Virgo Maria loquens domine Birgitte dicit, quod nullo modo est voluntas Dei, quod clerici vxores habeant nec contaminentur vicio carnis, prohibens, quod nullus papa hoc matrimonium clericorum permittat fieri nec statui in ecclesia Dei.
A Prayer of Adoration
The chapter opens with a formal prayer of praise directed toward the Body of Christ and the Holy Trinity.
Rejoice eternally, blessed Body of God, in everlasting honor, in perennial victory, and in your eternal omnipotence, together with your Father and the Holy Spirit, and also with your most worthy, blessed Mother and all your glorious heavenly court. Eternal God, may praise and infinite thanks be Yours, for You deigned to become human, and in this world You willed to consecrate Your venerable Body from material bread, and in love, You gave it to us as food for the salvation of our souls!
The Divine Will Regarding Priesthood
The Virgin Mary explains why the Church moved from an ancient allowance of clerical marriage to the requirement of holy celibacy.
It happened that while one person was praying, they heard a voice saying: "You, to whom it is given to hear and see spiritually, listen now to the things I wish to reveal to you." I am referring to that archbishop who said that if he were pope, he would grant all clerics and priests permission to marry, believing that this would be more acceptable to God than for clerics to live as dissolutely as they do now. Because he believed this marriage would prevent greater carnal sins, and although he didn't fully understand God's will in this, that same archbishop was nonetheless a friend of God. But I will now tell you God's will in this matter, because I gave birth to God Himself. And you will make this known to my bishop, telling him that circumcision was given to Abraham long before the Law of Moses was given, and in that time of Abraham, people were governed by their own understanding and by the judgment of their own will, and yet many of them were then friends of God. But after the Law of Moses was given, it pleased God more that people should live under the Law and according to the Law, rather than by their own human judgment and understanding. It was the same way with the blessed body of my Son. For after He Himself established this new Sacrament of the Eucharist in the world and ascended into heaven, that old law was still being observed—namely, that Christian priests lived in carnal marriage.1 And yet, many of them were friends of God because they believed with simple purity that it was pleasing to Him for Christian priests to have wives and live in marriage, just as it had been pleasing to Him in the ancient time of the Jews among the Jewish priests. And this was observed in this way by Christian priests for many years. But that practice and ancient custom seemed deeply abominable and hateful to the entire heavenly court and to me—I who gave birth to his body—that it should be observed in this way by Christian priests, who touch and handle with their own hands this new and immaculate Sacrament of the most holy body of my Son. For in the old law of the Old Testament, the Jews had only a shadow—that is, a figure—of this Sacrament, but Christians now possess the very truth itself: the true God and man in that blessed and consecrated bread. But after some time had passed for those early Christian priests who followed this practice, God Himself, through the infusion of His Holy Spirit, placed into the heart of the Pope then governing the Church a different law on this matter, one more acceptable and pleasing to Him. He did this by pouring into the heart of that same Pope the resolve to establish throughout the universal Church that Christian priests—who hold such a holy and most worthy office, namely the consecration of this precious Sacrament—must in no way live in the defiling pleasure of carnal marriage. And so, by God's preordination and His own just judgment, it’s ordained that priests who don’t live in chastity and bodily continence are cursed and excommunicated before God, and deserve to be stripped of their priestly office. However, those who truly reform themselves with a sincere resolve not to sin again will receive mercy from God.
The Grave Responsibility of the Papacy
A stern warning is issued regarding the spiritual consequences for any pope who would attempt to overturn the law of clerical celibacy.
You should also know this: if any pope were to grant priests permission to enter into carnal marriage, he himself would be spiritually condemned by God with the same sentence as a man who had sinned so gravely that, according to the justice of the law, he deserved to have his eyes gouged out, his tongue and lips cut off, his nose and ears sliced away, and his hands and feet amputated. Furthermore, that all the blood should be drained from his body until it grew completely cold, and beyond that, that his entire bloodless corpse should be thrown out to be devoured by dogs and other wild beasts. The same thing would truly happen spiritually to any pope who granted priests permission to marry, contrary to the aforementioned decree and the will of God. For that same pope would be completely deprived by God of spiritual sight and hearing, of spiritual words and works, and all his spiritual wisdom would grow entirely cold; furthermore, after his death, his soul would be cast into hell to be tormented forever, so that it might become food for the demons there, eternally and without end. Even if Pope Saint Gregory had decreed this, he never would have obtained mercy from God for such a ruling unless he had humbly revoked it before his death.2
Read the original Latin
Gaude eternaliter, benedictum corpus Dei, in perpetuo honore et in perhenni victoria ac in sempiterna omnipotencia tua vna cum tuo Patre et Spiritu Sancto atque eciam cum tua benedicta matre dignissima et cum tota gloriosa tua celesti curia.
Sit eciam tibi laus, eterne Deus, et infinita graciarum accio pro eo, quod homo fieri dignatus es et nobis in mundo tuum venerandum corpus ex pane materiali consecrare voluisti ipsumque in cibum ad nostrarum salutem animarum caritatiue nobis tribuisti!
