The violence thus done to human nature did not fail to avenge itself in those rude times. The licentiousness and corruption of the priests and monks became in many cases boundless, and it was in vain that strict individuals, as well as councils, strove against it. The immorality and debasement of the clergy became a reproach and by word in the inouth of the people, and gave a powerful impulse to the religious movement that began in the 16th century. The leading reformers declared against the C. of the clergy as unfounded in Scripture, and contrary to the natural ordinance of God, and Luther set the example of marrying. This was not without effect on the Roman Catholic clergy, and the question of the abolition of C. was raised at the council of Trent (1593). But the majority of voices decided that God would not withhold the gift of chastity from those that rightly prayed for it, and the rule of C. was thus finally and for ever imposed on the ministers of the Roman Catholic church. Those who have only received the lower kinds of consecration may marry on resigning their office. For all grades above a sub deacon, a papal dispensation is necessary. A priest that marries incurs excommunica tion, and is incapable of any spiritual function. If a married man wishes to become a priest, he receives consecration only on condition that he separate from his wife, and that she of her free will consent to the separation and enter.a religious.order, or take the vow of chastity. The priests of the united Grreco-Catholic congregations in Rome have received permission from the popes to continue in marriage, if entered into before con secration, but on condition of always living apart from their wives three days before they celebrate mass.
Notwithstanding these decisions, the contest against clerical C. has again and again been resumed, in recent times, both within and without the Roman Catholic church. In fact, all attempts at innovation within the bosom of Catholicism, connect themselves with the attack on C., the abolition of which would deeply affect the con stitution and position of that church. So far back as 1817, the Catholic faculty of expressed the opinion that compulsory C. was one of the chief causes of the want of Catholic ministers. In 1826, the Catholic clergy of Silesia put in petitions to the bishop for the abolition of C.; and unions were afterwards formed in Baden, Win.
temberg, Bavaria, Silesia, and Rhenish Prussia, which, along with alterations in the doctrines and ritual of the Romish church, combined attacks on the prohibition of mar riage to the clergy. A work was also published, entitled The Introduction of Compul sory Celibacy among the Christian Priesthood, and its Consequences (Altenb. 1828, new ed. 1845), which excited great attention. At last the abolition of the law came to be dis cussed in the legislatures of Baden, Saxony, and other countries. The church claimed this subject as belonging exclusively to her jurisdiction, and not to that of the state ; and in Wurtemberg the clergy induced the government to suppress the anti-celibacy society; but this only made their opponents in the press the more zealous. In France, also, the question, about 1829, was eagerly discussed. And in Spain, the academy of ecclesiasti cal science took the subject into consideration in a meeting held in 1842; while the Por tuguese chambers had previously, in 1835, discussed it, though without result. The same took place in Brazil, about 1827.
During the commotions of 1848, the subject was again brought into prominence .in Germany. The German Catholics (q.v.) had already abolished C. ; and a general meas ure was called for in the Frankfort parliament, in the Prussian assembly, and in the press. In Austria, also, voices were raised against it; but here the state took the side of the pope, who, in a bull of 1847, had added fresh stringency to the rule of C., and condemned its infringement. See BACHELOR.
CELL (Lat. cella, from eels, to conceal). The Latin word had nearly all the signifi cations which we attach to the English one, and a good many besides which we have not borrowed. For example, the whole space between the walls of an ancient temple was called the cella. But the interior was frequently divided into several cellar, in which case each C. took the name of the deity whose statue it contained, and was called the C. of Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and the like. In these cases, the word approached to its general meaning, which, with the Romans as with us, was that of a store room, or small apartment where objects of any kind were stowed away. In modern architecture, the term vaulting C. signifies the hollow space between the principal ribs of a vaulted roof.