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 AN OUTLINE OF THE 
 
 HISTORY OF CLERICAL CELIBACY 
 
 IN 
 
 WESTERN EUROPE 
 
 TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT 
 
 BY 
 
 EARL EVELYN SPERRY, Ph. B. 
 
 SOMETIME UNIVERSITY FELLOW IN HISTORY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. INSTRUCTOR 
 IN EUROPEAN HISTORY, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY 
 
 Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Recjuiremrnts for the Decree 
 
 OF Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Political Science 
 
 Columbia University 
 
 SYRACUSE. N. Y.: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUI'HOR 
 
 1905 
 
 • • » » t 
 tit > * ■
 
 SYRACUSE, N. Y.: 
 
 THE LYMAN PRESS 
 
 1905 
 
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 ^3. 
 
 '^ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The purpose of this thesis is to review the essential facts 
 concerning the origin of clerical celibacy, its development and 
 effects in western Europe to the time of the Council of Trent, 
 and to present such extracts from the sources as are of special 
 interest and importance in the history of this subject. Mr. 
 Henry C. Lea's "Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the 
 Christian Church" has been used as a guide throughout, and 
 in cxhaustivcness and scholarship stands preeminent among 
 the works upon the subject. 
 
 E. E. Sperry. 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y., Mar. i, 1905. 
 
 Ill 
 
 4.5a08^
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 At the outset it may be well to warn the reader that in form- 
 ing an opinion concerning clerical morality there are certain 
 important facts which should be kept constantly in mind. The 
 written evidence upon the subject which has been preserved 
 seems to indicate that during the Middle Ages and the opening 
 centuries of the modem period the clergy as a class were very 
 immoral. It must be remembered, however, that the period 
 of time under discussion is a long one, extending from the fourth 
 to the sixteenth century, and while the sources of information 
 are comparatively abundant, it is unreasonable to suppose 
 that they give us a fair and adequate picture of the clergy of 
 all Europe for more than a millennium. Further, these sources 
 consist largely of conciHar enactments and of the utterances 
 of those engaged in reform. It is evident that they must be 
 used with caution, for a future student who judged the nine- 
 teenth century only by its codes of criminal law and the denun- 
 ciatory writings of social reformers would obtain a grotesque 
 idea of its current morality. 
 
 Moreover, although the principal sources consist of the writ- 
 ings of the friends of the church they must not be given full 
 credence, ^ because their authors were in the habit of resorting 
 
 'To illuHtnite: Peter of Blois, who had vuinly endeavored to compel the 
 clergy of hi.s I-:riglish benefice to obey the rule of celil)acy, wrote thus to Inno- 
 cent III. concerning them: Ipsi vero publice et aperte fornicantes pra'dicel)ant, 
 sicut Sodonui peccatuiil suum, et in palpcl)ri.s popularis infainifc duccl)ant 
 uxorcs, alter altcrius filiain, sive nepterii, taiitaquerat c()gnati()iii.s conncxio 
 inter eos ut colligationcs impietatis eorum nemo dissoluere prajvaleret. . . . 
 Erant enim qua.si squama; Behemoth, (juarum una uni coniuiigitur, ct apiraru- 
 lum vit;n non incedit per eas. Terra proinde clamabat advorsus eas, ct ca-li 
 revelebant iniquitates eorum. Exactissima diligentia laboral)ain vitioruin 
 in els propagines venenosos excidere, sed facilius convertercm lupos in oves, 
 et feras in homine.9. Petri Bleacnsis, Ep. 152. Bib. Max. Pat. 2\, 1004. 
 Yet the only specific charge which Pet<;r l^rings against these men of whom he 
 uses such strong terras of objurgation is that they were married.
 
 VI 
 
 to a species of rhetorical denunciation in which gross exagger- 
 ation was an essential concomitant. 
 
 Another consideration must also be reckoned with when 
 weighing the statements of mediaeval churchmen concerning 
 clerical molality. As priests were not only forbidden to marry, 
 but early in the twelfth century were declared incapable of 
 contracting a valid marriage, those who dwelt with women 
 conjugally were adulterers in the eyes of the church and were 
 so described in canons, decretals and the writings of the time. 
 Similarly, the w^omen who lived with them conjugally were 
 described as concubines. This view is substantiated by 
 Jacob Wimpheling for example, who, under the caption, 
 "Concerning the Blindness of concubinary Priests," thus 
 describes this class of priests in Germany just before the open- 
 ing of the Protestant Revolt : " They think less of their parents 
 and friends than of their concubines, dwelling with them to the 
 end of their lives as if true and legitimate spouses. They 
 allow them the full control of their households so that the 
 other members of the family must obey. They dress them ex- 
 pensively and esteem them as highly as their mothers and 
 sisters. And, posterity will scarcely believe it, when pregnant, 
 the women are not ejected from the house, but allowed to be 
 confined there. After the birth a festival is held as is the 
 custom with laymen. The sons and daughters are provided 
 with dowries and given in marriage with magnificent weddings 
 at which the fathers themselves are present."^ Although 
 Wimpheling here stigmatizes the consorts of the priests as 
 concubines, and in a preceding passage as harlots, he evidently 
 is describing women who were treated in all respects as wives, 
 save that the legal forms of marriage had been omitted. 
 
 Finally, the general question presents itself, how far the rule 
 of celibacy was itself responsible for such sexual immorality 
 as seems generally to have prevailed among the mediaeval 
 clergy? Those who are inclined to attribute the debasement 
 of the clergy to the church's prohibition of marriage should 
 
 * Apologia, 13.
 
 vu 
 
 recollect, however, that its laws appear to have been least 
 observed during the very period when, to judge from the 
 writers of the time, sacerdotal morality reached its lowest ebb.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Clerical Marriage in the Apostolic Church. 
 
 Praise of Virginity in the New Testament. 
 
 Tendency to Asceticism in the Religious Thought of that Period. 
 
 Recommendations Concerning Matrimony by the Church Fathers. 
 
 Clerical Marriage to 325 A. D. 
 
 Failure of Council of Nicsea (325) to Interfere with the Married Clergy. 
 
 Early Restrictions Upon the Marriage of Christian Ministers. 
 
 Decree of the Council of Elvira (306). 
 
 Decretal of Siricius, Bishop of Rome (385). 
 
 Marriage Among the Clergy of the East. 
 
 Influences Favorable to Celibacy in the West. 
 
 Provisions of the Secular Law in Regard to Clerical Marriage. 
 
 Efforts of the Bishops of the West to Enforce "Continence" Among the 
 
 Married Clergy. 
 New Restrictions Upon the Marriage of the Minor Orders. 
 Decretals of Leo the Great Concerning Celibacy. 
 Laws of Justinian. 
 His Motives. 
 Canons of the Council of Constantinople (692). 
 
 Disobedience Among the Clergy of the West. 
 
 Reasons for it and Evidence that it Existed. 
 
 Danger to Church Property Accompanying Clerical Marriage. 
 Measures of Gregory I. to Secure Obedience. 
 
 Degradation of the Clergy. 
 
 Evidence Concerning it by Pelagius II., St. Boniface and in Conciliar 
 Enactments. 
 
 Measures of Karlomann and Louis the Pious to Reform the Clergy. 
 
 Prevalence of Clerical Marriage. 
 
 Diminution of Ecclesiastical Property. 
 
 Continuance of Clerical Marriage. 
 
 Zeal of Peter Dainiani for Celil>acy. 
 
 Efforts to Suppress Clerical Marriage. 
 
 Prohibition to Attend Mius-scs of Married Priests by Council of Rome (1059) 
 
 Defence of Married Clergy by Argument. 
 
 Motives of I'eter Damiani. 
 
 His Efforts for Reform. 
 
 Gregory VIL's Theory of Papal Supremacy and Connection of Celibacy 
 with It. 
 
 His Measures to Secure Obedience. 
 
 ix
 
 Appeal to Secular Authority. 
 
 Release of People from Obedience to Married Clergy. 
 
 Opposition of Married Clergy to His Measures and their Arguments 
 
 Against Celibacy. 
 Replies of the Advocates of Celibacy. 
 Effect Upon Society of Gregory's Measures. 
 Result of His Efforts. 
 
 Canons of the Lateran Councils of 1123 and 1139. 
 Contradiction of Gratian. 
 Decretal of Alexander III. 
 Effect of Vows in Preventing Marriage. 
 Clerical Marriage in the Various Countries of Europe. 
 Heredity of Church Property. 
 Efforts of Innocent III. to Enforce Celibacy. 
 Results of Enforcement of Celibacy. 
 
 Legislation Concerning Consorts and Children of the Clergy. 
 Licentiousness of the Clergy. 
 Decretal of Boniface VIII. 
 Clerical Morality in the Fourteenth Century. 
 In the Fifteenth. 
 
 Desire of the People that the Clergy Marry. 
 Opposition to Celibacy Among Ecclesiastics. 
 Morals of the Clergy in the Sixteenth Century. 
 Connection with Protestant Revolution. 
 Canons of the Council of Trent.
 
 Clerical Celibacy in Western Europe 
 to the council of trent 
 
 The New Testament affords little information concerning 
 marriage among the ministers of the Apostolic church. 
 Whether or not all the Apostles were married cannot be de- 
 termined, there being an incidental reference to the wife of 
 Peter alone. ^ It is certain, however, that clerical marriage 
 was not viewed with disapprobation in that period, for St. Paul 
 has left descriptions of an ideal bishop, elder and deacon in 
 which he mentions as a qualification conducive to their effici- 
 ency that they should be husbands of one wife, ruling their 
 children well.^ 
 
 Concerning marriage in general, the words of Christ show 
 that he regarded it as the most sacred and indissoluble of 
 human relations, ^ and St. Paul considered it an institution 
 salutary in its effect upon the individual and society.* That 
 the founders of the Christian church not only approved of 
 marriage, but resisted any attempt to bring it into disrepute, 
 is shown by St. Paul's prophecy concerning the heresies which 
 were to afflict the church, among which he included the pro- 
 hibition to marry. ^ 
 
 But contemporary with the belief that wedlock was a bene- 
 ficent institution, and, as a rule, necessary to moral uprightness, 
 was a tendency to exalt virginity. Christ himself intimated 
 that those who refrained from marriage were superior in moral 
 worth to all others, and while admitting that all natures were 
 not capable of such restraint, recommended that those who 
 
 > Matt. 8, 14. 
 
 ' I Tim. 3, 2, 4. I Tim. 3, 12. Titus 1, G. 
 
 ' Mutt,. 19, 4, sqq. 
 
 ♦ 1 Cor. 7, 2. 
 
 » Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some slmll 
 depart from the faith, n,\\'\uK h<'<'<l Uy Kcdiiciiig .spirits and doctrincH of devils. 
 I'orijidding to marry and conimandinj; l*j abstain from meats.— 1 Tim. 
 4, 1, 3. 
 
 1
 
 ,( 
 
 /^C\ 
 
 had sufficient self-control should remain celibates.^ St. Paul, 
 although he approved of, and encouraged matrimony, ^ shared 
 the conviction that it was a less holy state than virginity ;3 
 and in the Book of Revelatioi(gAhe redeemed are described as 
 "They which were not defiled with women; for they are 
 virgins."* 
 
 Associated with the belief that virginity was the condition 
 of life most pleasing to God and a proof of the highest moral 
 character was another motive for abstaining from marriage. 
 It was the conviction that celibacy enabled the Christian to 
 give his undivided attention to the service of God and prepara- 
 tion for the life to come. This reason was set forth clearly by 
 St. Paul in the words, "He that is unmarried careth for the 
 things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. 
 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the 
 world, how he may please his wife.'^ 
 
 Whatever beliefs concerning celibacy the early Christians 
 may have obtained from the Scriptures were re-enforced by 
 similar doctrines which permeated the religious thought of that 
 period. During the first three centuries of the Christian era 
 there swept over the countries lying to the east and southeast 
 of Europe an enthusiasm for virginity similar to that for 
 poverty which, in the thirteenth century, spread through 
 western Europe. It had its basis in the dualistic conception 
 of the universe which underlay so much of the philosophy and 
 the religion of that time and which set in opposition the spiri- 
 tual and the material. This passion for the abnegation of 
 man's physical nature became the source of numerous sects 
 which made condemnation of marriage a principal tenet of 
 their faith. ^ 
 
 ' Matt. 19, 11, 12. 
 
 ' 1 Cor. 7, 2. 1 Cor. 7, 9. See alao 1 Cor. 7, 28. 
 ' 1 Cor. 1, 1, 8. 
 « Rev. 14, 4. 
 ' 1 Cor. 7, 32, 33. 
 
 • Stromata of Clement of Alexandria. Pat. Gr. 8, 1147 sqq., 1206 sqq. 
 Epiphanius, ad versus Haereses, Pat. Gr. 41, 1011.
 
 Orthodox Christianity was profoundly influenced by the 
 earnest propaganda of these fanatics; and although the pre- 
 cepts of the founder of Christianity did not enjoin cehbacy, Oi 
 even recommend that it should be generally practiced, these 
 teachings exercised an incalculable influence upon the early 
 church. A striking illustration of the power of this influence 
 is found in the fanaticism of Origen, who, although a pupil of 
 Clement of Alexandria, went to the extreme of self-mutilation. ^ 
 
 Thus the great churchmen of the first centuries of the 
 Christian era were within the influence of a powerful sentiment 
 which exalted virginity; and at the same time, in Christ's 
 preference for it, they could find an orthodox warrant for 
 yielding to whatever inclination they might have to follow the 
 impulses then common to religious natures. With these forces 
 acting upon them, they decried matrimony in their voluminous 
 writings which became the foundation of Roman Catholic 
 doctrine, and recommended celibacy as a condition of life for 
 Christians more holy and fitting than wedlock. Their pre- 
 dominant motive was probably the feeling that virginity was 
 superior even to the most natural and moderate self-indulgence. 
 The reasons which they adduced in favor of the unmarried 
 state vary from their own bare assertions that it is the holiest 
 condition 2 to the argument that those so hving will be free 
 from the cares and vexations of marriage.^ The self-denial 
 requisite to such a hfe was declared to l)e an infafliblc menus 
 of obtaining salvation and a proof of supreme moral worth, 
 
 ' EiiHchiiiH vi, 8. 
 
 The zeal of many of tho clorgj- who were umlcr these ascetic influences must 
 have led them, like Origen, to fanatical extremes, for in the canons of Nicica 
 and in the Apostolic Canons are prohil)itions directed against such practices. 
 
 Siqui.s autz-m HaniiH sfipsnrn al).sfi(lit, ctiarn si est in clcro, ces-sare debet; 
 et ex hoc nulluin tulotn oporUrt, ordinari. Con. Nicen. (32r>) c. 1. Ilarduin 
 I, 324. 
 
 Cf. Canones Apostolonmi, c. 22, Ilarduin 1, H. 
 
 * Antifpiitu.s autcm nerdum homo perfectuH orat: ac idco virginit.itrMi (rem 
 utiquc perfectam) capcrc nerdum poU;rat. Mrthodiu.s, Convivium decern vir- 
 ginum, cap. 4. Pat. Cr. 18, 43. 
 
 ' Hieronymus, Ep. ad Eustochium. Tatrologia Latina 22, 409.
 
 surpassed onl}^ by martyrdom. ^ That the subject held an 
 important place in the religious thought of that age is shown 
 by the numerous treatises upon it; and the efforts made in 
 them to ascertain the relative merits of virginity and marriage 
 usually result in .showing the latter to be an incomparably less 
 honorable condition. ^ 
 
 The basis of these exhortations and injunctions to refrain 
 from marriage was the teaching of Christ that carnal propensi- 
 ties must be overcome; a natural conclusion being that any 
 relationship favorable to their gratification was, to some degree, 
 evil. While St. Augustine was filled with the same fervent 
 admiration for virginity to which St. Jerome gave expression, 
 his Liber de Continentia contains no extravagant praises of 
 continence. He recognized the naturalness and necessity of 
 marriage and the difficulty of perfect self-restraint, although a1 
 the same time he considered the latter far superior. ^ 
 
 But the laudations of celibacy by the church fathers and the 
 
 ' Totum fundamentum etenim sanctitatis atque justitiae etiam castitatem 
 esse dubitare non poterit, quisquis divinae legis exempla tota intentus mente 
 perspexit. Liber de castitate ascribed to Sixtus III. Magnum Bibliotheca 
 Patrum, 5, 631. 
 
 Cyprian, De habitu \'irginum. Pat. Lt. 4, 460-467. 
 
 Epiphanius, Expositio fidei, Cap. 21. Pat. Gr. 42, 823. 
 
