Untitled - Electric Scotland

466 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xvi.
consecration to the See of London, he wrote the following
memorandum :-
"
My opinion is asked on the case of a young lady who at
the age of eighteen had a vow of celibacy administered to her by
a clergyman of the Church of England. . . . She
of being released from the vow, on the plea : first,
is now desirous
that it was
presumptuous, and therefore sinful to take such a vow ; secondlv,
that when she took it she was mistaken in supposing that to lead
a life of celibacy was her vocation ; thirdly, that she now feels
that she will, by God s grace, be as holy and pure when married
as she is now, and as able to do God s work in the world.
"
"
My judgment
is :-
i. That the law of England is very jealous in respect of the
administration of oaths. That any clergyman administering such
a vow as is described above was highly culpable. That he who
administers an oath not allowed by law is guilty of an illegal act
and may be liable to be indicted. That the law holds oaths
administered illegally to be void.
"
2. That the whole spirit of the teaching of the Church of
England condemns such vows. That whereas the Thirty-Ninth
Article, while maintaining that oaths required by the magistrate,
in a cause of faith and charity, may lawfully be taken, if all be
done according to the Prophet s teaching, in justice, judgment,
and truth, has yet expressly declared that vain and rash swearing
is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ and James
His Apostle.
"
I hold this decision of the Church to include in its condem
nation such rash vows as that now under discussion, and I
pronounce the taking of such a vow to have been a sinful act.
"
3. I decide that the young lady in question is at liberty to
marry, if, opening her heart to God in prayer, she is convinced
in her conscience of the sinfulness of the rash vow, and is pre
pared to enter upon the holy state of matrimony in a prayerful
spirit of dependence upon God, feeling humbled at the thought
of the great difficulty in which her presumption has involved
her."
The letters which have been recorded above contain
more than one reference to what the Bishop said about
Sisterhoods in his Diocesan Charge of 1866, and it may