Part III, Article XI. Of the Marriage of Priests.
1] To prohibit
marriage, and to burden the divine order of priests with perpetual
celibacy, they have had neither authority nor right [they have
done out of malice, without any honest reason], but have acted
like antichristian, tyrannical, desperate scoundrels [have performed
the work of antichrist, of tyrants and the worst knaves], and
have thereby caused all kinds of horrible, abominable, innumerable
sins of unchastity [depraved lusts], in which they still wallow.
2] Now, as little as we or they have been given the power
to make a woman out of a man or a man out of a woman, or to
nullify either sex, so little have they had the power to [sunder
and] separate such creatures of God, or to forbid them from
living [and cohabiting] honestly in marriage with one another.
3] Therefore we are unwilling to assent to their abominable
celibacy, nor will we [even] tolerate it, but we wish to have
marriage free as God has instituted [and ordained] it, and we
wish neither to rescind nor hinder His work; for Paul says,
1 Tim. 4:1ff , that this [prohibition of marriage] is
a
doctrine of devils.
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