 * Et qui, inquit, hortaris matrimonium non contrahere? Quod virginitatem 
 matrimonio longe prsestantiorem sentiam. S. Chrysostomus, Liber de Virgini- 
 tate, cap. 9. Pat. Gr. 48, 539. 
 
 Ergo haec laus virginitatis egregia est, ut scilicet statuat quis virtutem ipsam 
 omni esse laude prsestantiorem . . . S. Gregorius Nysseni. Liber de Virgini- 
 tate, cap. 1. Pat. Gr. 46, 322. 
 
 Laudo nuptia-s, laudo coniugium, sed quia mihi virginem generant . . . S. 
 Hieronymus, Ep. ad Eustochium. Pat. Lt. 22, 406. 
 
 . . . et illi qui coniugia virginitati sequanda sestimant, miseri penitus et 
 stulti sunt. Sulpicius Severus, Dialogus 2. Pat. Lt. 20, 208. 
 
 Centesimum eplscopi et doctores qui omnibus omnia sunt, sexigesimum 
 clerici et viduse qui continentes sunt, tricesimum laici qui fideles sunt, qui per- 
 fecte Trinitatera credunt. His amplius non est in messe Domini. Monachi 
 vero et virgines cum centesimis jungimus. Synodus S. Patricii, can. 18, 
 Harduin 1, 1795. 
 
 ' S. Augustinus, De Bono Conjugali, cap. 9. Pat. Lt. 40, 380-381. See also 
 Liber de Continentia, cap. 1. Pat. Lt. 40, 349, 357.
 
 example of their rigidh' ascetic lives were without immediate 
 effect upon the discipHne of the clergy. As neither Christ nor 
 the Apostles had enjoined celibacy upon any part of the 
 Christian body, its advocates lacked the powerful support 
 which direct Scriptural command would have given them; 
 and being in opposition to a universal and necessary institution, 
 it was inevitable that the adoption of celibacy by the clergy 
 was slow. 
 
 There is good evidence to show that during the fourth 
 century a continuation of marriage relations after ordination 
 was still permitted b}^ the highest laws of the church. Certain 
 members of the Council of Nicaea attempted to make celibacy 
 obligatorJ^ but their proposal was defeated. ^ The Council of 
 Gangra (362) met the ascetic extremes of Eustathius by de- 
 claring anathema all who refused to accept the sacraments 
 from the married priests or distinguished them in any way 
 from the unmanied.^ And the Apostolic Canons, which 
 reflect the conditions of the church at the time of their com- 
 
 ' While they were deUberating about this, some thought that a law ought to 
 be pa.ssed enacting that bi.shops and presbyters, deacons and sul)deacon3 
 should hold no intercourse with the wife they had espoused before they 
 entered the priesthood; l>ut Paphnutius, the confesaor, stood up and testified 
 against this proposition; he said that marriage was honoralile and chaste, and 
 that cohabitation with their own wives was chastity, and advised the synod 
 not to frame such a law, for it would l^e difficult to bear, and might serve as an 
 occasion of incontinence to them and their wives; and he reminded them, that 
 according to the ancient tradition of the church, those who were unmarried 
 when they t^)ok part in the coiiuuuiiion of sacred orders, were rcc^uired to 
 remain so, but that those who were married were not to put away their wives. 
 Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, Kk. 1, Ch. 23. Nicenc and Post-Xicenc 
 Fathers, 2, 2.50. Cf. Socrates Ecclesi.-istical History, Bk. 1 , Ch. 1 1 , Tb. 18. 
 
 ' Quiruin'pie disreniit a presbytero rpii uxnrom hal)uit, quod iion oporfeat 
 eo ministraiite de oblatione percipere, anathema sit. Con. Oaiigrcn.sc, (.'^02) 
 c. 4. Harduin 1, 534. 
 
 That celibacy was not originally an obligation of church di5ci|)line was 
 admitted by the highest mf(li:fval authority upon canon law and ap|)!irently 
 was a fact of common knowledge, among edur.itcd men throughout the Middle 
 Ages. Corpus Juris Canonici, Dist. 56, c. 13. (Jiraldus Cambrensis, Genuna 
 EcclesiiB, Dist. 2, cap. H. Rer. IJrit. .Med. Aev. Scr. 21, I't. 2, 187.
 
 pilation, not earlier than the close of the fourth century, 
 threaten with deposition all ecclesiastics who dismiss their 
 wives upon religious pretexts, and with expulsion from the 
 church all who abstain from marriage as an abomination. ^ 
 
 But while the clergy were allowed to take wives, their mar- 
 riage had been under one restriction from Apostolic times. 
 The command of St. Paul that bishops and deacons should not 
 marrj' a second time- was the beginning of a series of church 
 decrees which ultimately went to the length of prohibiting all 
 marriage among the clergy. 
 
 The Council of Neocesarea (held between 314 and 325) enacted 
 a canon which marks a long advance toward the culmination 
 of this series of laws. It is to the effect that a priest who 
 marries after ordination ought to be deposed.^ In the Apos- 
 tolic Canons is an injunction similar in nature which seems to 
 include deacons and subdeacons, though no mention of them is 
 made, and which permitted lectors and chanters to marry after 
 consecration if they cnose.^ 
 
 It would seem, then, that by the opening of the fourth 
 century, both custom and ecclesiastical law forbade marriage 
 after ordination except to chanters and lectors; and that the 
 councils had positively prohibited the ordination of a man 
 
 • Si quis episcopus, presbyter, vel diaconus, vel omnino ex sacerdotali num- 
 ero, a nuptiis, camibus et vino, non propter exercitationem sed propter abomi- 
 nationem abstinet, oblitus quod omnia valde bona, et quod masculinum et 
 femininum fecit Deus hominem; . . . vel corrigatur, vel deponatur, et ex 
 ecclesia ejiciatur. — Can. Apost. c. 50, Harduin 1, 22. 
 
 ' I Tim. 3, 2. 
 
 » Con. Neo. Harduin 1, 281. 
 
 ♦ Can. Apost. c. 27. Harduin 1, .35. 
 
 As early as the date of the Council of Nica'a (325), it evidently had long been 
 the cu.stom that bishops, priests and deacons should not marry after ordina- 
 tion, for Paphnutius, in debating the proposal already mentioned, (page 6, 
 note 1) says: "It would be sufficient that such as had previously entered 
 on their sacred calling should abjure matrimony, according to the ancient 
 tradition of the church; but that none .should be separated from her to whom, 
 while yet unordained, he had been united." Socrates, Bk. 1, Ch. 11. Nicene 
 and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2, 18.
 
 twice married after baptism, but allowed the ordination of 
 men once married, and did not demand a discontinuance of 
 marital relations after ordination. The explanation of the 
 seeming inconsistency of the rules allowing those in orders to 
 retain their wives, while forbidding those who were unmarried 
 at the time of ordination to take wives, is probably that the 
 lawmakers of the church felt that ordination could not annul 
 obligations alread^^ assumed, though incompatible with the 
 highest ideals of the Christian ministry-; but that when once 
 hol}'^ orders were taken, the ecclesiastic was bound to maintain 
 as nearly as possible the ideal purity suitable to his position.^ 
 
 Although ecclesiastical laws at the end of the third century 
 indicate uniformity of custom throughout Christendom in 
 regard to clerical marriage, the opening of the fourth centurj^ 
 saw an effort toward its further restriction in the west. The 
 Spanish Council of Elvira (306) decreed that married bishops, 
 priests and deacons should discontinue conjugal relations. ^ 
 The canon was merely an expression of the authority of the 
 local clergy and was not of force beyond the diocevSes of the 
 nineteen bishops who made up the Council, but it is the first 
 decree proceeding from ecclesiastical authority which ordered 
 that the members of the three higher orders should abstain 
 from their wives. In the east contemimrary legislation was 
 even less .stringent than the tradition of the third centurj', for 
 it i)ermitted unmarried deacons who did not take a vow of 
 cehbacy at ordination to marry afterward if they chose. ^ But 
 
 ' Sacerdotum enim tarn exccllens est elcctio, ut h.TC qu.T in aliis ecclesiaj 
 membris non vocuntur ad culpam, in illi.s taraen habeantur illirita. Loonis 
 Papac Epi.stola; DecretaleH. Hurduin 1, 1767. Id do sarcrddtibii.s primo in 
 loco atatutiim est; dc cpi.scopi.s, pre.sliytcris ct diacoiiiI)u.H, (pio-s Bacrifu-iiH 
 divini.s nece.s.so est intercasc; per (juonun nianviset gratia l)apti.sinatiH traditur, 
 et corpus Chri.sti conficitur; quos non solum nos, sed ct scriptiira divina com- 
 pollit e8.se ca.stiHsiinoH. f^anones Synod. Romanoniiii ad ('■■■lilos F,[)i.sropos 
 (c. 384), c. 3. Harduin 1, 1034. 
 
 ' Placuit in totum prohibcri cpi.scopi.s, prcsbyteris, ac diaronibu.s, vcl omni- 
 bus clericis positis in mini.sterio, abstincre se ab conju>iil)UH suis, et non 
 Kcncrare filio.s; quicnmqiic vcro fcccrit ab honorc clcricatu.s cxtcnninctur. 
 Con. Illib. (306), c. 33. Harduin 1, 'J.W. 
 
 ' Con. Ancyra (c. 314), c. 10. Harduin 1, 276.
 
 8 
 
 tlicse canons, like those of Elvira, were merely local in effect 
 and the onl}' authoritative enactments of these decades bind- 
 ing upon the whole church were those of the General Council 
 of Nicaa (325) . This council took no action in regard to the 
 preservation of continence by the married clergy, but trust- 
 worthy records of its proceedings state that an attempt was 
 made to impose the rule upon them and that the attempt was 
 defeated through the efforts of Paphnutius, an Egyptian 
 bishop, and himself a celibate. ^ 
 
 During the next sixty years there are no records of formal 
 action upon clerical marriage by council or synod. But in 385 
 Siricius, Bishop of Rome, in replj^^ to the Bishop of Tarragona, 
 who had asked the late Roman bishop, Damasus, for aid in 
 compelling his clergy to obey the canon of Elvira, issued a 
 decretal in which he commanded, though not in express terms, 
 that the ordained clergy should cease conjugal relations. ^ 
 The decretal threatens with deposition from office all who 
 knowingly disobey, and with incapability of promotion those 
 who disobey through ignorance.^ The letter gives no reason 
 for imposing the rule of perfect continence except the greater 
 purity of the church* and shows that the Spanish clergy in 
 opposing the enforcement of the canon of Elvira, had based 
 their right to marry on the permission given in Leviticus to the 
 Hebrew priests.^ 
 
 The issue of a positive command by Siricius indicates that 
 he thought there was a prospect that his effort would find some 
 
 ' See p. 6, note 1. For a discussion of the authenticity of the story of 
 Paphnutius, see Lea, p. 50 sqq. Hefele, Conciliengeschichte 1, 431-5. 
 
 ' Quorum sanctionum sacerdotes omnes atque Levitse insolubili lege con- 
 BtrinKimur; ut a die ordinationis nostrse, sobrietati ac pudicitise et corda nostra 
 rnancipemus et corpora, dummodo per omnia Deo nostro in his, qurs cotidie 
 offerimus, sacrificiis placeamus. Syricii Ep. Harduin 1, 849. From the con- 
 text of this pa-ssage it would seem that by "sobrietas ac pudicitia" Siricius 
 meant perfect continence. 
 
 'lb. 
 
 * . . . utindie judicii, cum runsusadvenerit, sine macula et ruga eampossit, 
 .sicut per Apostfjlum suum instituit, reperire. lb. 
 
 ' lb. The passage of Leviticus referred to is 21, 14.
 
 support among the bishops of Spain; and owing to the pre- 
 valence of Priscilhanism there he had good reason for encourage- 
 ment. Priscilhan's teachings, based upon the duahsm of 
 eastern philosophj^ alreadj' mentioned, ^ and having much in 
 common with Manichaeism and Gnosticism, were permeated 
 with the idea that the world and the kingdom of God are 
 mutually opposed, and consequently emphasized the ascetic 
 tendencies in Christianit}', making their realization one great 
 aim of the Christian life. He had numerous followers in 
 Spain, and in consequence the conditions there were favorable 
 to the enforcement of Siricius' command. 
 
 While the enactment of the Canon of Elvira proves that 
 these ascetic tendencies were beginning to influence the disci- 
 pline of the clergy in Spain, there are few facts from which to 
 form a conclusion as to the customs of various countries 
 throughout Christendom. They probably varied, the clergy 
 of the east usually retaining their wives after ordination, and 
 those of the west, particularh^ the members of the higher orders, 
 sometimes separating from them. vSocrates, referring to the 
 eastern church, states that the abstinence of married bishops 
 from their wives was optional, and that many became fathers. ^ 
 The canon of the Council of Gangra (362) anathematizing those 
 who refused the ministrations of a married priest, also indicates 
 that in the east the clergy often continued matrimonial rela- 
 tions unbrok'cn.^ 
 
 Thus, in the fourth century the advance in legislation con- 
 cerning ecclesiastical marriage had been the canon of tiie 
 Council of Elvira (306) and the decretal of Siricius (3S5). Sev- 
 eral tendencies and conditions of the fourth and fifth centuries 
 were favorable to their enforcement. The authority of the 
 Bisliop of Rome, now exerted in behalf of celibacy, was exj)and- 
 ing and growing more potent T\]v hierarchy was l)ecoming 
 
 ' See p. 2. 
 
 ' Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, I3k. 5, Ch. 22. Nicene and Post-Nicene 
 Fathers 2, 132. 
 
 ' .See p. 6, note 2.
 
 10 
 
 more thoroughly organized and hence more easily disciplined. 
 Christianity had been made the religion of the state and the 
 sanctions of the civil authority' added to its commands. The 
 writings of the great churchmen inculcating and recommending 
 virginity were in course of production. Monasticism was 
 spreading, and its example of the severest self-mortification 
 found many powerful and influential devotees. With these 
 forces in cooperation, the success of the struggle for a celibate 
 clergA' was assured. ^ 
 
 But one important and efficient aid was as yet lacking to 
 the authorities of the church in the struggle for celibacy which 
 had now begun; namely, the support and sanction of the 
 secular authorit3^ The imperial legislation of the fourth and 
 earl}' fifth centuries shows that the influence of the Emperor 
 was not as yet exerted on the side of celibacy for the secular 
 clergy, and that the many exhortations and polemics in its 
 behalf, although proceeding from the greatest churchmen of the 
 times, had not j'et won the civil authority to aid in the estab 
 lishment of this rule of church discipline. In fact the laws of 
 the time indicate that this particular form of asceticism did not 
 receive from the state even the indirect encouragement which 
 might have been given. For example: Constantius and 
 Constans, in granting (353, 357) certain exemptions and privi- 
 leges to the clerg}', include therein their wives and children; ^ 
 and a law of almost a century later (434) enumerates wives 
 and children among the legal heirs of priests and bishops.^ 
 Of much greater significance is a law of Honorius and Theodo- 
 sius (420) regulating the relations of clerics with women. 
 After prohibiting the clergy from dwelling with other women 
 than mothers, sisters or daughters, because of the scandal 
 which might result, it gives express approval of clerical mar- 
 
 ' Le C^libat Eccl^siastique, Bocquet, p. 109. 
 
 ' After making the grant of exemptions to the clergy the law proceeds thus: 
 "Quod et coniugibus et libcris eorum et minlsteriis, maribus pariter ac feminis, 
 indulgemus, quos a censibus etiam iubemus penseverare immunes." Cod. 
 Theod. Lib. 16, Tit. 2, c. 10. See also c. 11, 14. Haenel 1484-5, 1486, 1488-9. 
 
 ' Cod. Theod. Lib. 5, Tit. 3. Haenel 457.
 
 11 
 
 riage by the statement that the wives of the clergy, having made 
 their husbands worthy of the priesthood by their companion- 
 ship, may well continue to associate with them. ^ 
 
 An exception to the attitude of the government at this time 
 toward a celibate clergy is found in a law of Arcadius and 
 Honorius which recommends that bishops in making appoint- 
 ments to the priesthood should choose monks. ^ While this 
 recommendation, if followed throughout Christendom, would 
 have resulted in producing a celibate clergy, and therefore may 
 be considered an aid in the execution of the purpose of Siricius 
 and his party, there is a most important difference in the 
 attitude of the secular and ecclesiastical authorities toward 
 celibacy. The former here approved a clergy whose members 
 had voluntarily subjected themselves to celibacy; the latter 
 was entering upon a policy of coercion. 
 
