admonish the clerg not to occupy a domicile in common with
women. Hence, since sacerdotal continence has been commanded
by the pontiffs and revealed by God and promised to God, by
the priest in a special vow, it must not be rejected. For
this is required by the excellency of the sacrifice they
offer, the frequency of prayer, and liberty and purity of
spirit, that they care how to please God, according to the
teaching of St. Paul. And because this is manifestly the
ancient heresy of Jovinian, which the Roman Church condemned
and Jerome refuted in his writings, and St. Augustine said
that this heresy was immediately extinguished and did not
attain to the corruption and abuse of priests, the princes
ought not to tolerate it to the perpetual shame and disgrace
of the Roman Empire, but should rather conform themselves to
the Church universal, and not be influenced by those things
which are suggested to them. For as to what Paul says, 1 Cor.
7:2: "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife,"
Jerome replies that St. Paul is speaking of one who has not
made a vow, as Athanasius and Vulgarius understand the
declaration of St. Paul: "If a virgin marry, she hath not
sinned." (1 Cor. 7:28), that here a virgin is meant who has
not been consecrated to God. So in reference to : "It is
better to marry than to burn" (1 Cor. 7:9), the pointed reply
of Jerome against Jovinian is extant. For the same St. Paul
says (1 Cor. 7:1): "It is good for a man not to touch a
woman." For a priest has the intermediate position of
neither marrying nor burning, but of restraining himself by
the grace of God, which he obtains of God by devout prayer
and chastising of the flesh, by fasting and vigils.
Furthermore, when they say that Christ taught that all men