Note 380 — XI. SAXON ENGLAND.
Reading edition
Reliquit (Columbanus) successores magna continentia ac divino amore regularique institutione insignes ... pietatis et castitatis opera diligenter observantes (Bedæ Hist. Eccles. Lib. III. c. 4, cf. also c. 26). Bede’s orthodoxy on the subject is unquestionable: “Sacerdotibus ut semper altari queant assistere, semper ab uxoribus continendum, semper castitas observanda præcipitur” (In Lucæ Evang. Exposit. Lib. I. cap. 1).—“Quanta sunt maledictione digni qui prohibent nubere et dispositionem cœlestis decreti quasi a diabolo repertam condemnant? ... sed magis honoranda, majore est digna benedictione virginitas.” (Hexæmeron. Lib. I. sub tit. Benedixitque illis.) See also De Tabernac. Lib. III. c. 9, already referred to (p. 65).