Note 1400 — XXVIII. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

Goldast. II. 380.—Le Plat, VI. 310, 312.

It is observable from this that many priests left the church and married without formally embracing the Lutheran faith, and a return of these was anticipated from a relaxation of the canons. Others, as may be gathered from various references above, married and still performed their regular duties. Of these, some no doubt acted in virtue of dispensations granted by the nuncios of Paul III., after the promulgation of the Interim, but many did so in utter contempt of discipline. An illustrative example of the latter class may be found in the well-known Stanislas Orzechowski, whose marriage, notwithstanding his prominent position, shows the laxity of opinion which prevailed on the subject. As priest and canon of Przemysl in Poland, his marriage naturally gave great offence to his colleagues, which was not diminished by a dissertation which he wrote in favor of priestly marriage. This, he subsequently claimed, had been prepared for the purpose of laying before the council of Trent, and its publication had arisen from the indiscretion of a friend to whom he had entrusted it. Somewhat contaminated with the new ideas by his education at Wittenberg, he sturdily refused to give up either his wife or his position. His consequent excommunication he disregarded, though according to his own account he gave up on marrying his benefices and the ministry (Lettera a Guilio III. trad. di B. Leoni, Milano, anno. VI.), and notwithstanding this he had a very narrow escape from the death-penalty, and his condemnation excited a commotion throughout Poland that was very favorable to the spread of the reformed opinions (Orichovii Annales, pp. 71-84, 108, Ed. 1854). At length the feeling against the pretensions of the church became so strong that the Diet of 1552 removed all the civil and temporal penalties of excommunication, so that he triumphed for the time. When in 1556, the legate Lippomani held a synod at Lovictz, he called to account those who had connived at so great an irregularity. They denied granting the dispensation, saying that they had only suspended the censures until the pleasure of the pope should be known; but at the same time many prelates used all their influence with Lippomani to obtain one. Lippomani declared that he had no power to grant it, nor would he do so if he could, seeing that Orzechowski defended himself on heretical grounds (Concil. Lovitiens.—Labbei et Coleti Supp. T. V. p. 702). In 1561 Orzechowski, in his address to the synod of Warsaw, admitted that he had sinned, but claimed that he had been punished sufficiently—“Si quis igitur a me quærat; Num uxorem sacerdos duxerim? Duxisse me fatebor. Peccasti igitur? Peccavi. Pœnas ergo peccati debes? Debui et persolvi” (Doctrina de Sacerd. Cœlibatu, Varsaviæ, 1801). He therefore complained of the persecutions to which he was exposed on account of his wife, and he petitioned both the pope and the council of Trent for a dispensation. While the Tridentine fathers refused it, some authors assert that it was granted by Pius IV. to him as an exceptional case “tibi soli Orichovio,” but careful investigation has failed to discover the Bull, and, according to Zaccaria the pope merely sent secret orders to his legate Commendone not to allow Orzechowski to be molested, but at the same time to give no publicity to an act of tolerance in contravention of the canons of the council of Trent (Grégoire, Hist du Mariage des Prêtres en France, pp. 51-55).

In his answer to Fricius, Orzechowski assumes that he was absolved from his excommunication by the Legate—“Præterea a sententia excommunicationis, qua eram a Joanne Episcopo Premisliensi, ob hanc eandem uxorem, ex ecclesia pulsus, a Legato Romani Petri absolutus cum sim, nihil feci contra ilium” (ap. Doctrin. de Sacerd. Cœlibat. p. 24). He also alleges the extraordinary excuse that he abandoned the priesthood before his marriage.

The history of Orzechowski, with probably a less fortunate result, is no doubt that of innumerable others, whose obscurity has prevented their sufferings from being known beyond their own narrow circle.

Strype (Annals, I. 485-6) asserts that after the accession of Queen Elizabeth the Catholic emissaries in England had a general dispensation to marry, in order to assist their concealment and to further the design of creating schism in the Anglican church. He gives as his authority one Malachi Malone, a converted Irish friar.