 The authorities of the church were compelled to undertake 
 the contest alone, and stimulated by the decretal of Siricius 
 the bishops of western Europe soon began the attempt to force 
 their married clergy to preserve continence. A decretal 
 addressed to the African Church resulted in the Council of 
 Carthage (390), which enacted a canon directed against the 
 married clergy of the major orders. Moreover, by a decree to 
 the effect that all who were concerned in the administration of 
 the sacraments should likewise preserve continence, the council 
 extended the rule to those in minor orders who served at the 
 altar.-'* The innncnce of Siricius upon Africa was seconded 
 
 ' lUas etiiiiii iioii rcliiKiui castitiiti.s hortiilur afTcctio, quric hii<o sarcnlodiim 
 maritoniin loKitinmiii iiioruon; coiiiu^iuiii. N(!(|uc ciiiiii clcrici.s iiicDiiipott-'uter 
 adiuncta; .sunt, quae digno.s saccrdotio viru.s sui coiiversatione fcccrunt. Cod. 
 Theod. Lil). 16, Tit. 2, c. 44. Haencl 1514. 
 
 ' Co«l. Thfod. Lib. 10, Tit. 2, c. :V2. 
 
 ' Con. Cartii. (.'390) c. 2. Ilarduiii 1, '.)51. 
 
 This principle for determining to what ordern Hie prohil)ition to marry 
 should be extended wua set forth by St. Jerome. It wiw also coiilaincd in 
 decretals i.sHued by Innocent I and Leo I. Hieronytnus, Lil)ri contra Jovinia- 
 num. Lib. 1, n. 34. Pat. Lt. 23, 2.')7. LeonLs Ep. ad. RuHticum 107. 
 Harduin 1, 1701. Innocentii I Capit, 2, cap. '.). Harduin 1, 10(11
 
 12 
 
 after 301 by the powerful influence of St. Augustine, whose 
 early Manichaeism no doubt had some effect in enlisting his 
 support, and the next Council of Carthage (401) did much to 
 make effective its legislation concerning clerical continence 
 by imposing a penalty for disobedience. ^ 
 
 The Council of Toledo (c. 400) showed itself less zealous and 
 did not seek to enforce in its full severity the rule which Siricius 
 had enjoined. It permitted deacons to enjoy all the privi- 
 leges of marriage, only making them ineligible for promotion 
 where Siricius had commanded deposition; and while evidently 
 intending that priests should practice continence, it only makes 
 ineligible for the office of bishop those who become fathers, 
 where again Siricius had commanded deposition. ^ The bishops 
 of Italy showed themselves equally unwilling to impose upon 
 themselves and their clergy so severe a rule as that of the 
 Roman bishop and did no more than deny promotion to offen- 
 ders. 3 The synods of Gaul were more compliant and attempted 
 to enforce the rule in its full severity, but a canon of the Council 
 of Orange so late as 441 shows that it was yet customary for 
 married deacons to continue conjugal relations.^ 
 
 Whether or not the rule of continence was obeyed in the 
 early church of Britian cannot be determined because of lack 
 of historical records. According to Gildas the clergy were 
 much demoralized, but he says nothing concerning their 
 marriage.^ In Ireland there was as yet no attempt to intro- 
 duce the new discipline.^ 
 •'"' The fifth century, therefore, saw no new restrictions im- 
 posed upon the major orders in the west, but some of the 
 regulations which in the past had been imposed upon the higher 
 
 ' Con. Carth. (401) c. 3. Harduin 1, 987. 
 » Con. Tol. 1 (c. 400), c. 1. Harduin 1, 990. 
 » Con. Taur. (c. 401), c. 8. Harduin 1, 960. 
 «Con. Aurau.s. (441), c. 22, 23. Harduin 1, 1786. 
 
 * Epistola Gildffi. Hist. Brit. Saxon. Anglo-Danicaj Scriptores. Ed. Gale, 
 Vol. 2, 23, 38. 
 
 • Synodus S. Patricii (c. 450), c. 6. Harduin 1, 1791.
 
 13 
 
 orders alone, were now extended to the minor clergy. The 
 members of the lower grades to whom marriage was per- 
 mitted were forbidden to take second wives; ^ and a council 
 held at Rome (465) recommended that no married men should 
 be admitted to the lower orders except those who had married 
 virgins.- Leo the Great commanded expressly, for the first 
 time, that those subdeacons who had taken wives should live 
 continently with them, and that those who were unmarried 
 should remain so.^ And although not demaned by law, the 
 custom of ordaining as bishops only those who had been celi- 
 bates originated in this century.* 
 
 In the east, also, the ecclesiastical laws concerning marriage 
 were extended to the lower orders, and through enactment by 
 the secular authority were made more effective. In one 
 respect, indeed, this legislation went even further than did that 
 of the ecclesiastical authorities of the west. While the Bishop 
 of Rome forbade to the superior ranks of the clergy a continua- 
 tion of marriage relations after taking holy orders, the possession 
 of a wife and children prior to that time did not make the candi- 
 date ineligiljle for them. But in the code of Justinian it is pro- 
 hibited absolutely that any one shall be ordained bishoj) who has 
 children or grandchildren.^ The reasons given for this decree 
 are interesting, since the command is not based upon the idea 
 that the clergy should maintain an ideal purity, but upon 
 grounds of worldly expediency. Evidently following the 
 passage from St. Paul's Epistle to the Corintliians already 
 referred to,^ it is argued that the cares wliich the position of 
 husband and father entail, prevent the priest from devoting 
 his whole energy and thouglit to divine service and ecclesiastical 
 
 » Con. Tol. 1 (400), c. 4. Harduin 1, 990. Con. Tur. 1 (461), c. 4.Harduiii 
 2, 794. 
 
 ' Con. Rom. (c. 465), c. 2. Hnrdnin 2, ROO. 
 
 ' I/eonis Ep. Anostnaio Epi.scopo Thessfilonicensi, cap. 4. Manai !">, 12.S1. 
 
 * Hin.schiiiH, Kirchenrecht, 1, 140. 
 
 ' Cod. 1, 3, L. 42, § 1. Corpu-H Juria Civilis, Momin.son & Knieger 2, 26. 
 Novelhc 6, cap. 1, § 3, 4. lb. 3, 37. 
 
 • See p. 2.
 
 14 
 
 duties and that it is unbcconiinjj; that the wealth given to 
 the church for pious uses should be employed by the bishop to 
 enrich his posterity.^ 
 
 The ecclesiastical decree that the higher clergy should not 
 marry after ordination was renewed by Justinian in the Code, 
 and, as a penalty for disobedience, he pronounced illegitimate 
 the children of such marriages, and with their mothers, in- 
 capable of inheritance. 2 The decree is repeated in the Novellce 
 and extended to subdeacons, offenders to be degraded to the 
 status of laymen. 3 Lectors were forbidden to marry a second 
 time. ^ But nowhere in the Code or Novellce is to be found a 
 law similar to the decretal of Siricius which ordained that con- 
 jugal relations should cease after ordination. The Council of 
 Constantinople (692), nevertheless, repeated the ecclesiastical 
 decree that those who become bishops should cease conjugal 
 relations after ordination.^ This Assembly however made no 
 innovations in the rules of the eastern church concerning 
 ecclesiastical marriage, simply renewing the former canons and 
 secular laws. These forbade all in holy orders, subdeacons, 
 deacons, priests and bishops, to contract marriage after or- 
 dination;*^ allowed marriage in the lowest grades and per- 
 mitted all thus married to retain their wives after admission 
 to the higher orders.^ As the canons required that bishops be 
 celibates, it became customary to raise to the episcopate only 
 monks. The enactments of this council are at present the law 
 of the Greek church. 
 
 In the west disobedience of the rule requiring continence 
 
 • Cod. 1. 3, L. 41 § 2, 3, 4. lb. 2, 26. 
 
 ' Cod. 1, 3, L. 44. Mommsen & Krueger 2, 30. 
 
 ' Novellae 6, cap. 5. lb. 3, 43. 
 
 Mb. 
 
 ' Con. Quin. c. 12. Harduin 3, 1663-1666. 
 
 • . . . et nos hoc .servantes decemimus, ut deinceps nulli penitus hypo- 
 diacono, vel diacono, vel presbytero post sui ordinationem contrahere liceat. 
 Si autem fuerit hoc aasus facere, deponatur. Con. Quin. c. 6. lb. 1662. 
 
 ' Quainobrem, si qui.s dignus inventus fuerit, qui hypodiaconus, vel diaconus, 
 vel presbyter ordinetur, i.s ad talem gradum a.ssumi nequaquaquani prohibea- 
 tur, si cum legitima uxorc cohabitet. Con. Quin. c. 13. lb. 1GG6.
 
 15 
 
 seems to have been general during the fifth, sixth and seventh 
 centuries. There were two potent causes calculated to pro- 
 duce such a condition. After the invasions of the northern 
 tribes and the establishment of the Teutonic states upon 
 Roman soil, ecclesiastical patronage was often in the hands of 
 chieftains who naturally bestowed favors upon those of their 
 followers who most deserved reward, and these being, for the 
 most part, mere warriors, were unfit for positions in the church. 
 Their motives for entering it were ambition or avarice, and 
 their fierce natures unfitted them for the self-restraint then 
 demanded of ecclesiastics. Over against this tendency toward 
 lawlessness was the attempt to enforce the rule of absolute 
 continence. Even in much more favorable conditions than 
 those of the fifth and sixth centuries it was unlikely that such 
 an attempt could be made without frequent disobedience or 
 without producing new forms of licentiousness in many cases: 
 but in a society which seems to have been so turbulent and 
 lacking in moral restraint as was the society of that day, ^ it 
 was inevitable that the unnatural self-restraint demanded by 
 the church should lead to widespread evasions of the com- 
 mand. The acts of the councils of these centuries indicate that 
 such was the case, and so numerous are their enactments 
 against the continuation of marital relations and more serious 
 offences that a citation of a few of those best illustrative of the 
 conditions must suffice. 
 
 The Council of Tours (567) stated that tin- people suspected 
 that many of the clergy continued forbidden relations with 
 their wives. T<» prevent such uncanonical acts in the futuri- 
 the council decreed that, whenever a priest entered his house, 
 he should be accomj)anied by at least one of his clerical sul)ord- 
 inates. This monitor was to remain with him continually, 
 even to sk-e-p in the room with hitii. Ilu' punishment to be 
 inflicted on those found alone with iheir wives was excom- 
 munication for a year and irrevocable depositi(»ii lumi olfice.^ 
 
 ' SalviaiiiiH, Do (lul>ernatione I>oi, Lil>er G, cap. 11. I'at. Lt. .W, IJO. 
 ' Con. Tur. 2 (567), c. 19. Hardiiin. 3, 361; alao c. 20, lb. 302.
 
 16 
 
 The Council of Macon (581) decreed that no woman should be 
 permitted to enter the bedchamber of a bishop unless two 
 priests or deacons were present. ^ That it was found necessary 
 to introduce such a humiliating espionage, and to impose such 
 severe penalties for infractions of the rule, establishes the fact 
 that disobedience must have been frequent and difficult to 
 overcome. 
 
 In Spain the harshness of the punishments to be inflicted on 
 offenders indicates that the church authorities there had a 
 similarly stubborn disobedience to combat. The guilty clerks 
 were to be deprived of office and their consorts condemned to 
 monastic life.^ The secular laws show that the clergy of all 
 ranks were living with their wives almost without concealment, 
 and commands that such unions shall at once be severed by the 
 bishop or judge and a penalty of one hundred lashes be in- 
 flicted on the wife.^ The ninth Council of Toledo (655), 
 finding these severities in vain, condemned the children of 
 married ecclesiastics to slavery.^ This enactment appears 
 somewhat strange when viewed in connection with the fact 
 that as late as the middle of the seventh century the sons of 
 ecclesiastics were raised to the papal chair. ^ 
 
 So common was clerical marriage in Spain, even among 
 bishops, that the secular power found it necessary to interfere 
 for the preservation of ecclesiastical property. By royal law 
 every bishop, upon his accession to office, was compelled to 
 make an inventory of the episcopal possessions; his successor 
 was to make a similar inventory, compare it with the preceding, 
 and demand from the heirs whatever was lacking.^ Pelagius I 
 introduced a similar custom in Sicily. '^ 
 
 > Ck)n. Matis. 1 (581), c. 3. lb. 451-2. 
 
 ' Con. Tol. 8 (6.53), c. 4. 5. Harduin, 3, 962. 
 
 ' Fuero Juzgo, Liber 3, Tit. 4, L. 18. 
 
 * Con. Tol. 9 (65.5), c. 10. Harduin, 3, 975. 
 
 * Theodorus (642-649) nations Grecus, ex patre Theodoro episcopo . . . 
 Liber Pontificali.s, ed. Duchesne 1, 331. For similar instances dating from 
 the fourth century, lb. 227, 252, 287, 290, 319. 
 
 * Fuero Juzgo, Liber 5, Tit. 1, L. 2. 
 
 ' Pelagius I. Ep. Cethego patricio. Pat. Lt. 69, 414.
 
 17 
 
 The energetic and relentless spirit with which Gregorj'^ the 
 Great began his task of improving ecclesiastical morality 
 makes manifest his opinion that only the utmost severity 
 would avail to correct the existing evils. He declared that if 
 once a clerk lapsed from virtue he was to be irrevocably de- 
 graded to the status of a layman. ^ Gregory also included sub- 
 deacons in the law of absolute continence;^ but he expressly 
 permitted the married clergy of all ranks to dwell in the same 
 houses with their wives. ^ 
 
 Aside from the contumacy of the clergy in continuing marital 
 relations, contemporaneous writings make it evident that 
 many of the clergy were morally degraded. Salvianus, a 
 priest of Marseilles, living in the fifth centurj', includes the 
 clergy in his fierce strictures upon the wickedness which sur- 
 rounded him.* Pclagius II permitted the ordination of a 
 deacon who acknowledged that he had had children by a con- 
 cubine after his wife's death; and although this fact itself is no 
 unimportant index of clerical ideals, the excuse which Pelagius 
 offers for his act is perhaps the worst indictment of the period 
 and the church which he could have uttered.^ As the councils 
 of other countries found necessary a constant repetition of 
 canons directed against all forms of disobedience in the matter 
 of marriage, from a continuance of Tiiarital relations to resi- 
 dence of strange women, it is evident tliat somewhat siinilar 
 conditions prevailed generally. 
 
 ' (JrcKorii Fp. Lil.er ."5, Kp. 3, Pat. Lt. 77, 724. Liber H, Kp. 2 t, II). 027. 
 ' Gregorii Ep. Liljcr 1, Ei)., 41. lb. 505-5UG. 
 
 • . . . hoc tantumodo adiecto, ut hi, sicut canonica decrevit auctoritaa, 
 uxores quas caste debent regere, non relinquant. Gregorii Ep. Liber 9, Ep. 
 60. lb. 997. 
 
 • Salvianus, De Gubematione Dei, Liber 6, cap. 12. Pat. Lt. 63, 122. 
 
 • Et quarnvis niulta sint qusc in hujasmodi cawibus obscrvari jubeat 8ul)tili- 
 tati.s auct<^iritjus, tarnen cjuia dffuctiiH tcinponini no.stroruin, quibiiH ikhi Hobitii 
 merita, sed corpora ipsa hoiiiinutn dcfeccrunt, di.strictioni.s illiu.-j non patitur in 
 omnibus manorc cen.surain, ct ir-tas i.stiu8 de quo agitur, futura; incontinentiie 
 suspicionem auffere dignoscitur, ut diaconatus po8.sit ordinem provehi, tempo- 
 rum conde.scendentes, ut dictum est, defectui, concesaisse nos novoriH. Pcla- 
 gius II, Ep. 14. Pat. Lt. 72, 747-748.
 
 18 
 
 The clergy of England was partly a celibate clergy owing to 
 the custom of choosing some of its members from the Monastic 
 Orders, but among those not so chosen marriage must have 
 prevailed to some extent, for it receives notice in the peniten- 
 tials of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury (668-690) and 
 Egbert, Archbishop of York (735-766). ^ Their statements 
 do not warrant any conclusions concerning the extent to which 
 it was practiced, however. 
 
 The condition of the Prankish clergy in the first half of the 
 eighth century, as described by St. Boniface, was similar to 
 that in Spain. Boniface was unsparing in his denunciations 
 of their depravity, ^ and found association with them so abhor- 
 rent that he wrote to Gregory II, asking if he should continue 
 to eat with them, or even to speak with them.'* In a letter 
 to Egbert, Archbishop of York, he declared that he was com- 
 pelled to restore adulterous priests to their positions, because 
 if all the guilty ones were punished as the canons demanded, 
 there would be no one to administer baptism and perform the 
 other rites of the church.* In Austrasia, Karlmann directed 
 a severe blow at the licentious priests. He issued an edict to 
 the effect that priests, monks and nuns guilty of adultery were 
 to be flogged, and imprisoned for two years on bread and water, 
 the punishment to be increased at the discretion of the bishop. 
 
