THE JEFFERSONIAN
No honest man, who knows human nature,
will deny this.
Even when the monks of ancient times were
able to conquer the flesh, by starvation and
solitude, no benefit accrued to themselves,
to Christianity, or to the world.
On the contrary, their morbid fanaticism
led them into frightful crimes, such as the
murder of Hypatia, and the burning of the
vast collection of ancient manuscripts at Alex
andria.
Hypatia, a beautiful young Grecian, taught
a classic school, using the books which are
now taught in Universities and Theological
colleges throughout Christendom. The monks
hated these books, and they mobbed the lovely
girl, stripped her naked, and tore her limb
from limb.
The Alexandrian library contained the ac
cumulated treasures of antiquity, laboriously
collected at vast expense: the monks hated it,
and destroyed it, thus inflicting upon science
and literature an irreparable injury.
But those monks of the early ages were
few. Still less numerous were the women
who forsook ‘the world.” and gave them
selves to the rigors of the anchorites.
In those ages, there were no monastic
buildings, fitted up with the elaborate “re
fectory,” for sybarite eating and drinking.
There were no monasteries and nunneries,
such as came into existence after Pope
Gregory VII. commanded priests to put aw T ay
their wives.
Not until 1,000 years after Christ was it
discovered that the godly life required a priest
to shun marriage, and to take, instead, a
“house-keeper*’ or a nun.
The Apostle Paul had written that “for
bidding to marry” is “the doctrine of devils.”
but Pope Gregory wrote the opposite gospel.
