after consecrating their Virginity to _Jesus Christ_, shall, either by a public Marriage, or by private Fornication, violate the Faith they had pledged to their immortal Spouse. ----- Footnote N47: In some Editions this Clause is wanting. ----- [Sidenote: _The unchristian Severity of one of these Articles ill excused by_ Baronius.] _Baronius_[1405], to answer the Objections which some _Innovators_, as he is pleased to style them, have offered against the unchristian Severity of this Article, tells us, that the Repentance of such a Virgin can by no means be sincere, so long as she continues with the Man she married; which is quite foreign to the Purpose, since _Innocent_ excludes her from Repentance, not only so long as she lives with him, but so long as he lives. _Innocent_ knew what _Baronius_ seems not to have known; _viz._ that the Marriage of Virgins, however solemnly consecrated, held good, even according to the Practice of the _Roman_ Church[1406]; and, consequently, that they could not abandon their Husbands; and hence he would not admit them to Repentance, or the Participation of the Sacred Mysteries, till the Death of their Husbands; which was keeping them, as it were, in a State of Excommunication, without any possible Means of redeeming themselves from it. And it is this uncharitable Severity, which some Divines of the _Reformed Churches_ have deservedly blamed. _Baronius_ stigmatizes such Marriages with the Name of _Adultery_; but he confounds the Time of _Innocent_ with his own; for, in his Time, the Vow of Chastity was declared a true Marriage; and, consequently, every subsequent Marriage void and null; but, in _Innocent_’s Time, the Marriage of a sacred Virgin was held valid, though commonly deemed sinful. Whether it be sinful or no, or whether a Vow of that kind can be lawfully made, I shall not take upon me to determine here; but I am very confident, that of most Persons, who debar themselves by a solemn Vow from ever marrying, we may say, with the Fathers of the Eighth Council of _Toledo_, that _they had better break a Vow, which they had rashly made, than fill up, by observing it, the Measure of their Sins_. But to return to the Letter: The Thirteenth and last Article will have those Virgins to do Penance for some time, who shall marry after having promised to live Virgins, though they had not yet received the Sacred Veil[1407]. This Letter has been inserted by _Dionysius Exiguus_, in his Code of the _Roman_ Church, and is quoted by the Second Council of _Tours_, held in 567[1408]. and by several other Councils[1409][N48]. ----- Footnote N48: