Note 88 — III. THE COUNCIL OF NICÆA.

When, during the demoralization of the tenth century, the council of Augsburg made a spasmodic effort to revive the neglected rule of celibacy, it endeavored to include the lower orders of the clergy within its scope. Ratramnus of Corvey also does not fail to point out that such was the incontrovertible meaning of the Nicene canon, which in his time was universally considered to refer to marriage.