CELIBACY, the state of being unmarried; especially the voluntary single life undertaken by religious devotees and by some clerical or ders, as those of the Roman Catholic Church. Paul (1 Cor. vii) recommends virginity, with out condemning matrimony. The Roman Cath olic Church respects matrimonial chastity, but esteems virginity a higher virtue.
From the time of the apostles it became a custom in the Church for bishops, priests and deacons to renounce matrimony at their conse cration, and to devote themselves entirely to the duties of their office. One point only was dis puted, whether clergymen were to be merely prohibited from marrying, or whether even those who were married before their consecra tion should be required to separate themselves from their wives. At the Council of Nice several bishops proposed that the bishops, priests and deacons who had received the holy consecration should be directed by an express ordinance to give up their wives. But Paphnutius, bishop of Upper Thebais, con tended that cohabitation with a wife was a state of chastity. It was sufficient, he said, accord ing to the ancient traditions of the Church, that men in sacred orders should not be permitted to marry; but he who had been married before his consecration ought not to be separated from his lawful wife. As it became the general opinion that a clergyman could not marry, it soon became the general practice to refuse con secration to married men. By this means uni formity was effected. As for the bishops, it soon became a matter beyond dispute. When monachism had become firmly established, and the monks were regarded with veneration on account of their vow of perpetual chastity, pub lic opinion exacted from the secular clergy the same observance of celibacy. Epiphanius as sures us that by the ecclesiastical laws celibacy was commanded, and that wherever this com mand was neglected it was a corruption of the Church. The Council of Elvira (305) com manded all bishops, presbyters, deacons and subdeacons to abstain from their wives, under penalty of exclusion from the clergy. In the Western Church celibacy was rigorously re quired. Pope Siricius, at the end of the 4th century, forbade the clergy to marry, or to cohabit with their wives if already married. At the same time the monks received consecra tion, which increased the conformity between them and the secular clergy still further, and indirectly obliged the latter to observe celibacy. The Emperor Justinian declared all children of clergymen illegitimate, and incapable of any hereditary succession or inheritance. The Council of Tours, in 567, issued a decre•against married monks and nuns, declaring that they should be publicly excommunicated, and their marriage formally dissolved. Seculars, dea cons and subdeacons, who were found to dwell with their wives, were interdicted the exercise of spiritual functions for the course of a year. In Spain, where many priests refused to con form to the requirements of the Church, the bishops were ordered to enforce celibacy upon their abbots, deacons, etc., once a year in their sermons.
As in other points of discipline, in this also the Greek Church dissented from the Roman. The (Trullan) Council of Constantinople, in 691, in its 13th canon, declares: hereby for bid anyone to refuse the consecration of a priest or deacon on account of his being mar ried, and cohabiting with his wife after he has requested consecration. We will by no means be unjust to marriage, nor separate what God has Celibacy is indeed required of the bishops and monks, but priests and deacons, if married before ordination, are allowed to continue in this state. The Russian Church modified the ancient Greek canons by permit ting priests and deacons to marry after ordination.
The Roman Catholic Church, then, has re tained celibacy as an old apostolical tradition, to which she has added the rule not to conse crate married men unless the wife enter a religious order. As no one has a right to demand to be consecrated a priest, the Roman Church has, by, this addition, violated no one's right. Her position, therefore, is expressed by saying that, profoundly convinced that an un married clergy is .best suited to her work, she admits to her ministry only those who volun tarily engage to lead a celibate life, and as long as she finds a sufficient number of such candi dates she refuses to hamper her work by the employment of others. While, however, the Church persevered in commanding celibacy, she had to struggle with the opposition of those who among the clergy represented corruption. A reformer appeared in Gregory VII, who in order to reform the discipline of the Church, was obliged to encounter simony and licentious ness in some of the clergy. The former he checked by opposing the Emperor's right of in vestiture, and he enforced the laws of celibacy by new regulations. In the Council of 1074, at Rome, he ordered that all married clergymen and all laymen who should confess to them, hear mass of them or be present at any divine service performed by them, should be excom municated. This met with much opposition, but in spite of that, Gregory succeeded, as he was supported by the most ancient and most undoubted canons. After Gregory's death the Church continued in the same course. Still the question of celibacy has continued down to recent times to be the subject of fresh agita tions and contests. All through the first half of the 19th century there were periodical at tacks upon this rule of the Church, in which almost every Catholic country of Europe was represented. These movements have occurred alike within the communion of the Church and among secular and political bodies. They have usually been inspired by concern for the wel fare of the Church and for the character and perpetuity of its priesthood, but no result has thereby been gained in any alteration of the ecclesiastical discipline.
The rule of celibacy has been more strictly observed in the Roman Catholic Church since the Reformation than it was before. The far greater number of the Catholic clergy have con tinued to respect it. Among the reasons some times urged against requiring celibacy in the clergy is the scarcity of men willing to devote themselves to a profession which calls for such strict self-denial. This, however, is said to be not true in point of fact, since statistics show a marked increase in the number of candidates for the priesthood at the present time. Among the United Greeks, Ruthenians, Copts, Maronites and other Oriental rites in com munion with Rome, the discipline is that bishops cannot, after consecration, either marry again or cohabit with the wife married before ordination. Priests and deacons may keep the wives taken before ordination, but must abstain from marital intercourse for some time before officiating at the altar. Priests and deacons cannot marry after ordination. Converts from schism already in orders are allowed to keep the wives taken after ordination. Celibacy is purely a disciplinary law, and has no doctrinal bearing whatever. Dispensations from celibacy have been granted in exceptional cases, notably that of John Casimir, who had been elected King of Poland, and was released from celibacy in order to preserve the succession in 1648. Consult Carry,