 1 Poenitentiale Theodori, Lib. 1, cap. 9, § 4. Poenitentiale Egberti, cap. 
 4, § 7. Haddan & Stubbs 3, 185, 420. 
 
 ' Si invenero inter illos, diaconos quos nominant, qui, a pueritia sua semper 
 in stupris, semper in adulteriis et in omnibus semper spurcitiis vitam ducentes, 
 sub tali testimonio venerunt ad diaconatum et modo in diaconatu, concubinas 
 quattuor vel quinque vel plures noctu in lecto habentes, evangelium tamen 
 legere et diaconos se nominare nee erubescunt nee metuunt et sic, in talibus 
 incestis ad ordinem presbiteratus venientes, in hisdem peccatis perdurantes et 
 peccata peccatis adiicientes, presibteratus officio fungentes, dicunt, se pro 
 populo posse intercedere, et sacras oblationes offere, novissime, quo peius est, 
 sub talibus testimoniis, per gradus singulos ascendentes, ordinantur et nomi- 
 nantur episcopi. Bonifacii Ep. Ep. 50. Epistolaj Merowingici et Karolini 
 Aevi (M. G. H.), 1, 300. 
 
 • Bonifacii Ep. Ep. 26. lb. 277. 
 
 • Bonifacii Ep. Ep. 91. lb. 377.
 
 19 
 
 In his efforts to suppress clerical marriage he showed far less 
 vigor and confined himself to the prohibition, without penalties, 
 that priests should not dwell with women. Wives are not 
 specified, but seem to be included in the prohibition. ^ Nor 
 was the capitulary of Pippin for the discipline of the Neustrian 
 clergy severe. He simply decreed, without penalty for dis- 
 obedience, that no priest should dwell with a woman unless 
 it be his mother, sister, or niece. ^ IMam?^ of the clergy resisted 
 these measures, and seeing in Boniface the in.stigator of the 
 hated legislation, attempted to drive him from Austrasia by 
 persecution, and resisted with violence the execution of the 
 law.^ A capitulary of Louis the Pious fixing the punishment 
 of priests guilty of rape and the enactment b}'^ several councils 
 of canons forbidding the clergy to dwell with their mothers or 
 sisters shows of what crimes they were sus])cctcd.^ 
 
 The tenth centurj^ saw no change in the matter of clerical 
 
 ' Karlmanni Principis Capit. (742), c. 6. Capitula Regum Francorum (M. 
 G. H.), 1, 25-26. 
 
 ' Pippini Capit. Sue.ss. (744), c. 8. lb. 30. 
 
 • S. Bonifatii Ep. 80. Epistola) Merowingici et Carolini Aevi (.M. (J. 11.), 1. 
 358. Ep. 59, 317. 
 
 * Ludov. Pii Capit. Eccles. (818, 819). Capit. Regum Franc. (M. G. H.), 
 1, 278. 
 
 At first glance it might seem that provisions Hkc tho,sc just referred to were 
 the result of an overcautious desire to avoid possihility of evil, l)ut the sub- 
 joined canons show that they were made necessary by existing rrime. 
 
 . . . tamen, fpiod multum doiciidum est, sirpc aiidivimus, per illfini ronees- 
 sionem (of residence with female relatives) plurima .seelera e.sse commissa, ila 
 ut quidam sacerdotum cum propriis sororibus concumbentes, filios ex els gen- 
 erassent. Et idcirco constituit hire sancta synodus, ut nulhis presbyter tilliim 
 femiriam serum in domo propria f)ermittal. i|U;i(enus oecasio iiuil.e .suspicionis 
 vel facti ini(iui penitus aiif<T.iliir. Con. Mo^. (SSS). c. 10. llarduiii, H, I't. 1. 
 406. 
 
 Prohil)endum, et modis omnii)Us interminandum est, ut nullus .sarcrdos e.is 
 persona.s fcminarum, sieut et in eanonc- insert iim eontinetur, de rpiibus suspirio 
 cs.se potest, in domo sua lia!)eat. Sed neipie illjis <|U!is canones eoncedunt; 
 (quia, instigante diabolo, ctiam in illis .seelus frequenter pcriK-tratinn reperi- 
 tur, aut ctiam in pedi.s.sequis illarum:) .seilicet matrem, amitam, 8oror«m. 
 . . . Con. Nam. (895), c. 3. lb., 457-458.
 
 20 
 
 marriage. The members of the clergy openly maintamed 
 wives, and public opinion does not seem to have condemned 
 them. Although such indifference to discipline was prevalent, 
 there were some earnest churchmen who remembered the 
 canons and sought to enforce them.^ But the habits of the 
 great body of the clergy could not be altered by fitfid and un- 
 systematic opposition, and marriage was practiced by them 
 in manj^ parts of western Europe. ^ 
 
 That result of ecclesiastical marriage which the church had 
 anticipated with dread, the heredity of church property in the 
 families of priests, made itself felt in this century. The accu- 
 mulations of property which the church had made during eight 
 centuries were looked upon as a storehouse from which the 
 poor and pleasure-loving clergy might obtain the means to 
 satisfy their desires and enrich their families. ^ No doubt the 
 
 1 Richeri Historia, Liber 2, cap. 81. Scriptores (M. G. H.) 3, 606. 
 
 Synod. August. (952), c. 4. Harduin, 6, Pt. 1, 617. 
 
 Con. Ansan. (990), c. 5. Mansi, 19, 101. 
 
 Con. Pict. (1000), c. 3. Harduin, 6, Pt. 1, 764. 
 
 ' Dehinc intulit lamentabile et nimis lugendum, ut Domini sacerdotes publice 
 ducant uxores, et si filii eorum valeant promoveri? Leo VII, Ep. 15. Pat. Lt. 
 132, 1086-87. 
 
 Si multinubos a clericatu repellerem, quern nisi puerulos in Ecclesia relinqu- 
 erem? Ratherius, Bishop of Verona, Itinerarium, cap. 5. Pat. Lt. 136, 586. 
 See also Constitutiones Ottonis, Const, et Acta Pub. Imperatorum et Regum 
 (M. G. H.), 1, 30. 
 
 Praeterea quod dicere nudet, tacere autem periculum, quidain in tantum 
 libidini mancipantur, ut obscenas meretriculas sua simul in domo secum 
 hal)itare, una cibum sumere ac publice degere permittant. Attonis Vercellensis 
 Episc. Ep. 9. Pat. Lt. 134, 116. 
 
 Hunt, The English Church from Its Foundation to the Norman Con- 
 quest, 269, 270. 
 
 * . . . ut habeant quoque unde filiis uxores, filiabus acquirant maritos, 
 vineas et campos, postremo unde mammonsc iniquitatis valeant deservire. 
 Ratherius, De Contemptu Canonum, Pt. 1, c. 4. Pat. Lt. 136, 491. 
 
 Quarum illocebris illecti, suse domui, cuncta^que familise ac supellectili eas 
 pra».s.se dijudicant, suumque post obitum scortum hajredem constituunt, et 
 quidquid de facultatibus ecclesia;, vel eleemosynis, seu undecunque acquirere 
 possunt, hujusmodi manibus distrahendum relinqunt. . . . vSunt etiam qui 
 nudi ad Ecclesiam veniunt, sed de ejus beneficiis accrescunt. Hi primum
 
 \ 
 
 21 
 
 title to landed propertj^ usually remained in the monastery, 
 parish church, or chapter to which it had been given; but where 
 the incumbent clergy were married, its income would naturally 
 be directed to the maintenance of their families, instead of being 
 applied to charitable uses, or employed in improving and 
 extending ecclesiastical property. If two or three generations 
 of clergj' brought up their sons for the priesthood, the church 
 would be deprived of the usufruct of the property involved for 
 nearly a century- , which of course, would be tantamount to its 
 loss for that length of time. 
 
 The history of the first half of the eleventh century is a 
 continuation of the history of the tenth century, with perhaps 
 more determined effort by those in authority to enforce the 
 canons. The Synod of Pavia (1018) held by Benedict VIII 
 for the single purpose of restraining clerical incontinence, 
 reduced to slavery the children of ecclesiastics and declared 
 anathema any judge who might free them.^ 
 
 If the testimony of contemjjoraries is reliable, the execution 
 of such decrees would have meant the suspension of all eccles- 
 iastical functions in the west. Priests and deacons iii;iiiic(l 
 after the custom ")" laymen, begot children and iiiadt' lhi-ni 
 their heirs; and even the bishops dwelt openly with their wives. - 
 According to the monkish biograi)her of Peter Damiani, the 
 two heresies of simony and ecclesiastical marriage were prac- 
 ticed with imiiiniity in the whole church.^ One (lerman l)ish«ip, 
 
 inopiiP causa contincriti.'Uii fiiiKHiif. ct postiiiodiim dilati. mcrclrice.'J usciHcuiit. 
 Attn, Bishop of VfTcclli, lOp. !). Pat. I-I. l.'M, 1 I<) 117. 
 
 Sc«! also, Synofl of Tours (irir,). Harduiu, (1, I't. 1. .SOt. 
 
 ' Con. Tic. (1018), c. 1, 1. Ilanluin. C. IM. 1,.S|:?,,SII. 'II i.- canons of t ho 
 Council of Hourfif'H (lO.'JI) were less .stncrc than usual, only (IcuradinK to the 
 position of lector or chanter tho.sc who had wives. Con. Bit . c. f). II.. SJ<». 
 
 ' Itaque cum v\ilt,'us clericoniin per viam offrenatai licentiie neinine proliih- 
 ente, Rradcrctur, c(rperunt ipsi presbytcri ac diacones (rpii tradit.a sihi sacra- 
 monta Dominica mundo eorde ca.st<)«|Ue corpore tractare del>cl)ant) hiicoruni 
 more uxorcs ducere, suHCcpto.sfjuc filios hiiredes testamento rehnquiTe; iionulh 
 etiam episcoponim verecundia omni contcmpta. cnin uxorih\i» domo simiil m 
 una hahitare. Victoris III, DialoRi, Lil.cr 3. Pat. Lt. ]W, lOOJ um. 
 
 'Joannes Monachus, Vit;i P. I );inii;irii, rap. 16. Pat. ]A. 14 I, I'-i-i.
 
 22 
 
 while urginfi; his priests to shun the pestifenms society of 
 women, gives them by imphcation permission to marry by the 
 injunction that if they could not attain perfection, they should 
 at least guard with care the bonds of marriage. ^ In England, 
 it was customarj'^ for the members of the clergy to marry and in 
 some cases polygam}'^ was practiced. ^ 
 
 Such lenience on the part of those in authority, however, 
 was soon superseded by harsh severity. The year 1049 saw 
 the beginning of a crusade against the married clergy which 
 was to end in their subjugation. Its principal instigator was 
 the hermit, Peter Damiani. His desire for ecclesiastical purity 
 amounted to a fanaticism which stopped at no sacrifice of self, 
 or punishment for the guilty. During the short pontificates 
 of Clement II and Damasus II little had been done to force the 
 clergv' to respect the canonical obligations concerning marriage. 
 But with the elevation of Leo IX to the Papacy, and the ex- 
 hortations and revelations of Damiani, supported perhaps by 
 the influence of Hildebrand, there began a vigorous struggle 
 for reformation. The Sjmod of Mainz (1049) held by Leo IX, 
 in cooperation with Henr}?^ Ill, forbade marriage and imposed 
 severe penalties for disobedience. ^ A council at Rome decreed 
 that the wives of the clergy' should be attached as slaves to the 
 Lateran Palace, and all the bishops of the church were urged 
 to inflict the same pimishment upon the wives of priests. "* 
 Stephen IX held several councils for the express purpose of 
 eradicating the evil of clerical marriage.^ 
 
 Nicholas II realized that it was not a repetition of prohibi- 
 tions which was needed, but new measures of coercion. The 
 customary penalties of degradation from office and expulsion 
 from the ranks of the clergy having failed of success, the 
 
 ' Adam Bremen-sis Gesta Pontificum Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae, Liber 3, 
 cap. 29. Pat Lt. 146, 580. 
 ' Harduin VI, Pt. 1, 771 sqq. 
 ' Adam. Brem. Tjesta Pont. Hamm. Liber 3, cap. 29. Pat. Lt. 146, 580. 
 
 * Peter Damiani, Di.ssert. 2, Opusc. 18, cap. 7. Pat. Lt. 145, 411. 
 
 * Chronicon Monast. Casin. Liber 2, cap. 97. Script. Rer. Ital, Muratori 4, 
 409.
 
 23 
 
 Council of Rome {1059), stimulated bj' the reforming spirit' 
 of the eleventh centurj^ decreed that no one should attend 
 mass when said b}' a married priest. ^ Tliis canon possesses an 
 unusual importance and interest, for it seemed to question the 
 doctrine that the sacraments were efficacious in polluted hands, 
 and contravened the long-established custom of excluding 
 the laity from participation in clerical discipline.- Its wide 
 departure from the doctrines and tradition of the church prove 
 the determination of the Papacy to earn*' its point and the stub- 
 bornness with which the clergj' resisted. All these efforts 
 were evidently ineffective, for Nicholas II found it necessary 
 to repeat the decrees, and his words indicate that the clergy 
 had ignored them. ^ 
 
 In the struggle to retain their wives the clergy did not offer 
 merely a passive resistance, but resorted to argument in sup- 
 port of their position.* One learned and clear-sighted eccles- 
 iastic of unknown name wrote a vigorous and cogent defense 
 of clerical marriage, in which he exposed the hyjjocrisy of the 
 clergj', and unhesitatinglj' i)rescribcd wedlock as the only 
 remedy for their debased morals.^ The upper clerg>', whom 
 he declares were stained by the vilest crimes,^ were the parti- 
 
 ' Ut millas MLssam audiat presbyteri, quern scit conciihinatn indubitantcr 
 habere, aut subintroductam niulierem. Con. Rom. (lOfjO), c. .'i. Ilanlu'm, ("», 
 Pt. 1, 1062. 
 
 ' See I.ca, p. 203, note 2. 
 
 ^ Decretalcs .Nicolai Papir, c. 3, 4. naluzius ct Manai, 2, 118-119. 
 
 ♦ Petri Damiani Ep. Liber 5, Ep. 13. I'at. Lt. 141, 303. 
 
 * Hie e.st autem, ni diliKontur iri.spiritiir, tociiiH «'nriiin iiumiimluH /.iznniir, 
 tociu.s convcntus inHania-, ut diiin clcrici iicita unius u.xoris roujugia, acilirot 
 uniu.s inulieri.s con.sortia, pharisaico devicti, (juod absit! furore relinquere cor- 
 antur, forriicatorea et adulteri et aliaruni pravitatuni turpinHiini niinisfri rum 
 ipsis effiriantur. Pw-udo-TTdalrici Kp, I,il). <1<- I/ite (M. d. H.), 1. J.S't'JCO. 
 
 • Quid vern pro hominibu.s fieri i)ote.st .stoiidius, <iuid diviuii- iiialcdirliotii 
 obligatitis, quam cum aiiqtii corum, vel epincopi, videlicet vel arrlidiaconi, ifa 
 prrecipite.s sint in iibidinem, ut nequc adulteria nequr incentUH ne<iue iiuwr\il()- 
 rum, pro pudor! f iirpisHimoM iitnpIfxUH Hciant aliliorr»'re, quod rmin clericoruin 
 conjuRia sibi dicant fetcrf ct ab ci.^ non vera' jii.stiti.T comjiaHHione, Bed fa.xl.T 
 justitire dedignatione clericoa non ut conscrvoa rogcnt vel moneant continere. 
 sed tit servos iubeant ct cogant abatincrc. lb. 2.'i.S-259.
 
 24 
 
 cular objects of his doimnciation, because in their efforts to 
 disciphne their subordinates, they winked at concubinage and 
 hcentiousness while stigmatizing marriage. "Unreasonable 
 men," he exclaims, "who ought rather to teach us that we 
 should fear to sin in the sight of Him from whom nothing is hid, 
 than that we should blush to live as men in the sight of our 
 fellows."! 
 
 The words of St. Paul to the Corinthians : " Nevertheless to 
 avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and every 
 woman have her own husband," ^ gave the married clergy a 
 Scriptural warrant of great authority upon which to base their 
 claims, and this passage was often used by them as a defence of 
 marriage. ^ In one of his numerous polemics upon the subject, 
 Damiani maintained that this advice was not meant for all 
 men, but only for those citizens of Corinth who could take 
 wives without disobeying any law.^ He further argued that if 
 the passage quoted from St. Paul permitted priests to marry, 
 the same privilege was also conceded to monks and abbots; 
 and as the two sexes were not governed by different laws, the 
 permission would include the sacred virgins.^ The clergy 
 further adduced as a reason for marriage the diflficulty of sub- 
 sisting upon their scanty stipends without the economical 
 management of a wife. Damiani's reply was that if their 
 livings yielded so little they were the less able to support a wife 
 and children.^ 
 
 Damiani's attack upon clerical marriage was at no time 
 promjited by considerations of worldly expediency. It was not 
 the danger to eclesiastical property which influenced him, but 
 the thought that the sacred ministrations of the church should 
 be performed by men who were bound by the ties of a union 
 which, to his devout asceticism, seemed pollution. It was the 
 
 ' lb. 259. 
 ' I C«r. 7, 2. 
 
