domestic thoughts from their minds. [For to be burdened with great
affairs and transactions, which concern commonwealths and nations,
governments and churches, is a good remedy to keep the old Adam from
lustfulness.] Good men know also this, that Paul, 1 Thess. 4, 4,
commands that every one possess his vessel in sanctification [and
honor, not in the lust of concupiscence]. They know likewise that
they must sometimes retire, in order that there may be leisure for
prayer, but Paul does not wish this to be perpetual, 1 Cor. 7, 5. Now
such continence is easy to those who are good and occupied. But this
great crowd of unemployed priests which is in the fraternities cannot
afford, in this voluptuousness, even this Levitical continence, as
the facts show. [On the other hand, what sort of chastity can there
be among so many thousands of monks and priests who live without
worry in all manner of delights, being idle and full, and, moreover,
have not the Word of God, do not learn it, and have no regard for it.
Such conditions bring on all manner of inchastity. Such people can
observe neither Levitical nor perpetual chastity.] And the lines are
well known: The boy accustomed to pursue a slothful life hates those
who are busy.

Many heretics understanding the Law of Moses incorrectly have treated
marriage with contempt, for whom, nevertheless, celibacy has gained
extraordinary admiration. And Epiphanius complains that, by this
commendation especially, the Encratites captured the minds of the
unwary. They abstained from wine even in the Lord's Supper; they
abstained from the flesh of all animals, in which they surpassed the
Dominican brethren who live upon fish. They abstained also from
marriage; and just this gained the chief admiration. These works,
these services, they thought, merited grace more than the use of wine
and flesh, and than marriage, which seemed to be a profane and