Untitled - Saints' Books

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CHAP, in.]
Sanctity Necessary for the Priest. 53
learn from the Council of Nice, 1 from the Council of
Toledo, 2 from the Council of Elvira, 3 and from the
Fourth Council of Carthage. 4 And if a priest after his
ordination had fallen into sin, he was deposed, and shut
up in a monastery, as may be observed from several
canons. 6 In the sixth canon, the following reason is
assigned: "Above all, what the Church wishes is per
fect innocence. Those that are not holy should not
touch holy things. And in the several canons we
" e
read: "Since the clerics have taken the Lord for their
inheritance, let them not have intercourse with the
world." 7
The Council of Trent declared, Wherefore
clerics called to have the Lord for their portion ought
by all means so to regulate their whole life and con
versation as that in their dress, comportment, gait, dis
course, and all things else, nothing appear but what is
grave, regulated, and replete with religiousness."* In
ecclesiastics the Council requires sanctity in dress as
well as in conduct, language, and every
action. St.
John Chrysostom says, that priests should be so holy
that all may look to them as models of sanctity; because
God has placed them on earth that they may live like
angels, and be luminaries and teachers of virtue to all
others. 9
1
Can. 9, 10.
2 I. Can. 2.
5
Corp. fur. Can. dist. 81.
3 Can. 76. 4 IV. Can. 68.
6 "
In omnibus enim quod irreprehensibile est, Sancta defendit
Ecclesia. Qui sancti non sunt, sancta tractare non possunt." Dist. 81.
can. 4-6.
" 7
8 "
Clerici, quibus pars Dominus est, a saeculi segregati vivant."
Decet omnino clericos, in sortem Domini vocatos, vitam moresque
9 "
suos componere, ut habitu, gestu, sermone, aliisque rebus, nil nisi
grave ac religione plenum prse se ferant." Sess. 2, cap. i, de Ref.
Sacerdos debet vitam habere immaculatam, ut omnes in ilium
veluti in aliquod exemplar excellens intueantur. Idcirco enim nos
(Deus)elegit, ut simus quasi luminaria, et magistri cseterorum efficiamur,
ac veluti angeli cum hominibus versemur in terris." In I Tim. horn.
10.