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wide open, even admitting divorce if either spouse wished to enter the monastic life, or the other was detained long in captivity. But quantum sufficit. Laudator temporis acti may hold his peace. (Bingham's Antiqui ties, Book XXII, ch. V.) In the early days such care was taken of the widows, and so liberal were the offerings for their support, that some made a profitable trade out of their widowhood. A regular list of them was kept. To be on the roll of widows one had to conform to the require ments of Saint Paul. (I Tim. v. 9, 10.) Ambrose, Jerome, Tertullian, St. Augus tine, either condemned second marriages, or strongly advised against them : so large num bers of widows, both young and old, took vows of continency. Some appear to have done so only from a desire to gain greater freedom and have a decent cloak for lasciviousness. The civil law was compelled to check this ecclesiastical tendency, though at first it had favored it. Majorian enacted, after reciting the abuse of the vows of widowhood, that childless widows under forty years of age must marry again or forfeit half their property to the public chest. The Church, in opposition, decreed that any man who married a widow was ineligible for admission to holy orders; or if already in orders, to promotion : and the widow of a clerk' who married again was liable to perpetual seclusion in a convent. For several centuries widows who took the vows were allowed to live in their own houses. This gave rise to dissatisfaction and in the eighth century Pcppin and the Gallican clergy put to the Pope the straight question : " Can widows who live in their own houses save their souls?" His Holiness shirked the question. In the next century the Gallican Church insisted upon widows living in monasteries : although the then Pope objected, but eventually the Gallican

idea prevailed, and the taking the vows of widowhood implied entrance into a monas tery, and thus the order of widows was merged into that of nuns. A widow who, after making a solemn vow of continence, broke her vow was visited with severe ecclesiastical censure, sometimes with excommunication for a shorter or longer period. In the Eastern Church a deaconess who married was punished with death and confiscation. (Smith and Cheetham Die. Ch. Antiquities.) "Salute one another with a holy kiss." The early Christians in their public meetings carried the Apostolic decree into effect and greeted each other with a kiss. Soon it was found that in too many cases this was only "the food by which the flame of passion was fed "; and it became necessary to be care ful in its use. Athenagoras quotes a saying which he attributes to our Lord : " Whoever kisses a second time, because he has found pleasure in it, commits a sin." Clement of Alexandria says : " Love is not tested by a kiss but by kindly feeling. But there are those who do nothing but make the churches resound with kisses. For this very thing, the shameless use of the kiss, which ought to be mystic, occasions foul suspicion and evil reports." Many of the early councils regulated the "kiss " by canon. " The men shall kiss one another, and the women shall kiss other women, nor shall men give the kiss to them" became the law. Among the Dunkers, in Pennsylvania, at the present day the sacred kiss is started by the bishop and passed down the rows of solemn-looking men; when they have all exchanged this symbol of love a married man kisses his wife and the sweet mystic sign flashes from woman to woman. In the Oriental church the kiss of peace is still given to the newly baptized and in the celebration of the Eucharist.