OUK MONISTIC ETHICS. 367 



such a degree that it was made obligatory. In the 

 Middle Ages the seduction of women of good repute 

 and of their daughters by Catholic priests (the 

 confessional was an active agency in the business) 

 was a public scandal ; many communities, in order to 

 prevent such things, pressed for a license of concu- 

 binage to be given to the clergy. And it was done in 

 many, and sometimes very romantic, ways. Thus, 

 for instance, the canon law that the priest's cook 

 should not be less than forty years old was very 

 cleverly ''explained" in the sense that the priest 

 might have two cooks, one in the presbytery, another 

 without ; if one was twenty-four and the other eighteen, 

 that made forty-two together — two years above the 

 prescribed age. At the Christian councils, at which 

 heretics were burnt alive, the cardinals and bishops 

 sat down with whole troops of prostitutes. The private 

 and public debauchery of the Catholic clergy was so 

 scandalous and dangerous to the commonwealth that 

 there was a general rebellion against it before the 

 time of Luther, and a loud demand for a " reformation 

 of the Church in head and members." It is well 

 known that these immoral relations still continue in 

 Roman Catholic lauds, although more in secret. 

 Formerly proposals were made from time to time for 

 the definite abrogation of celibacy, as was done, for 

 instance, in the chambers of Baden, Bavaria, Hesse, 

 Saxony, and other lands ; but they have, unfortunately, 

 hitherto proved unavailing. In the German Reich- 

 stag, in which the ultramontane Centre is now 

 proposing the most ridiculous measures for the 

 suppression of sexual immorality, there is now no 

 party that will urge the abolition of celibacy in 

 the interest of public morality. The so-called 



