life, when kept with proper observance, as may by the grace
of God be rendered by any monks, merits eternal life; and
indeed Christ has promised to them a much more bountiful
reward, saying: "Every one that hath forsaken houses, or
brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
children or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an
hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life," Matt.
19:29. That monasteries, as they show, were formerly literary
schools, is not denied; nevertheless, there is no ignorance
of the fact that these were at first schools of virtues and
discipline, to which literature was afterwards added. But
since no one putting his hand to the plough and looking back
is fit for the kingdom of heaven, Luke 9:62, all marriages
and breaking of vows by monks and nuns should be regarded as
condemned, according to the tenor not only of the Holy
Scriptures, but also of the laws and canons, "having
damnation, because they have cast off their first faith," as
St. Paul says, 1 Tim. 5:12. Moreover, that vows are not
contrary to the ordinance of God as been declared with
reference to the second article of the alleged abuses. That
they attempt to defend themselves by dispensations of the
Pope is of no effect. For although the Pope has perhaps made
a dispensation for the king of Aragon, who, we read, returned
to the monastery after having had offspring, or for any other
prince on account of the peace of the entire kingdom or
province, to prevent the exposure of the entire kingdom or
province to wars, carnage, pillae, debauchery,
conflagrations, murders, - nevertheless, in private persons
who abandon vows in apostasy such grounds for dispensations
cannot be urged. For the assumption is repelled that the vow