E D R E D. 147

indulged in marriage, and were permitted to crear families, they never could be subjected tostrict discipline ; or reduced to that slavery undertheir superiors, which was requisite to procureto the mandates, issued from Rome, a readyand zealous obedience. Celibacy, therefore,began to be extolled, as the indispensible dutyof priests; and the pope undertook to make allthe clergy throughout the western world re-nounce at once the privilege of marriage : A fortu-nate policy, but at the same time an undertaking themost difficult of any, since he had the strongestpropensities of human nature to encounter, andfound, that the same connexions with the femalesex, which generally encourage devotion, werehere unfavourable to the success of his project.

It is no wonder, therefore, that this master-stroke of art should have met with violent contra-diction , and that the interests of the hierarchy,and the inclinations of the priests, being nowplaced in this singular opposition, should, not-withstanding the continued efforts of Rome,have retarded the execution of that bold scheme,during the course of near three centuries.

As the bishops and parochial clergy livedapart with their families, and were more con-nected with the world , the hopes of success withthem were fainter, and the pretence for makingthem renounce marriage was much less plausible.But the pope, having cast his eye on the monksas the basis of his authority, was determinedto reduce them under strict rules of obedience,

L 2

HAP.

II.