 ' Petri Damiani Ep. Liber 5, Ep. 13. Pat. Lt. 144, 363. 
 •lb. 
 
 » Petri Damiani, Opuscula 18, Diss. 1, cap. 4. Pat. Lt. 145, 392-394. 
 lb.
 
 25 
 
 ideal purit}^ alone for which he struggled, and he frankly admits 
 that the married clergj^ in one diocese at least, were men of 
 merit, and onlj' deserved of condemnation because they had 
 
 wives. ^ 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 In Lombardy, particularly in Milan, the attempts of Damiani 
 to coerce the clergj' into conformitj" with the canons were 
 accompanied by riots and insurrection. The chief source of 
 the violence, however, was not the preaching or measures of 
 Damiani, but the personal animosity of rival candidates for 
 the archbishopric of Milan, one of whom made celibacy the 
 war-crv' of his party in order to gain the support of the Catharist 
 element of the Milanese population and the aid of Rome. The 
 married clergy- of Milan formed an important part of the 
 schismatic party which elected the anti-pope, Honorius II. 
 Not until clerical marriage had become secondary to other 
 questions involved in the contest did the clergj' of Milan finally 
 suljmit to the Pope and declare obedience to the canons pro- 
 hibiting marriage.^ 
 
 The clergj' of the other parts of Euroj)e likewise persisted in 
 their defence of the right to marr3^ and the re-enactment by 
 Alexander II of the canon of 1059 was ineffectual. ^ Damiani, 
 apparently convinced that exhortations and ecclesiastical 
 penalties were useless, appealed to a secular niler for aid. 
 In a letter to Adelaide, Duchess of Piedmont and Savoy, he 
 requested that she use the force of temporal power to coerce 
 the clergy of her dominions into obedience.'* Hut all seemed 
 in vain; deposition from office, degradation to tlie status of 
 layman, dissolution of the ties between pastor and congrega- 
 tion, all had failed for the time, of accompbshing their purpose, 
 and Alexander II, though under the spur of Damiani, aban- 
 doned the ideals of the reformers, lie did not abrogate the 
 
 ' Ih. 398. 
 
 'A full account of thc.sp cvontfl is p;ivcn hy AniulphuH, CvMn Archiep. 
 Mcdiolan. Pnt. Lt. 147, 300-310. 31fi-319, ^^21-323. 
 ' Con. Horn. (1063), c. 3. Ilanluin, 0, Pt. 1, 1139. 
 ' Petri Damiani, Opusc. 18, Diss. 3, cap. 2. Pat. hi. 145, 418, 419.
 
 26 
 
 niles of discipline, but suspended and relaxed them in impor- 
 tant particulars, limiting the infliction of penalties to open and 
 defiant offenders, or commuting the more severe one of de- 
 position from office into the performance of the customary 
 canonical satisfaction. ^ 
 
 With the election of Hildebrand to the Papal chair, how- 
 ever, leniency was succeeded by harsh and vigorous measures. 
 He had a new motive of tremendous power driving him to 
 execute the canons concerning marriage. For a celibate clergy 
 was indispensable to a realization of his views concerning the 
 position of the Pope in the affairs of the world. His theories 
 are clearly set forth in the Dictatus Papce. In this enunciation 
 of the Papal rights it is asserted that no council can be 
 regarded as general without the Papal sanction and that the 
 Pope alone can depose and reinstate bishops. This is, of 
 course, is tantamount to a declaration that the Pope is 
 autocrat of the church. As to the powers of the Pope in secular 
 affairs, Gregory declared that he might depose emperors, that 
 he might annul the decrees of all earthly authorities, but that no 
 one could annul Papal decrees, and that he was to be judged 
 by no one. ^ The Dictatus PapcB thus outlines a theory of the 
 world in which all earthly rulers and powers are amenable 
 and subordinate to the Pope. To suppose that Gregory in- 
 tended that the Pope should constantly exercise supervision 
 over all the princes and magnates of the earth is unreasonable. 
 The supremacy for which he contended was a conditional, or 
 contingent, sufjremacj^ which his obligations as Pope gave him 
 the right to possess. If he were responsible to God for the 
 salvation of every soul in Christendom, the power to guide every 
 soul, to protect it from whatever he thought might be leading 
 it to destruction, was his indispensable prerogative. If the 
 measures of emperor, or king, were inimical to the spiritual 
 welfare of his subjects, it was the duty of the Pope to rescue 
 them by persuading or coercing their ruler into a change of 
 
 > Alexander II., Ep. 125. Pat. Lt. 146, 1407. lb. Ep. 118. lb. 1405-1406. 
 Ep. 13.3. lb. 1410. 
 
 ' Jaff6, Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum, 2, 174-175.
 
 27 
 
 policy. Such a supremacy' in the temporal world was a logical 
 deduction from the Papal supremacy in the spiritual world. 
 Gregory's purpose in seeking to realize this dream was a noble 
 one; it was not to satisfy a greed for power, but to ameliorate 
 the condition of mankind by the wise and beneficent rule of a 
 divinely appointed sovereign, who feared no earthly magnate, 
 who acted onty from the purest motives, who would combat all 
 evils, and rectify all wrongs upon the widest principles of justice. 
 
 As spiritual chief of the world it was necessary that the Pope 
 should have for his agents a body of men without local attach- 
 ments and without personal interests to which they might 
 sacrifice the welfare of the church. It was necessarj^ that 
 their powers should be devoted exclusively to the defence and 
 aggrandizement of this great ecclesiastical institution. To 
 create a body of men with such singleness of purpose, it was 
 also necessarj^ besides cutting off all personal interests, to 
 distinguish them sharply from the people they were to rule. 
 The indelible spiritual attributes conferred at ordination accom- 
 plished this to some degree, but celibacy was a much more 
 obvious and striking distinction than the invisible spiritual 
 change which ordination was said to effect. The enforcement 
 of the rule of continence would thus accomplish two imi)()rtant 
 purposes: it would deprive the clergj^ of the cares, ambitions 
 and interests which the rearing of a family involve, and it 
 would isolate them from their fellow men. (Xbcr motives 
 no doubt influenced Gregory. Being a monk, he was saturated 
 with monastic ideals, and motives of pure asceticism were 
 probably combined with those of pajjal sujjremacy. 
 
 Immediately after his election Gregory- began the task in 
 which all his predecessors had failed. He recognized that no 
 new canons were needed, but rather a vigorous ai»i)Hcation of 
 the si)ur to the lagging bishops. Numerous synods were con- 
 voked to act upon the matter of c Uri< al marriage and care 
 was taken that all ecclesiastics should bi- infomud of ilieir 
 decrees.' The canon of ros<) prohibiting attendance at mass 
 
 ' Lamberti HerafeldenaLs Annalea (ann. 1074), Script. (M. G. U.), 5, 217-18.
 
 28 
 
 when read by a married priest was re-enacted/ the Council 
 of Poitiers threatening the disobedient with excommunica- 
 tion. ^ Gregory appealed to temporal rulers to aid him. In a 
 letter directed to Rudolph, Duke of Swabia, and Bertolph, 
 Duke of Carinthia, he exhorted and admonished them not to 
 sanction the installation of any married ecclesiastic, and urged 
 them to use force, if necessary, to prevent such men from 
 officiating.^ Similiar exhortations were addressed to other 
 princes. 
 
 But the measures to which he next resorted to compel the 
 refractory clergy to obey, made those of the past seem con- 
 servative. In a letter addressed to the clergy and laymen of 
 Germanj^ he stated that certain bishops and priests of that 
 countrj^ had taken wives, and that all inferior clergy and lay- 
 men were released from obedience to such spiritual leaders.^ 
 As clerical marriage was general throughout Germany,^ and as 
 I ecclesiastical influence and the penalties of the church were 
 then among the most effective restraints upon disorder, this 
 permission gave to the lawless and turbulent elements of the 
 population a most dangerous license. It was a destruction of 
 the most potent force then on the side of legal order, and a 
 dissolution of the ties most venerated by the people of that 
 age. It was a violation of the most ancient traditions of the 
 church, a lilow at religion itself, for there was then no other 
 spiritual guidance and authority than that of the clergy of the 
 Roman Church. To release the people from obedience to the 
 
 ' Con. Rom. (1074) c. 17. Harduin, 6, Pt. 1, 1542. 
 
 » Ck)n. Pict. (1078), c. 9. lb. 1576. 
 
 » Gregorii VII., Ep. Liber 2, Ep. 45; JafTe, 2, 158. 
 
 * JafF6 Bib. Rer. Ger. 2, 532. The canon of the Council of Rome (1059), 
 forbidding attendance at the masses of married priests was essentially the 
 same as this, ijut as the release from obedience was not explicit and the canon 
 ignored, its full significance was not seen. 
 
 ' Nunc videndum, unde hsec nefanda consuetudo usquequaque inoleverit, 
 quod quasi licentes passim uxores duxerint. De Offendiculo Honorii Augus- 
 todunensis Presbyteri et Scholastici, cap. 27. Lib. de Lite (M. G. H.), 3, 46. 
 See also lb. 49, 50.
 
 29 
 
 clerg3' was a daring measure and the more daring because it 
 was opposed by even Gregory's supporters. His former 
 decretals had called forth an uproar of protestation and oppo- 
 sition from all the married clergy of western Europe. They 
 defended themselves with the assertion that the church form- 
 erly pennitted the ordination of married men;^ they declared 
 that the man was a heretic who forgot the words of Christ that 
 continence was not for all, and the counsel of the Apostle, who 
 recommended that those should marr^' who could not restrain 
 themselves. They accused him of violently compelling men to 
 live as angels, and, by denj'ing the demands of nature, of giving 
 rein to adultery and all lands of uncleanness. They declared 
 that they would surrender their offices rather than their 
 wives. 2 
 
 In the polemical literature which the measures of Gregory 
 called forth the cause of the married clergy was worthily de- 
 fended by champions who possessed learning and acumen and 
 had the welfare of the church at heart. The twofold basis of 
 their defence was that celibacy was not prescribed in the Old 
 Testament, the Gospels, or Epistles; ^ on the contrary-, that 
 marriage was expressly recommended; and that celibacj' was 
 the undoubted cause of crime and moral degradation among 
 the clcrg>'. As they were accjuaintcd with tiic storj* of Pajthnu- 
 tius and the efforts of the advocates of celibacy to have the 
 Council of Nica^a enact a canon prescribing the nile of contin- 
 
 ' Petri D.'uniarii OpiiHciiIa 18, Diss. 2, cap. 3. Pat. [.t. lir.. 102. 
 
 ' AdvcrHU.s hoc dccrctuni protimm vcliomciitcr irifrcimiit Iota factio clori- 
 corum; horninom plane hereticum ct vesani (loRmatis eusc claniitanf, qui olilitns 
 sermoiiis Domini qno ait; "Non omncs capiunt Iioc vcrhinn; (pii potcht cnpcrc, 
 capiat," (!t ApoHtoIu.s; "Qui sn non oontinct, nul)at; niolius CHt oniin nuln're 
 quam uri;" violcnta exactionc lioiniiics vivcrn cogcrct ritii anKclonini, vl cl»nn 
 consuetum cursum naturae neKnrct, fornicationi et immiindifiji* frona laxarot; 
 quod .si posfrcrc.t .sententiam confirniarr', nialli- hc HarcTdoliuni quniii runjuj^iuui 
 de-seroro, ot tunc vi.Huruin •■uin mi hnniincs HordfTcnt. undc KulicmandiH |kt 
 ecclcsiam Dei plehilm.s anpclos cornparaturuH e.s.set. Iiainl)crti HerHfcldonsis 
 Annales (ann. 1074), Script. (M. G. H.) 6, 218. 
 
 ' Tractatus pro cliTiconiin ronriutiio. ].\\>. de T/it<' (M. (i. 11.), 3, 58S. 
 Tractatu.i Eljorac lb. GIG, G17-G1S.
 
 30 
 
 ence, its failure to do so was made the basis of a claim that 
 clerical marriage was still canonical. ^ The imiumerable mar- 
 riages of priests were cited as precedents in support of this 
 contention, and the repeated promotion of the sons of priests 
 to the episcopal office was adduced, apparently to prove that 
 in the past the offspring of clerical marriages had not been 
 regarded with disfavor by the church authorities. 2 
 
 The replies of the partisans of Gregory consisted largely of 
 numerous citations from Augustine, Jerome, Gregory the Great 
 and others of the church fathers, along with those Papal decretals 
 and canons in which a continuance of marriage relations after 
 ordination was forbidden. To the argument that since mar- 
 riage was permitted by the old dispensation to the Hebrew 
 priests and had not been forbidden by any law of the New 
 Testament, and was therefore permissible for the priests of the 
 church of Christ, they replied that the Levites were allowed 
 to marry because only the members of that tribe could serve 
 as priests, and that its perpetuation was therefore necessary. ^ 
 They declared that the advice of St. Paul 'that each man have 
 his own wife and each woman her own husband,' was intended 
 only for those who could marry canonically, not for those who 
 had taken a vow of chastity.^ The reason for celibacy which 
 was most often presented, and which no doubt had much 
 weight with a large number of the clergy, was that those who 
 officiated at the altar and sacrificed the body of Christ should 
 not indulge in carnal pleasures. ^ This incompatibility which 
 
 » Cameracen, et Noviomen. Clericorum Ep., Lib. de Lite (M. G. H.) 3, 575- 
 ' Possemus innumerabiles clericorum filios ab antiquis patribus ecclesiasti- 
 corum ordinum et honorem dignitatibus sublimates adicere. Possemus et 
 viventes adhuc episcopos de clericis, immo de presbyteris, in Italia, in Gallia, 
 in Normaiiiiia ab ipso papa intronizari concessos aut et ordinatos ostendere 
 .... Tract, pro. cleric, connubio. lb. 595. 
 
 * Libellus Honorii Aug. lb. 29 sqq. 
 Apologeticus Bemaldi, lb. 2, 73. 
 
 * Apologeticus. lb. 72-73. 
 
 * Xon est enim congruum camali copulae servire et Christi hostiam cum an- 
 gelo immolare. Lib. Honorii Aug. I^ib. de Lit« (M. G. H.), 3, 35. 
 
 Quis igitur sanaj mentis pra-dictas apostoli sententias de exercendo conjugali
 
 31 
 
 was asserted to exist between marital and religious duties 
 received copious illustration from the events of the Old Testa- 
 ment. In the passage of Exodus (19, 14) stating that "IMoses 
 went down from the mount unto the people and sanctified the 
 people," the word sanctified was construed to mean that the 
 men had abstained from their wives for three da^'s, the warrant 
 for this interpretation being the statement that, on his return, 
 "Moses commanded the people that thej'^ should be ready 
 against the third day and come not at their wives." Generaliz- 
 ing from this instance, it was maintained that the word sancti- 
 fied, wherever used in the Old Testament, signified abstinence 
 from women. ^ It was argued that if those who approached 
 the mountain in which an angel appeared were thus sanctified, 
 much the more should he be sanctified, who, in the service of 
 the altar, daily approached the Lord of angels. 2 
 
 But in spite of the resistance of the married clerg>' Gregory' 
 persisted, and as a last means of coercion, annihilated their 
 authority over the people. The result is described by a con- 
 temporary, a friend of Gregory's reforms. The ministrations 
 of married priests were refused by the laity, with the conse- 
 quence that all offices of the church were frc(iucntly susi)ended. 
 Some of the priests were driven from their homes and died of 
 starvation, others suffered the most huniiliatiug outrages. 
 The destruction of the moral force of the clergj' was followed in 
 many places by crime, heresy and disorder.^ 
 
 opnre .sacerdotihus a-scrihiit, qiioniin roffidiamiin o.st, ofriciuni lum modiim 
 orarc, scd et <livina .sacraiiifiita coiitnictan-, pra-scrfiin cum in codciii lt)C(t 
 etiam cuilihet Chrhstiuno tempore orationiH iniungatiir coiitinpntiii. Apolo- 
 geticu.s Bemaldi, Lib. de Lite (M. G. H.), 2, 73. 
 
 ' F.il.. Ilor.orii Auk. II>. 3, KJ. 
 
