Today’s Readings Podcast Description

Is the monastic profession a second baptism? Calvin says the Fathers never intended a double Christianity. Ancient monks lived apart, but they had no private church, no private altar, and no private sacraments. They remained part of the people. Present monasteries, he argues, break that bond: they take a special ministry to themselves and then glory in factional names—Benedictine, Franciscan, Dominican—as if those titles could replace the name of Christian. The charge is against the profession, not every monk. Some good men remain, but they lie scattered among a multitude. Even Augustine’s form, Calvin admits, was not without affectation: God values a household served in a lawful calling more than a flight into solitude. Present vows he judges rash. Continence (*continentia*) is a gift,  ...