richard Bristo Doctor of Diuinitie ... perused and allowed by me Th. Stapleton.

iiij About the mariage of Votaries.

For the mariage of such as haue vowed virginitie,* 1.1 you alleage one place of Epiphanius thrise, & another of S. Hieromes twise, and all about a matter that we hold euen as they did. Thus you saye: Epiphanius,* 1.2 although he count it an offence to marrie af∣ter their vowe (therein he is with vs you know) yet he saith, (speaking of such as secretly liue in fornication sub specie soli∣tudinis aut continentiae) vnder the colour of vowed singlenes or continencie) It is better to marrie then to burne (that first is not in Epiphanius). Melius est itaque vnum peccatum habere, & non plura, It is better to haue one sinne rather then many. It is better for him that is fallen from his course (wherein he beganne to runne for the Crowne of Virginitie) openly to take a wyfe according to the lawe, & a virginitate multo tempore poeni∣tentiam agere, and a long time to repent (to do penaunce for breaking) that vowe of his virginitie, and so (hauing done his full penaunce) to be brought agayne into the Churche (out of the which he was caste as an excommunicate person for brea∣king his vow) as one that hath done amisse, as one that is fal∣len, and broken, and hauing neede to be bound: rather then to be wounded dayly with priuie dartes, of that wickednesse whiche the diuell putteth into him. So knoweth the Church to preach: Haec sunt sanationis medicamenta, These are the medicines of healing. Whereof you gather, and say, that Epiphanius calleth marriage of suche men, an holsome medicine, contrarie to that you confesse your selfe that he calleth it a sinne, (for so doth the Apostles Tradition, saith he) vnlesse perhaps you thinke Sinne to be an holsome medicine. No syr, the holsome medicins are his long penance, and his reconcilement to the Church againe. But at the least (say you) Epiphanius alloweth marriage in them, whereas the Popish Church did separate them from their wiues in queene Maries time. After a solemne vow, (which is made but only two ways, by taking holy orders, & by professing some com∣mon

approued rule of Religion) to marrie, is * 1.3no mariage, and therevpon it is that no Doctor can be alleaged which alloweth it for mariage, if Priests or such professed Monkes and Nunnes do marrie. But the sole vow of virginitie, and of widowhood, is none of those two, and therfore but a simple vow: and therefore to marrie after it, although it be a great mortall sinne, yet the mariage holdeth. So saith Epiphanius, and so say we, as some widowes in England hauing taken the mantle and the ring, and marrying afterwards, can beare vs witnesse, whose mariage we haue allowed of (though they may not vse it so fréely without iust dispensation, as other maried Folke, and as their husbandes may, because of their vow) and cured them by penance & reconci∣liation, altogether as Epiphanius here witnesseth of the Church in his time.

* 1.4So is it likewise of the simple vow of virginitie, that S. Hie∣rome speaketh, saying:

The name of certayne virgins, which be∣haue them selues not well, doth slaunder the holy purpose of vir∣gins, and the glory of the heauenly and angelike familie. To whō must be playnly said, vt aut nubant, that either they marrie, if they can not conteine, or els conteine, (suing to God to giue them strength) if they will not marrie.

We say the same to the same, and generally to all others, which of two sinnes wil nedes com∣mit one, counsayling them rather to commit the lesser then the greater: As for example, to say that they will come to your schis∣matical and Heretical seruice, when the Commissioners require no more, rather then to come vnto it in déede: not omitting to tell them withal, that they should neither so much as say they wil come, because that also is a sinne, and a mortall sinne: as Epi∣phanius told those virgins, that their mariage also is sinne.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ar. 45. Pur. 22.23.
• * 1.2

  Hpiph. li. 2 Haer. 61.
• * 1.3

  Chry. ep. 6 ad Theod. Monachū lapsum. Basil. lib. de virginitate.
• * 1.4

  Hie. ad De∣metriad. tom. 1.