 ' II.. 1.3-U. For similar arKUiTienta see ApoIoKcticUHBornaMi. Il>.2.72«q. 
 
 ' Q(ii.s eniin catholicus in tanta niatri.s crrhvsia- p«>rturl>a»inin- iioii d.ilral? 
 Qui.s chri.stianu.s in tam indiRna chriHtianifaf i.s conrnlr.alioni'. Hi (|iia hal)cat, 
 vi.sera mi.serationi.s noti fxcrat? Qii.'i- autvm ad bar dr-llcnda [p««rturl>atio sit, 
 nuUus sexus, nulla conditio, nulla fortuna, nulla pot^-.st ipnorarc reiiKio. (^ui.l 
 enim aliiirl etiam muliorrularum tf xtrina ri (ipifiniin nfTirinip jam ultiquo jkt- 
 sonant, quam totiu.s humaniu societatia jura confusa, chriHiiana- Hunclitatin 
 
 ^
 
 32 
 
 The untiring energy and indomitable will which could resort 
 to such doubtful measures left an impress upon the public 
 mind of Europe, and although Gregory' did not fully accom- 
 plish his purpose, he was recognized as the most successful 
 champion of sacerdotal celibacy which the church had yet 
 
 statuta convulsa, popularis status subitam immutationem, ecclesiastic! decoris 
 impiani delirationem, novas in dominos perfidias servorum, omnimodas in 
 servos suspiciones dominoruni, infidissimas sodalium proditiones, dolosas in 
 ordinatam a Deo potestatem machinationes, amicitiam ledi, fidem negligi, et 
 impudentiori malitia; licentiaimperia, et christians religioni contraria dogmata 
 induci, etquod misserimum est, omnia htec portenta eorum, qui christianitatis 
 duces vocantur, vel permissione concedi, vel consensu fulciri, vel auctoritate ro- 
 borari. Plebius error quam semper qujEsivit, opportunitate adepts usque ad 
 furoris sui satietatem iniuncta sibi, ut ait, in clericorum contumelias obedientia 
 crudeliter abutitur. Hi publici illusionibus adducti quocunque prodeunt 
 clamores insultantium, digitos ostendentium, colaphos pulsantium proferunt. 
 Alii, injustis proscriptionibus rebus sic ammissis prsesentiam eorum, inter quos 
 modo honesti et clari erant, ferre non valentes, egeni et pauperes profugiunt. 
 Alii membris mutilati non satis discretam pro lapsu suo sentenitia ad evidens 
 tam prudentium correctorum testimonium per omnium era circumferunt. 
 Alii post longos cruciatus superbe necati sanguinis sui vindictam de justi et 
 omnipotentis defensoris manu incessanter expetunt. Quidam ob infirmatatis 
 sua; consuetudine, non pii s et ecclesiasticis ammonitionibus devocati, sed 
 tyrannicse violentise impetu non parumper absterriti, duplicato periculo 
 ad illam quotidie redeunt. Illi autem, laicos dico, quibus amministris tam 
 ordinata agi placuit capitula, sua auctoritate defendentes vesaniam, nihil 
 est quod contra propositum christianitatis non audeant, ecclesise mysteria 
 contemnere, parvulos suos lavacro salutari fraudare, ipsi absque humili 
 peccatorum confessione etsolemni ecclesise viatico migrare religiosum deputant 
 sibi ad peccatorum redemptionem sufficere arbitrantes, si commissum sibi in 
 pastores suos saeviendi officium strenue adimpleant. Sigberti Gemblacensis 
 Apologia. Lib. de Lite (M. G. H.), 2, 438-39. 
 
 Another observer thus describes the effect of Gregory's measures. Legem 
 enim illam ad scandalum in a?cclesia mittendum tartaro voemente prolatam 
 neglegentia, aiunt, excepit, stultitia promulgavit, amentia roborare contendit; 
 per quam pax ajcclesiae convulsa, tranquillitas populi Dei sublata, pulcherrima 
 fficclesiastici ordinis distinctio confusa, fides concussa, tota denique magni 
 patrisfamilias domus sedibus disiectis, tricliniis tran-smutatis, vasis transpo- 
 sitis, omnino inordinata et confusa. Theodericus Virdunensis Episcopus 
 Hilthebrando Papse. Lib. de Lite 1, 288 
 
 For another account of the lawlessness of the people at this time, see Sig- 
 berti Chronicon (ann. 1074), Script. (M. G. H.), 6, 363.
 
 33 
 
 seen.^ The result of his vigor and persistence was this: ceH- 
 bacy was generally recognized by ecclesiastical authorities to be 
 a canonical obligation, and it was more successfully enforced 
 than at anj' time hitherto. The indifference of national or 
 local synods was overcome and the bishops of southern and 
 western Europe, save a small number in Germany for the time 
 being, imposed the rule upon their clerg>\ But those indivi- 
 duals whom necessity forced into obedience for the time being 
 relapsed as soon as the pressure was withdravra, and the Papacy 
 abated its assiduity. 
 
 The next thirty-five years were filled with efforts like those 
 of the past to compel the obdurate clergy to obey; but until 
 1 1 23 no new penalties were imposed and no new principles 
 introduced into the legislation upon the subject. The Lateran 
 Council of that year, however, declared dissolved all marriages 
 contracted after ordination. 2 Prior to this time the sanctity 
 of marriage had been respected and its vows considered super- 
 ior to all others. The canons had permitted the surrender of 
 either wife or office, the choice being left to the individual. 
 Nevertheless, if the former alternative were chosen, the i)ersons 
 concerned were considered to Ije still bound by the marriage 
 vows, and as has been already observed, the wife was s(»me- 
 times compelled to enter a nunnery- in order to make their vioki- 
 tion impossible. 3 But this canon made the obHgations of holy 
 orders suj)erior to all others. It was a result of the rapidly 
 developing doctrine that the characteristics of the priest were 
 indelible, that the powers and obligations assumed at ordina- 
 
 ' Cuius prudentia non solum in Italia, sed etium in riiout/)nicis purtibuH r«- 
 frenata est sacerdotum incontinentia; scilicet quod pni'di'cessorcs ejus in 
 Italia prohihuerunt, hoc ip.se in aliis :iT!(«Hi:i' rutholicc' jwrtiLiiH proliil.cr.i 
 studio.sus att^-niptavit. Hnrtholdi AmmleH (arm. 1073) Script. (.M. (J. M.), 5, 
 270. Sec al.so, OttonLs Kri.sinKfiiHi.s Chmnicon Lihcr 6, rap. 34. lb. 20, 246. 
 
 ' Pre-sbyteris, diaconibus, subdiaconibus, et monarhis, ronrubinrw habere, 
 eeu matrimonia rontriihcre, peiiitns iiiterdirimtiH; rontrarta cUKupir matri- 
 monia ab hujuHmodi persdiiiH diHJiinKi, et jxTsoiifu^ ad p<inil«-ntiam di-bcro 
 redlKi, jiixta sacronim canonum diflinitioncs, judicamus. (Jon. Lat. (1123), c. 
 21, II). 1114. 
 
 » See p. 15.
 
 34 
 
 tion could never be lost and the priest was absolved from all 
 duties which conflicted with the ones then imposed.^ The 
 Sjaiod of Pisa (1134) gave clear and definite expression to the 
 princiiile,2 and the Lateran Council, convoked by Inno- 
 cent II, erected it into a doctrine by the declaration that a 
 marriage contracted in violation of the law of celibacy was not 
 a marriage.^ This attempt of the Popes to establish the 
 principle that a vow of virginity destroyed the binding force 
 and sanctity of the marriage ties was not supported by all 
 ecclesiastics. Their doubts of the correctness of the principle 
 found expression in the canon law, where Gratian asserted that, 
 although a vow of chastity is offered at ordination, nevertheless 
 the strength of the ties of matrimony is so great that they 
 cannot be dissolved by it.^ 
 
 Alexander III, acting in harmony with the Lateran Synod 
 of 1 123, decreed that those who had only assumed the religious 
 habit, persons in minor orders, were not thereby incapacitated 
 from contracting the obligations of matrimony; the implication 
 being that those who had made a formal vow, or had been 
 ordained, could not contract a valid marriage. ^ The privilege 
 
 * Bocquet believes that this canon aimed only to secure the actual separation 
 of wife from husband and was not a declaration of the nullity of marriage. 
 Le C61ibat Eccl^siastique, L. Bocquet, p. 189. 
 
 On the other hand, Hefele believes that sacerdotal marriage was made in- 
 valid by the Council of Melfi (1089), because the wives of the clergy were there 
 condemned to servitude. Hefele, Beitrage zur Kirchengeschichte, 1, 133. 
 Hinchius, by the Synod of Rheims (1119). Kirchenrecht, 1, 155. 
 
 ' Con. Pi.s. (1134), c. 1. Mansi, 21, 489. 
 
 ■ Ut autem lex continentiae, et Deo placens munditia in ecclesiasticis per- 
 sonis et sacris ordinibus dilate tur: statuimus quatenus episcopi, presbyteri 
 . . . qui sanctum transgredientes propositum uxores silji copulare prssum- 
 pserint, separentur. Hujusmodi namque copulationem, quam contra eccles- 
 iasticam regulam constat esse contractam, matrimonium non esse censemus. 
 Qui etiam ab invicem separati pro tantis excessibus condignam pocnitentiam 
 agant. Con. Lat. 2 (1139), c. 7. Harduin, 6, Pt. 2. 1209. 
 
 * Corpus Juris Canonici, Comment, in c. 1, Dist 27. 
 
 ' Quod qui habitum religionis suscepit, si professionem non fecit, et aliquam 
 eibi pKJStea matrimonio copulaverit, non est cogendus ab ea recedere, et ad 
 ecclesiam redire. Index in Lat. Synod. Pt. 6, c. 9. Harduin, 6, Pt. 2, 1697.
 
 35 
 
 of marrying thus depended upon the nature of the vow taken 
 by the ecclesiastic. If the vow were simple, it was not con- 
 sidered a preventive of marriage, but if solemn it was so 
 considered; the distinction between a simple and a solenui vow 
 being that the former was taken privately; the latter publicly, 
 with the official recognition of the church. ^ Ordination being 
 a ceremony performed in conspectu Ecclesia; a vow of chastity 
 then taken was of course a solemn vow and invalidated future 
 marriage. Further, the words of Gratian indicate that ordina- 
 tion transformed a simple vow, already taken, into a solenui vow, 
 and the principle was repeated in a decretal of Boniface VI II . - 
 Of course a marriage existing prior to the taking of holy 
 orders was not armuled by them.^ Thus, by the end of the 
 twelfth centur\^ there had been developed from the commands 
 of Siricius that the married clergj^ should cease conjugal rela- 
 tions, the doctrine that ordination rendered them incapable 
 of marriage. Married laymen and married clergy- of the minor 
 orders were allowed to be ordained, however, upon the condi- 
 tion that they take a vow of chastity. 
 
 ' Idem sinpiilare votum, aliud est privatum, aliud solenmo. Privatum est 
 in ahscondito factum; Holemiie vero in consppctu eccle.siip fartum. (,)ui priva- 
 tum faciunt votuni contineiiti;!', matrimoiiium rontrahere nou delx'ut; fpiia 
 contrahendo mortaliter peccant. 8i tamen contraxerint, nnn soparoiitur, 
 quiaprobari non potest quod occulte fartum e.st. (^ui vero Holcmiiitor vovcnl. 
 nullatenus conjunium inire fjuount; fpiihus non .solum nulx-rc, .scd et vcllr. 
 damnabilce.st. Petri Loml.anii .Smtontirr, T-ih. 1, Dist. 3S' I'at. Lt., ]\)2,m'2 
 
 ' Hie di.stinRuendum est, (piod Uducntium alii sunt simpliritcr uouimiIcs, 
 alii sunt, quibus post uotum accedit hcncdirrm ronsecrationis, uel propo- 
 flitum rrlJKioni.s, .... Corpus Juris Canoniri, Dist. 27, coumicni. in r. S. 
 
 P'urthor, since by ordination an oflice wils (tssumcd to whicii custom ai\d law- 
 had attached the prohibition to marry, the takinp of holy orders even without 
 a vow of chastity, was considered an impediu)ent to m.'irri.-ipe. Moncmus ut 
 universi prcsbyteri in sacris f)rdinil)us constituti contineant, «'t cjisti viverc 
 studeant, cum voto continentia- tarite sint constricti. Synodus ("liiromont<'n- 
 sis. Pars 2, cap. 1 . Harduin, 7. 001. 
 
 Omnis enim rcripiens ordinem sacrum, implicitc s.-dtrm committit vottim 
 continentife. Oratio Kpi.scopi Laudcnsis in Constant. Con,, von dcr llardt, 
 6, P. 1, 125. 
 
 > Extrav. Joh., 22, Tit., 6, cap. un.
 
 36 
 
 But while Papal and synodal legislation left nothing to be 
 desired in definite enactment and severity of penalties, it was 
 generally disregarded throughout Christendom during the 
 twelfth centur>\ The determined efforts of Gregory VII, 
 Urban II and Alexander II, had been without lasting effect 
 upon the lives of the clergy, though their efforts contributed 
 much to the measure of success which Innocent III enjoyed. 
 
 As Germany was separated from the Papacy by the schism 
 which originated in the contest between Henry IV and Gregory 
 VII, it was not to be expected that the Papal decrees would be 
 obeyed there, and although the action of the Council of Guas- 
 tella (1106) 1 again subjected Germany to Papal legislation, 
 marriage continued. ^ 
 
 In France the clergy were equally stubborn in their refusal 
 to surrender their wives, and some even disregarded the laws 
 against bigamy.^ 
 
 The legislation of the early twelfth century in Spain shows 
 that the decrees of Gregory VII had not found more than partial 
 obedience^ and the church having failed to enforce its laws, 
 the secular authority interposed, punishing the guilty priests 
 with deprivation of benefice and suspension from office, and 
 their wives and children with slavery.^ 
 
 The chroniclers of events in England during the late eleventh 
 
 > Annalista Saxoni. (ann. 1 106), Script. (M. G. H. ) 6, 745. For Council of 
 Guastella, Harduin, 6, P. 2, 1883. 
 
 ' Non erubescant sacerdotes uxores ducere, palam nuptias faciebant, nefan- 
 da matrimonia contrahebant .... Brunonis Episcopi Libellus. Lib. de 
 Lite, 2, 546-547. See also, Gerhohi Tractatus adversus Simoniacos, c. 2. 
 Pat. Lt. 194, 1338. Gerhohi Comment, in Psalm. 64, c.49. lb. 39-40. 
 
 ' . . . Ivonis Carnotensis Episcopus Ep. ad Daimbertum; Ep. 200. Pat. Lt- 
 162, 207. Ep. 277, lb. 279. Paschal II referred thus to France: Gravem 
 valde rem ex partibus vestris audivimus, quia post tanta sanctorum decreta 
 pontificum, post interdicta conciliorum, clericalis ordinis viri qui audent, 
 publice; qui non audent, occulte mulieribus sociantur. Paschalis II Ep. Ep. 
 415, Pat. Lt. 163, 369. 
 
 * Concubina; clericorum manifeste ejiciantur. Con. Pal. (1129), c. 5. Har- 
 duin, 6, P. 2, 2053. See also, Paschalis, II, Ep. 10. Mansi, 20, 1001. 
 
 » Las Siete Partidas, P. 1, Tit. 6,1, 41 T. 1, 141.
 
 37 
 
 and early twelfth centuries describe the Anglo-Saxon clergj^' as 
 hopelessly sunken in sensual pleasures. ^ The first vigorous 
 efforts for reform after Gregorj^ VII were opposed on the 
 ground that to deny the privilege of marriage to the clergy 
 would result in offenses infinitely worse. ^ The exertions of 
 Anselm (1102) were without result,^ and Honorius II sent 
 John of Crema to England (1126) to stamp out the opposition 
 there* He accomplished nothing, and Henr>^ I (1129). who 
 emploj^ed threats of reform as a means of extorting monej' from 
 the offending priests, likewise failed. ^ The close of the twelftli 
 centurj^ apparently saw no imjirovement, for sacerdotal mar- 
 riage was common during the reign of John, and continued to 
 be practiced to some degree until the middle of the thirteenth 
 century.® 
 
 In Ireland there was a relaxation of all ecclesiastical disci- 
 pline by the first quarter of the twelfth centurj^ and clerical 
 marriage with the hereditary transmission of benefices was 
 general.'^ A partial reform was acc()mi)lished, l)ut in the second 
 half of the centur^^ the English invaders brought with them 
 their married priests whose customs were (piicklj- imitated bj' 
 
 ' Optimates, pulip ft vcneri dediti, occlcsiaiii more chrisliniio iiiiiiie iion 
 adibant; sed in cubiculo, et inter uxorio.s uiii|)li'xu.s, iiiatuliniinini solK'nijinia 
 et ini.ssanjm a festinante presbytero auribus tantuni libalmnt. Do (lestis Uor- 
 num Anglorum, Guillelmu.s Malrnsljeriensis, Lil). 3, ^245. Ronini Hritanni- 
 carum Mcdii Aovii Scriptorcs, <»0, I*t. 2, .'ini-JiO.'). Sec mIho ( )rd<Ticii.s Vitnlis, 
 Hist. Ecclcs. Lib. 4, cap. fi. Socir^-tc'; de THistoirc dc I'raiici-, "J, 'JOS. 
 
