Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 02.djvu/158

134 assassinated St. Stephen, and St. James, and I am surprised to find he travelled to the third heaven. But pray continue.

.—We gather from St. Clement of Alexandria that St. Peter had children; one St. Petronilla is mentioned among them. Eusebius, in his "History of the Church," says that St. Nicholas, one of the first disciples, had a very handsome wife; and that the disciples blamed him for being overfond and jealous. "Sirs," said he, "let any one take her who likes; I give her to you."

In the Jewish economy, which should have lasted forever, but to which, nevertheless, the Christian dispensation succeeded, marriage was not only permitted, but expressly enjoined on priests, since they were always of the same race. Celibacy was considered infamous.

It is certain that celibacy could not have been considered a very pure and honorable state by the first Christians, since we find among the bishops excommunicated by the first councils, chiefly those who oppose the marriage of priests, such as Saturnians, Basilidians, Montanists, Encrasists, and other ans and ists. This accounts for the wife of Gregory of Nazianze bearing another Gregory of Nazianze, and enjoying the inestimable felicity of being at one and the same time the wife and mother of a canonized saint—a privilege which even St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine did not enjoy.

By the same reason I might name as many and