Vicar. (1)

Gentlemen: I am accused of speaking very evasively and not to the point. I have excused myself before for not being able to speak eloquently, and I have also listened to you (Master Ulrich). [Here Master Ulrich interrupted: There is no need of so much teasing.] That you accuse me of seeking to add to my own fame rather than the advancement of truth I cannot prevent. I wished to assist in making peace and doing the best. But when Master Ulrich claims that I say much concerning things settled by councils of yore, and then changed by later ones, I say that there are two kinds of councils referred to. Some are known as “concilia universalia” (these are common or general gatherings), where many of the bishops and Christian leaders meet, as in the four foremost councils, Nicæa, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon, and some others. Whatever was accomplished and done in these has never been entirely changed by the others, but has been preserved like the Gospel. Some are known as “concilia particularia,” of which there have been many, not consisting of all the fathers of the common parishes about, but of special ones, as was the council of Gangra, and many others. In these probably something has at times been settled which later, perhaps not without cause, has been decided otherwise. But it never has been that the priests were permitted to have wives. And although the Eastern Church, especially in Greece, wished to have this considered just, the pious fathers of other nations would not permit this and forbade it, considering from weighty reasons that the marriage of priests is detrimental to the churches and not for the good of the service of God, as also Saint Paul says, 1 Cor. vii. 32: “Qui sine uxore,” etc. “He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord.” vii. 27: “Solutus es ab,” etc. “Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife!” There he speaks of those who serve the Gospel as priests. Id. vii. 20: “Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.” Such and many other causes have induced the holy fathers not to allow and permit marriage to priests. Indeed it could not happen without partition of the property of the churches.