 ' Henrici Hunt. Hist. Lil). 7. Iter. Brit. Med. Aev. Script. 74, 'J.M. 
 
 » II). 234. 
 
 ♦ lb. 24.'>-246. 
 
 ' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Ann. llj't l!<r. Uril. Mfd. Ai-v. Scrip), 2, 22ft. 
 
 ' Pfx-ins of Walter .Ma[)n.s, ed. Wright. De concniiiniH Sacerdoluni. IV 
 171-172. Ep. Alex. IH. Mansi 21, lOHH. 
 
 ' Verum nios pe.s.siniU8 inf)levr!rat rpioruindani dial)oIica ainbitifnie poten- 
 tum, sedem sanctum obtx>ntum iri ha-redifaria Hucccfwionc. Noc enim pat ip- 
 bantur episcopari, ni.si' qui cs-sent de tribu et familia Hua. Nor paniin pro- 
 ces.serat ex.secranda snccessio, decursi.M jam in har malitia (jujwi general ionibun 
 quindecim. Bernardi Vita S. Malachia', cap. 10. Tat. Lt. 182, lOSfl. 
 
 dFif^OR:^
 
 38 
 
 the Irish clergj^ in those portions of the island where the two 
 races were in contact.^ 
 
 This centurj^ found marriage yet prevalent among the 
 bishops of Denmark, and so probably among the lower clergy 
 also. 2 Calixtus II was the first Pope to turn attention to this 
 comer of Europe, and the Council of Rheims (ll20) decreed 
 that the Danish clergy should give up their wives. ^ The clergy 
 of the Scandinavian peninsula were undisturbed as yet, for not 
 until the thirteenth century did the councils of Norway and 
 Sweden introduce the Papal legislation concerning marriage.^ 
 
 In Hungary the ecclesiastical laws of King Coloman, dating 
 from the first decade of the twelfth century, contain the first 
 definite prohibition of clerical marriage. They forbid married 
 priests and deacons to officiate at the altar unless, the wife 
 consenting and vowing chastity, they be forever separated.^ 
 Coloman's laws were without more than temporary effect, 
 however. In Poland marriage had continued without restric- 
 tion until the verj^ end of the twelfth century, but the Papal 
 legate, Peter of Capua, who then undertook a reformation, 
 enjoj^ed considerable success in his efforts to enforce the 
 canons. ^ 
 
 The expected results of ecclesiastical marriage were not 
 wanting. The sons of priests frequently succeeded their 
 fathers; benefices became hereditary; the property of the 
 church was portioned among the sons of the clergy. In Ireland 
 hereditary succession was the rule,^ and as clerical marriage 
 was usual in England, it probably prevailed there. ^ The 
 
 ' Giraldus Cambrensis, de Rebua a se Gestis, Lib. 2, cap. 13. Rer. Brit. Med. 
 Aev. Script. 21, 66. 
 ' Pontoppidan, 1, 152. 
 » lb. 1, 349. 
 
 * lb. 1, 349. 
 
 ' Alberici Compilatio Dccrctorum sub Colomanno Ilege, c. 42. P6terffy, 1, 
 P. l,p. 50. 
 
 • Harduin, 6, P. 2, 1937. 
 
 Dlugossi Hiat. Poloniae, Lib. 6, T. 1, 575. 
 
 ' See p. 36. 
 
 « Con. Lond. (1237), c. 17. Harduin, 7, 297.
 
 39 
 
 words of the Council of Rouen (1189) indicate that the sons of 
 priests were often ordained to the benefices of their fathers ;i 
 and in Spain the king found it necessarj^ to prohibit the same 
 practice. In western Germany the clergj'^ frequentty por- 
 tioned their sons from the property left in their care.^ Lucius 
 III, upon his accession to the Papal chair (i 181), stated that he 
 found hereditary succession to benefices claimed as a right. -^ 
 The thirtj^-first canon of the Lateran Council held by Innocent 
 III was directed against this custom, and the fact that 
 this important assemblage considered that it demanded de- 
 cisive action, proves that it must have been widespread.'* 
 
 In the enforcement of celibacy, as in so manj' other parti- 
 culars. Innocent III profited by the zeal and activity' of his 
 predecessors, and with the Papal power at its zenith, was able 
 to approach nearer than hitherto the ideal toward which they 
 had long been struggling. The impetus which his vigor and 
 energy gave to the movement culminated within a generation 
 after his death in the promidgation in the most remote jiarts 
 of Roman Catholic Christendom of the law of celiliacy. Coim- 
 
 ' Con. Rot. (1189), c. 6. Harduin, 6, P. 2, 190.5. 
 
 ' Ecclesirr; jure horoflitario a. filii.s .sacerdotum po.ssidontur. . . . Coujuf^ati 
 sacro.s ordine.s capiunt ct honoficia ccclcsiiustica et coniuRcs coniiiriKUiitur. . . . 
 . . . Nee res, quas acquirunt post ordines, ecclesiis sed lilieri-s suis relinquunt 
 . . . . EmonisChronicon, aim. 1219. Script. (M. G. H.) 23, 491. Menkonis 
 Chronlcon ann. 1271. lb. 559. 
 
 ' Sane rclaf ionis vest rrr tenore coinpcrimus pravaiii ajxid vos, siih pnrdcccs- 
 sorum vostronini ncpjliKcntia, consnctiidiiujin intrndiirtatii, (piod filii eonim, 
 qui vestra8eccle.sia« tcnucrunt, ut . . . patrihusal) ipsi8antocos.s()ril»UH luwtriH 
 confiniiationom do ohfinondis orcIc.'^ii.M, rousccuti, suli rfprclx-iisjltili nilliisidne 
 volunt ipH.a.s ccclcHias jure HUCCcssioniH habere, et laliuiii rtinfirm.'ilioncm 
 obtentu aliqua pensione retcnta, patres filios sibi constituerc HUccc8»orcH. 
 Lurii III Ep. 88. In Pat. Lt. ati Lucii 11 Ep. 94. T. 179. 9.11. 
 
 * Afl al)olpMdain poH.sirnarn, qurr in pleri.sque itioU-vit errlcHiiH r(>rru|)l<'Iam, 
 firmitor prf)hil»einuH, ne rauoriiconini filii, inaxitne Hpiirii, ranotiiri liant in 
 sa'cularibuH eccle.siis, in cpiibus instituti Hunt patres; . . . Con. Lnt. 4, c. 31 
 Harduin, 7, 43.
 
 40 
 
 cils were held in Norwa3^^ Sweden, ^ Denmark ^ and Hungary ^ 
 in which were enacted canons prohibiting marriage. As in 
 the case of central and southwestern Europe, it cannot be 
 positively determined whether or not they were obeyed; for 
 the word concubine, generally used by contemporary histor- 
 ians and chroniclers, was then ambiguous, being applied 
 indifferently to wives and to illicit consorts; but it is certain 
 that Innocent's watchfulness put an end to open defiance of 
 the law, although evasions of every sort were employed.^ 
 
 One result of these later more vigorous efforts to enforce the 
 canons was an increase of sexual crimes among the clergy. 
 The contemporary chronicles and the writings of both the 
 friends and enemies of the church show that many of its minis- 
 ters were guilty of habitual crime and that many others were 
 sunk in depravity. Concubinage was the commone.st offence, 
 and the councils of the thirteenth century repeatedly enacted 
 prohibitions against it.^ The many references to the keeping 
 of concubines so publicly as to cause scandal, leaves one in 
 doubt whether the clergy at large were so shameless as actu- 
 ally to keep mistresses openly, or whether these women had 
 been secretly married to them. But the frequent mention 
 of the fact that the woman was often maintained outside the 
 dwellings of the ecclesiastics makes the former practice 
 credible.'^ 
 
 ' Pontoppidan, 1, 504. 
 
 ' Innocentii III Regist. Lib., 16, Ep. 118. Pat. Lt. 216, 914. Con. Schen. 
 (1248). Harduin, 7, 423. 
 
 3 Pontoppidan, 1, 349. Con. Brem. (1266). Hartzheim, 4, 580. 
 
 * Synod. Pos. sub Carolo I. (1209) c. 5. Peterffy 1, P. 1, 140-141. 
 
 * For action of the Lateran Council (1215), held by Innocent III, upon celi- 
 bacy, see c. 14. Harduin, 31 7,. 
 
 « For thirteenth century. Con. Lon. (1200), c. 10. Harduin, 6, P. 2, 1961. 
 Constit. Gallonis (1208), c. 1. lb. 1975. Constit. Ricardi Poor Episc. (1217), 
 c. 6. Harduin, 7, 90. Con. CJerm. (1225), c. 1. lb. 137. Con. Rot. (1231), 
 c. 13. lb. 186. Con. Lon. (1237), c. 16. lb. 297. Con. Bit. (1246), c. 19, 
 lb., 410. Con.Bitur. (1286),c.7. lb. 952. Con. Rot. (1299), c. 1. lb. 1202. 
 
 ' Inhibemus etiam districtius, ne clerici in sacris ordinibus constituti, etiamsi 
 beneficiati non fuerint, in propriis domibus, vel in alienis, publice focarias
 
 41 
 
 This widespread disobedience among the clerg;^' of the 
 thirteenth centurj' gave rise to many enactments directed 
 against the consorts of ecclesiastics, whether wives or concu- 
 bines, and against their children. The purpose of this legisla- 
 tion was to prevent the clergj'' from maintaining or enriching 
 their female companions and children with church propert}', 
 and also to make the condition of a priest's family so humiliat- 
 ing that women would be deterred from accepting such a 
 position, and the clergj^ themselves from begetting offsjiring 
 doomed to an ignominious social condition. Leo IX had en- 
 slaved the wives of the Roman clergj', recommending that all 
 bishops do likewise, and Urban 1 1 had pursued the same course, ^ 
 but the zeal of the reformers of the eleventh centurj'- was 
 lacking in the church of the thirteenth century and the councils 
 
 habeant, unde scandalum oriatur, Con. Paris., (1212) c. 4. Harduin, 6, P. 2' 
 2001. Addentes, ne clerici beneficiati, vel in sacris ordinibus constituti, in 
 hospitiis suis tenere publice concubinas prit.sumant, nee alil)i cum scand.'ilo 
 accessum habeant a easdem. Con. Oxon., (1222), c. 34. Haniuin, 7, 122. 
 See further. Con. Col., (1260), c. 1. lb. 518. Con. Vien (1267), c. 1. lb. 581. 
 Con. Sen., (1279), c. 1. lb. 649. Con. Lon. (1268), c. 8. lb. 621. Syn. 
 Oxon., (1287), c. 18. lb. 1093. The wrath of the church .-uifhoritio.s bcinR 
 particularly directed against the ecclesiastica who dared "(Ittirurc pMirc con- 
 cubinaa" seem.s almost like connivance with those who in their relations with 
 women did not "jamam negligunl." See canons and references of above 
 note; also, Con. Crad. (1296), c. 15, Mansi, 24, 1168. Synod. Col. (1280). 
 c. 2. Harduin, 7, 821. Con. Her. (1287), c. 5. lb. 1133. To di.sobey the 
 canons forbidding marriage was always more reprehensible in the eyes of 
 the church than to maintain a concubine. . . . et (luod sacordofes fiant 
 mariti, multo esse gravius peccafum quam si plurimius domi inerelrices 
 alant. . . . Joannis Slcdaiii Conuiient. Lil). 4, p. 43, Hasilia-, 1656. 
 And to maintain a concubine pul)Iicly was considered worse than to do bo 
 secretly; the rea.son being, of coiirsr, that coiilimud pul>lic disubfdicnco 
 was a defiance of ecclesiiustical authority which brought c(.iitriiipt upon tlio 
 church. De cetcro quia St<!phanus clericus in archdiaconatu pnrdicti archi- 
 (^piscopi adulteram in domo sua et commatrcm dicitur detinrre; si hoc p\ib- 
 licurn est ct nianifc.stuin, oli tantiim excessum, animadvcrsioiic dcbitn. nullius 
 contradictione et appcliatione obHtiiutc corrigius. Con. I-at. (1 17'.»). Mansi 20, 
 351. Lucius III made the usual distinction between open and secret ofTenccii. 
 . Mansi, 22, 442. 
 
 ' See pages 22, 32.
 
 42 
 
 were contented with more humane measures. Edmund, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, decreed that the guilty women should 
 either marry or enter a nunnery. ^ They were forbidden to 
 attend mass, and the sacraments of the church were refused 
 them. 2 The Council of Rouen commanded that their heads 
 be shaved in the presence of the people on Sunday or some 
 other solemn occasion. ^ Again, it was enacted that they be 
 excommunicated and their excommunication publicly an- 
 nounced.'* They were often forbidden to receive any of the 
 property' of the church by testament,-^ but the action of the 
 Council of Mainz (1225), shows this evil to have been almost 
 ineradicable. This council enacted that all ecclesiastics leaving 
 the fruits of their benefices to concubines or children, and any to 
 whom such inheritances might descend, were to be refused 
 Christian burial. Whoever aided in the preparation or execu- 
 tion of such a testament was, ipso facto, excommunicated, and 
 as long as a benefice or income thus bequeathed was in the 
 possession of such heirs, the church concerned was declared 
 under interdict.^ 
 
 In general, the church authorities opposed the succession of 
 sons to the benefices of their fathers because of the danger that 
 benefices so transferred should become hereditary; and although 
 canons and decretals varied as to legitimate sons, they were 
 unanimous in excluding from holy orders illegitimate sons who 
 had not become monks.'' Clement III, however, contrary to 
 all preceding regulations, expressly permitted the legitimate 
 sons of Irish bishops to be ordained and to succeed to their 
 fathers' benefices,^ and allowed the ordination of illegitimate 
 
 ' Const. Prov. S. Edmundi Cant. Episc. c. 4. Harduin, 7, 268. 
 
 » Con. Oxon. (1222), c. 35. lb. 122. Con. Lon. (1268), c. 8. lb. 621. 
 
 » Con. Rot. (1231), c. 13. lb. 186. 
 
 * Synod. Colon. (1280), c. 2. lb. 821. Synod. Cic. (1289), c. 6. lb. 1153. 
 » Con. Mog. (1261), c. 27. Mansi, 23, 1090. Con. Lan. (1278), c. 4. Mansi, 
 
 24, 213. Synod. Colon. (1280), c. 2. Harduin, 7, 821. Con Mog. (1225), 
 c. 5. Mansi, 23, 4. Hartzheim, 3, 589, 595. 
 
 • Con. Ger. (1225), c. 5. Harduin, 7, 138-139. 
 
 ' Corp. Jur. Canon. Decretales Gregorii 9, Lib. 1, Tit. 17, cap. 1. 
 « lb. cap. 12.
 
 43 
 
 sons when a Papal dispensation had been obtained.^ The 
 fourth Lateran Council forbade illegitimate sons to officiate in 
 their fathers' churches, declaring void the institution of all 
 such in the paternal benefices. ^ The later canons of the 
 thirteenth century were in agreement with this, and strictly 
 forbade the succession of sons without distinction as to legality 
 of birth. The decree was usually accompanied by the com- 
 mand that thej' receive no property from their fathers by 
 testament. The clergj^ were commanded neither to keep their 
 children in their own homes because of the scandal it would 
 cause, ^ nor to be present at their marriages or funerals.^ The 
 Hungarian Council of Ofen (1279) enacted that the children 
 of ecclesiastics should be the slaves of the church.^ 
 
 Aside from concubinage, and marriage, which all this legisla- 
 tion shows to have been common, the clergy were guilty of 
 much more serious crimes. The constitutions of Gallo, Pajial 
 legate in Germany, ordain that priests shall not dwell in the 
 
 ' lb. cap. 14. 
 
 ' lb. cap. 16. 
 
 »Con. Bud. (1279), c. 26. Hiirduin, 7, 798. Con. Lan. (127.S), c. 14. 
 Mansi, 24, 213. Con. Bit. (1286), c. 8. lb. 952. 
 
