Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-09-18
Catholic Celibacy.
London Saturday Review

Catholic Celibacy. Sdl
London Saturday Review.
The history of the long-established
rule OF the western church enforcing
perpetual celibacy on the hierarchy ant
priesthood is, Of course, too large a sub
Ject to be discussed. But one or two
salient points may be noticed in con.
nection with the revival Of the contro
vesy by the action of the Old Catholics
IN Germany and Switzerland, for the
Swiss Synod had, we believe, antici.
pated that of Bonn in abolishing the
rule. There can be no doubt on the one
hand that in the earliest ages the mar.
riage of clergy was allowed, but at the
same time there was very general
feeling in favor Of abstaining from it.
anu hence perhaps it came that sec.
ond marriage was from the first pro
hlblted to them. The council Of Nice
refused to impose any absolute rule of
cellbacy on the priesthood, but in the
fourth century these marriages had
come to be looked upon as unlawful,
though not invalid. in the west, and a
decree of Pope Siricuis in 3S5-the
first authentic Papal decretal on rec
ord-peremptorily interdicts it. The
ultimate moral results Of this ordinance
were, to say the least, of very mixed
KIND. The state of clerical morality in
the ninth and tenth centuries is only
too notorious. In the tenth century
Ratherius, an Italian bishop, said that
II he were to enforce the canons against
unchaste persons administering eccles-
iastlcal rites, there would be no one left
IN the church except boys, and if he en-
forced the canons against bastards they
also must be excluded. With the
eleventh century came the great reform
OF Hlldebrand, who has hardly had
justice done to him in this respect by
the generality of modern critics. No
doubt in making clerical marriages not
only illegal bu: invalid, and even taking
the unprecedented step of appealing to
the people and bidding them refuse the
ministry of married priests, he was
ruthlessly enforcing hard and inhexi.
BILE discipline. But it must be remem-
bered that the existing condition of
things was simply appalling; that no.
body in that age thought of seriously
proposing the abolition of compulsory
celibacy, though nearly everybody
claimed the right to evade i; and,
moreover, that in the feudal state of
society there was very real and press
ing danger of ecclesiastical benetices
becoming hereditary, like lay fiefs, if
the marriage or tolerated concubinage
Of the clergy was left to continue un.
checked; and the priesthood would
then have sunk to the moral and intel
lectual level of the rude and ignorant
chiefs by whom they were surrounded.
1t is difficult to see what other line nm
earnest and energetic reformer in Hide
brands position could have taken,
though it by no means follows that
what was the best or only practicable
remedy for the disorders Ofthe eleventh
century is therefore suitable for all
ages, especially with the light thrown
upon it by the accumulated experience
of eight more centuries since. That
light is lucid one. The cailons OF
medieval councils and the writings Of
medieval saints bristle with denuncia-
tons of the prevalent immortality of
the clergy, from which the court of
Rome was very far from being generally
exempt. 1t became customary in
many countries for the laity to insist,
as precautionary measure on their
pastor taking a concubine, and the
same usage is said to prevail in some
places now. In 1922 this practice of
the laity was expressly condemned in a
canon of Spanish provincial council.
Nicholas de Clomangis at the council Of
Constance declared it to be very COM
mon, adding that nobody believed in
the real observance of celibate VOWS,
and those who were not chargeable with
concubinage were accordingly credited
with worse vices. His language is too
strikingly explicit to bear reproduction
here, even in what Gibbin calls "the
decent obscurity of lie armed language.
Sarpi, in his History Of the council OF
Trent" speaks Of the same custom as
then prevailing in Switzerland,
and much the same is said in
our own day in Spain, and still more
of South America. ..