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| Of the Bishop Paphnutius.
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Chapter XI.—Of the
Bishop Paphnutius.
As we have promised above195
to make some mention of Paphnutius and Spyridon, it is time to speak of
them here. Paphnutius then was bishop of one of the cities in Upper
Thebes: he was a man so favored divinely that extraordinary miracles
were done by him. In the time of the persecution he had been deprived
of one of his eyes. The emperor honored this man exceedingly, and often
sent for him to the palace, and kissed the part where the eye had been
torn out. So great devoutness characterized the emperor Constantine.
Let this single fact respecting Paphnutius suffice: I shall now explain
another thing which came to pass in consequence of his advice, both for
the good of the Church and the honor of the clergy. It seemed fit to
the bishops to introduce a new law into the Church, that those who were
in holy orders, I speak of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, should
have no conjugal intercourse with the wives whom they had married while
still laymen.196
| 196Cf. Apost. Cann. 5, 17, 26, 51. In general,
voluntary celibacy of the clergy was encouraged in the ancient
Church.
|
Now when discussion on this matter was impending, Paphnutius having
arisen in the midst of the assembly of bishops, earnestly entreated
them not to impose so heavy a yoke on the ministers of religion:
asserting that ‘marriage itself is honorable, and the bed
undefiled’;197
urging before God that they ought not to injure the Church by too
stringent restrictions. ‘For all men,’ said he,
‘cannot bear the practice of rigid continence; neither perhaps
would the chastity of the wife of each be preserved’: and he
termed the intercourse of a man with his lawful wife chastity. It would
be sufficient, he thought, that such as had previously entered on their
sacred calling should abjure matrimony, according to the ancient
tradition of the Church: but that none should be separated from her to
whom, while yet unordained, he had been united. And these sentiments he
expressed, although himself without experience of marriage, and, to
speak plainly, without ever having known a woman: for from a boy he had
been brought up in a monastery,198
and was specially renowned above all men for his chastity. The whole
assembly of the clergy assented to the reasoning of Paphnutius:
wherefore they silenced all further debate on this point, leaving it to
the discretion of those who were husbands to exercise abstinence if
they so wished in reference to their wives. Thus much concerning
Paphnutius.
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