Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/251

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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PRIEST'S HOUSE.

The Fourth Provincial Council of Westminster decreed as follows:

1. "Let presbyteries be the true homes of peace and of charity, of sobriety and of modesty; a notable example in all things to the faithful, 'that the adversary may have no evil to say of us.'[1] Let simplicity be their adornment; nor let anything there be found, in furniture or decoration, that ministers to luxury or to worldly desires. Let there be no ludicrous or foolish pictures, or any others unfitting the eyes of priests; but in every room let there be the crucifix, or the image of the most Holy Mother of God, or of the Saints, or pictures representing the life of our Saviour or sacred history."

The furniture of a priest's house ought to be plain and solid—plain, that is, unlike the fanciful and costly furniture of domestic houses; and solid, because it ought to last for generations of priests

  1. S. Tit. ii. 8.