Contigit vni persone oracioni vacanti, quod audiuit tunc vnam vocem dicentem sibi: "O tu, cui datum est audire spiritualiter et videre, audi nunc ea, que tibi manifestare volo,
videlicet de illo archiepiscopo, qui dixit, quod si esset papa, ipse daret licenciam omnibus clericis et presbiteris matrimonium contrahendi carnaliter, cogitans et credens, quod hoc esset acceptabilius Deo, quam quod clerici viuerent dissolute, sicut modo viuunt.
Quia ipse credebat, quod ex hoc matrimonio euitarentur maiora peccata carnalia, et quamuis in hoc non bene intellexit Dei voluntatem, nichilominus tamen idem archiepiscopus amicus Dei erat.
Sed ego nunc dicam tibi in hoc Dei voluntatem, quia ipsum Deum genui. Et tu hec notificabis episcopo meo, dicendo sibi sic, quod Abrahe fuit data circumcisio, longe antequam daretur lex Moysi, et illo tempore Abrahe homines regebantur quilibet secundum suum intellectum et secundum arbitrium sue proprie voluntatis, et tamen multi ex illis erant tunc amici Dei.
Postquam autem data fuit lex Moysi, tunc magis placuit Deo, quod homines viuerent sub lege et secundum legem quam secundum suum proprium arbitrium humanum et intellectum. Simili modo fuit de benedicto corpore filii mei.
Nam postquam ipse in mundo instituit hoc nouum eucharistie sacramentum et ascendit in celum, tunc lex illa antiqua adhuc seruabatur, scilicet quod christiani sacerdotes viuebant in carnali matrimonio.
Et nichilominus tamen multi ex eis erant amici Dei, quia credebant cum simplici puritate, quod hoc ita placebat Deo, scilicet quod sacerdotes christiani tenerent vxores et viuerent in matrimonio, sicut placuerat hoc sibi antiquo tempore Iudeorum in Iudeis sacerdotibus. Et hoc sic per christianos sacerdotes per multos annos fuit obseruatum.
Sed ista obseruancia et consuetudo antiqua videbatur multum abhominabilis et exosa toti celesti curie et michi, que corpus eius genui, videlicet quod sic obseruaretur per sacerdotes christianos tangentes et manibus suis tractantes hoc nouum et immaculatum sacramentum sanctissimi corporis filii mei.
Nam Iudei in antiqua lege veteris testamenti habebant vmbram, idest figuram huius sacramenti, christiani vero habent iam ipsam veritatem, scilicet ipsum verum Deum et hominem in illo pane benedicto consecrato.
Sed post aliqua tempora illorum priorum sacerdotum christianorum hec obseruancium ipse Deus per infusionem sui Sancti Spiritus dedit in cor pape regentis Ecclesiam tunc temporis aliam legem super hoc sibi magis acceptam et gratam,
infundendo videlicet in corde eius, quod idem papa statueret in ecclesia vniuersali, quod sacerdotes christiani, qui tam sanctum et tam dignissimum haberent officium, scilicet consecrandi hoc sacramentum preciosum, nullo modo viuerent in matrimoniali contaminosa delectacione carnali.
Et ideo ex preordinacione Dei et iudicio suo iuste ordinatum est, quod sacerdotes, qui non viuunt in castitate et continencia carnis, sunt maledicti et excommunicati apud Deum et digni carere sacerdotali officio.
Attamen qui se veraciter emendauerint cum vero proposito vlterius non peccandi, ipsi a Deo misericordiam consequentur.
Hoc eciam scias, quod, si aliquis papa concesserit sacerdotibus licenciam contrahendi matrimonium carnale, ipse a Deo tali sentencia spiritualiter condempnabitur sicut ille homo, qui tam grauiter deliquisset, quod secundum iusticiam iuris deberent corporaliter erui oculi eius et abscidi lingua cum labiis et nasus cum auribus, amputari quoque eius manus et pedes,
ac eciam quod totus eius corporis sanguis deberet effundi et totaliter frigefieri, et insuper quod deberet totum illud exsangue corpus ad deuorandum proici canibus et aliis bestiis feris.
Similiter vere fieret spiritualiter illi pape, qui talem licenciam contrahendi matrimonium concederet sacerdotibus contra prefatam preordinacionem et voluntatem Dei.
Nam idem papa visu et auditu spirituali, verbis eciam et operibus spiritualibus totaliter priuaretur a Deo et tota sua spiritualis sapiencia omnino frigesceret, et insuper post mortem suam anima eius proiceretur in inferno perpetuo crucianda, vt ibidem fieret cibus demonum eternaliter sine fine.
Ymmo eciam si sanctus Gregorius papa hoc statuisset, numquam in predicta sentencia misericordiam optinuisset a Deo, nisi ante mortem suam humiliter reuocasset."
Notes
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