 * Syn. Colon. (1280), c. 2. Harduin, 7, 821. 
 
 ' Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, 6, 192. But these unlucky individuals who 
 were thu.s despised by their fellow men, and, at finies, persecuted l)y the 
 church, were not without defenders. Their own iiniocence and llie injustice 
 of the trcatnu;nt to which they were Hul)jected wius i)roved by a ioiiK array of 
 those arguments wliicli were dear to tin; heart of the mediaeval man. It was 
 urged th:it the frequent use in the .New Testament of the words, "our f.-ither," 
 showed that all Christians were brothers; that by baptism they ii.-id Ixen 
 made one body, heirs of (\nd, a cho.scn, holy rare, and that consequently the 
 sons of clerks could not be excluded from the priesthood. It wnn noted that 
 the children of priests had been fMuious and honor.'iblr; cximipli's being 
 John the Ba]jtiHt who wa.s a son of Zacliari.'is, and the N'irgin Miiry who wna 
 a descendant of Aaron. In the genealogy of Christ him.self were mentioned 
 four women, so that it might be made known that the Saviour of sitmers did 
 not disdain t^) be born of woman. Solomon, an illegitimate a<in, wiu* allowed 
 to l)uild the teml)le, which honor was denied to David, althr.ugh he vfn» of 
 legitimate birth. d'Achery, Spiceligium. 3, 448-419. Lib.ili d.' bile 
 (M. G. H.) 3, 649 aq.
 
 44 
 
 same houses with their mothers or other female relatives. ^ 
 In order that there might be no suspicion of illicit relations, 
 another German synod forbade priests to dwell with their 
 mothers, sisters, or aunts; and similar provisions indicative of 
 depravity are to be found in the enactments of other councils. 2 
 Such offences were probably unusual, however, although these 
 and similar enactments, combined with other evidence, for 
 example, the sweeping denunciation of Alexander IV, prove 
 that in the thirteenth century, many of the clergy were morally 
 degraded.^ 
 
 ' Moneantur quoque, ne matres vel uxores, aliasque conjunctas personas 
 secum habeant; cum quibus etsi nihil siEvi criminis focdus naturale existimari 
 permittat, tamen frequenter, suggerente diabolo, cum talibus noscitur fuisse 
 facinus perpetratum. Const. Gallon, c. 1. Harduin, 6, P. 2, 1975. 
 
 ^ Stat. Synod. Eccles. Nem. c. 5. Martene, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, 4, 
 1044, 1102. Eadmeri Hist. Nov. Lib. 4. Rev. Brit. Med. Aev. Script. 81, 
 213.' Poems of Walter Mapes, 156-157. Matt. Paris. Chron. Maj. Rer. 
 Brit. Med. Aev. Script. 57, Pt. 3, 430-431. Stat. Ecc. Col. (1260), Hartzheim. 
 3, 589. Con. Oxon. (1222) c. 34. Harduin, 7, 122. Con. Rot. (1231), c. 13. 
 lb. 186. Con. Prov. Fitzlar. (1246). Hartzheim, 3, 574. Con. Mog. (1261), 
 0.27, 39. lb. 604, 606-607. Con. Lon. (1168), c. 8. Harduin, 7, 621. Con. 
 Bit. c. 7. lb. 952. 
 
 5 Sed ecce Lethalis incuria> sopor pastoralis vit« vigilantium, quod gementes 
 dicimus, opressise videtur in plurimis, prout testatur nimia de plerisque re- 
 gionibus; damans christiani populi correptela, quae cum deberet ex sacerdo- 
 talis antidoti curari medelis, invalescit, proh dolor, ex malorum contagione, 
 quod procedit a clero, ita ut alicubi verum sit, quod ex Prophetica querela 
 testatur; Factus est inquiens, sicut populus sic sacerdos. Malitiam namque 
 dierum labentium, quae cum tempore corrupit et mores, dante quam plurimis 
 ex impuniate audacia semper in deteriora proclivem infrenis licentia> liber- 
 tatem, nonuUi clerici pra^cipiti lubricse voluptatis arbitrio laxas committentes 
 habentem, post camis suae concupiscentias abierunt et relegata pcene penitus 
 a conversatione vitae suaj clericalis mundicia-, honestate, tenent etiam in con- 
 spectu populi concubinas, cum quibus impudica?, frontis irreverentiam induens 
 foedas manus et fcetidas, quas sordidis libidinose coninquinationis fcetibus 
 immiserunt, non erubescunt in suum periculum, et ruinam populi sacris 
 ministeriis immisceri, a quibus ob pul)lici concubinatus insaniam quae nulla 
 tergiversatione sceleris, vel secundum scita canonum, tam quoad se quam 
 ad alios sunt suspensi, et ne quis talium Missam audire prajsumat, arctius in 
 eorum contemptum Canonicaj auctoritatis constitutio interdicit. Chron. 
 Aug. Ep. Alex. 4. Freher et Struve 1, 546.
 
 45 
 
 Under Boniface VIII the legislation concerning celibacy 
 was completed for the time being. He forbade the admission 
 to minor orders of men who did not intend to proceed to major 
 orders, which tended to prevent marriage among the former, ^ 
 and mitigated the severity shown to clerks of the minor or- 
 ders bj^ securing to them the canonical privileges of the clergy 
 as long as thej' wore the tonsure and clerical vestments. - 
 
 The history of the fourteenth century is a repetition of that 
 of the thirteenth, repeated legislation, open or secret disobedi- 
 ence, illicit indulgence, unmentionable sins. If the descrip- 
 tions of the clergy upon which we must depend for information 
 had proceeded from the enemies of the church, their authors 
 might be liable to the charge of wilful exaggeration. But the 
 fact that men of unquestioned orthodoxy and undoubted 
 loyalty concur in their judgments of the morals of the hier- 
 archy renders their testimony unimpeachable. When John 
 Ruysbroch^ of the Netherlands, Matthew of Cracow,'* Benedict 
 XII, 5 and many others unanimously declare that the clergy 
 
 ' Corp. Jur. Canon. Sexti Decretales, Lib. 1, Tit. 9, cap. 4. 
 
 » lb. Lib. 3, Tit. 2, cap. 1. Boniface VIII summed up in final form the 
 rules concerning the effect of vows in preventing marriage. . . . prii'.sentis 
 declarandum duximus oraculo .sanctionis, iUud solum votiim dol>cre dici 
 Bolenne, quantum ad post contractum matrimonium diriiiiciuiiim, (juod 
 solennisatum fucrit per susceptionem sacri ordinis, aut per professionem 
 expressam vel tacitam, factam alicui de religionibua per scdem aposlolicaiu 
 approhatis. Heliqua vcro vota, ct.si (luaiiJoque matrimonium imiu'diant 
 contraheiidum, et (juanto manifcstius sunt cmissa, taiilo propter plurimum 
 scandalum et exemplum durior pirnitentia transBrc.s.soril)US dcbcatur, uoii 
 tamen rcscinderc possunt matrimonia post contracta. It>. I-il'. ''i lit- l-'>, 
 
 cap. un. 
 
 ' (iuam vcro probosum ac detcstandum est quosdam ex rclniH crrlesiu-sticis 
 victitant€s, quos anima et corporc castos esse oporf<'l)at, |);il.im dnmi sua- 
 proles ex se genitas alerc ac sustcntare, aU\w irido tamen noii solum tiullo 
 nibore affiri, nuUo pudore .suffundi, sod etiam multum |)laciTe .sibi, imtiikIo 
 ac si ex legitimi.s e;us uxoribus, susccperint. Joamiis Hu.sbrochii Opera, p. IfiO. 
 
 * Concubinatus in clerico pui)lice et solcmniter cxercetur. Matthaei de Craco- 
 via Episco. Vorm de Squal. Horn. Cur. cap. 2. Mon. Med. Aov. Walchi, T. 6, 8. 
 
 » . . . in Hispania, ul)i multa liona et salubri.i ordiii.ivit, ronstitutionesquO 
 fecit quam plurimas, pra'sertim contra concubinarios ucdeniaaticoa, qu"
 
 46 
 
 maintained illicit relations with women, there is no reason to 
 doubt their assertion, particularly as contemporary denials of 
 it do not appear. 
 
 The fifteenth century not onlj^' saw no improvement in 
 ecclesiastical morality, but witnessed the failure to make 
 reforms by the agency from which the best results were ex- 
 pected, a General Council. That the efforts of the Council of 
 Constance were fruitless was not due to any lack of conscious- 
 ness of the needs of the church, but to jealousies which had their 
 source in national antagonism, politics and the conflicting privi- 
 leges of the orders of the hierarchy. Moreover as it was the 
 very members of the council themselves who most needed 
 reformation, there was little likelihood that vigorous and 
 efficient measures would be adopted. 
 
 The many sermons and addresses delivered at the council by 
 churchmen from all parts of Europe deserve some credence as a 
 picture of the clergy of that time. As in all periods since the 
 canons had rendered them incapable of contracting a legal 
 marriage, they dwelt with w^omen to whom they were bound 
 by every marital tie save that of a formal marriage ceremony. ^ 
 The effect of this practice upon their congregations was most 
 pernicious, for it accustomed them to evil wath the invariable 
 result.^ Other crimes were common, and the earnest church- 
 
 protunc erant in illis partibus infiniti. Vitse Paparum Aven. Baluzius, 
 Prima Vita Benedicti XII, T. 1, 204. 
 
 Litterse Benedicti XII. Miscellan. Baluzius, P. 264. Gersonis Opera, T. 2, 
 Append. 
 
 * Et maxime obviandum esset illi scandalosissimaj consuetudini, seu potius 
 corruptelaj, qua plure.s hodie non verentur tenere publico concubinas. Petri 
 de Alliaco Card. Cam. Tract, de Reformatioiie. Gersonis Opera, 2, Append. 
 913. Crimen pra,'fatum (concubinage) in multis locis cum maximo catho- 
 licorum scandalo, et in totius clericalis contemtura ordinis frequentatur. von 
 der Hardt, 1, P. 10, 635. 
 
 ' Cum propter crimen concubinatus, quo multi Ecclesiastici et religiosi viri 
 insciuntur, habeantur Ecclesia Dei et totus clerus in derisum, abominationem 
 et opprobrium cunctis gentibus; et illud nefandissimum scelus in Ecclesia Dei 
 adeo invaluit, ut jam non credant christiani simplicem fornicationem esse 
 peccatum mortale. Con. Paris. (1429) c. 23. Man.si, 23, 1107.
 
 47 
 
 men bent upon reform were unsparing in their denunciations 
 of their offending brethren. ^ Their misdeeds were so frequent 
 and so unconcealed that the example set by them was generally 
 accounted an evil influence upon their parishioners, and 
 Nicholas of Clemangis reckoned non-residence a benefit to the 
 people for this reason. ^ As in the past, ecclesiastical property' 
 was seriously impaired by the extravagances of luxurious 
 living and the bestowal of dowries and inheritances. ^ 
 
 The moral condition of many of the clergy had long been so 
 abhorrent to conscientious churchmen of pure lives, and so 
 dangerous to those within the range of their influence, that the 
 natural corrective was suggested by some ecclesiastics, and in 
 some cases applied by the laity. In parts of western Europe 
 clerical marriage was looked upon by them as a safeguard for 
 the virtue of their wives and daughters, and as the only remedy 
 for the flagitious lives of priests and prelates. In Spain the 
 people compelled many of the clergy to take wives, and early 
 
 ' Nunc multo magis dici possunt, quia ecclesia a malisa ad peiora processit 
 et in omni tam spiritual! quain temporali statu abiecto decore virtutuin, in 
 variain cecidit turpitudinem vitioruin. Auctoris Anon. Oratio. Mon. Med. 
 Aev., Fasci. Sec. p. 155. 
 
 Sed quain flagitiosum sit in viris ecclcsiastici.s et maxinie prelatis ad cult inn 
 vinia; Domini conductis enarare non est facile, neque ego (juoniodo illos de- 
 Bcribam, autcui monstro comparem, scio. Mon. Med. Aev., Fasc. Tert. p. 108. 
 
 ' Sed quid eorum tantopere a suis sedibus absentiain accusaniua, cum per 
 suam, si illic adessont, j)rii'sciitiatn vorisimiliu.s obcsse quain prodcs-so posscnt. 
 . . . qui suo turpi exeniplo grcKein per devia aliducunt in pra-cipitiuni, 
 . . . Nicolaus de Clemangis de Corrupto Ecclesia; Statu. Fasciculus Kerum 
 Expetendarum ac Fiigiendarum. T. 2, Appen. p. 562. 
 
 ' Postremo, (luirquid de l)f)nis ecclesijr cum (urpibus pcrsduis consuinunt 
 sacerdotes et clerici. . . . Dionysius Curthusianus, Opera MiiKtra. T. 1, art. 
 21, 409. 
 
 Vilis plebs te sacerdotum nunc cachinnis aUiue ludibriis incessit, et odit qui 
 columniandi ansain ultm pni'bueris. Dicit iiamquc; 'Pot hir aut ille ftrorta 
 domi sua' ex patrinumio Crucifixi nutrit, quo non sordida scoria, sed pauprres 
 Christi forent .sustentandi. Fasc. Iter. Expet. ac Fug. fol 210. 
 
 Paul III complained that the clergy of all Christendom thus \va.strd 
 ecclesiastical y)ropcrty. Con. Aug. Wilkins. .3, ()05-<M)(i Sec also (Jratio 
 Theobaldi Theologi., von der Hardt 1, Pt. 1<J, 908.
 
 48 
 
 111 the sixteenth century the same practice prevailed in Switzer- 
 land. ^ The crime for which prevention was thus sought must 
 have been common, if so ardent a defender of clerical celibacy 
 as Gerson could be led by it to assert that it were better for 
 marriage to be allowed than for the clergy to continue as they 
 were.^ 
 
 This and the other evil results of celibacy had been foreseen 
 by St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the rule had been opposed by 
 him on the ground that it would result in filling the church with 
 all manner of uncleaness. ^ The same argument had been used 
 bj^his predecessors; for from the time of Paphnutius in the first 
 quarter of the fourth century there had been a steady and, at 
 
 ' Quia vero nonulli laicorum clericos compellunt, in sacris praecipue ordini- 
 bus constitutes, ut aliquas mulieres concubinas recipiant, et cum eis in contu- 
 bernio publice vivant. . . . Con. Pal. (1322), c. 7. Mansi, 25, 703. 
 
 Die Schonische Bauren batten bereits am Ende des vorigen Seculi dieses 
 unter andern als eine Ursache ihres Aufruhrs angegeben, dass kraft des ersten 
 Verbots, einige Priester bei ihnen die Eheweiber fahren lassen, und funden sich 
 genothigt, beym Ertz-Bischoffen darauf zu insistieren, dass einem Priester 
 sein eigen Weib zu haben eriaubt seyn mogte. Pontoppidan 1, 637. 
 
 ^ Vel inexperti forte erant hi doctores quam generale et quam radicatum si* 
 hoc malum, et quod deteriora flagitia circa uxores aut filias parochianorum et 
 abominationes horrendse in aliis provenerint apud multas patrias, rebus 
 stantibus ut stant, si qua-rentur per tales censuras arceri. Scandalum certum 
 magnum est apud parochianos curati ad concubinam ingressus, sed longe 
 deterius si erga parochianas suas non servaverit castitatem. De Vita Spirit. 
 Anima;, Lect. 4, Cor. 14. Opera Johannis de Gerson, P. 3. Strasbourg, 1494. 
 
 Some idea of the extent of the evil may be obtained from the following extract. 
 De luxuria etiam eorundem q>iid dicam? Cum ipsa jam facta impudicam 
 Prselatorum ac sacerdotum vitam apertissime clament. Nulli enim parcunt 
 statui aut sexui feminarum, et sive virgines sint, sive moniales, sive seculares, 
 aut alterius conditionis, indifferente sunt ad omnes. Theoderici Vrie Historia 
 Con. Const., von der Hardt 1, P. 1, 69. 
 
 ' Res tamen tam in aperto est, ut mirer quomodo unquam homini christiano 
 persuaderi potuorit, nisi quod hi adeo aut bestiales sunt, ut non advertant, 
 qualiter omni iinniunditia; laxat habenas, qui nuptias damnat; . . . Tolle 
 de ecclesia honorabile connubium et torum immaculatum (Heb. 13, 4), 
 nonne reples eam concubinariis, incestuosis, seminifluis, mollibus, masculorum 
 concubitoribus, et omni denique genere immundorum Bernardi Sermones 
 in Cantica. Ser. 66, §3. Pat. Lt. 183, 1095.
 
 49 
 
 times, powerful opposition to celibac}^ which continued to the 
 time of the Council of Trent and proceeded, not from those 
 who desired relief from its restrictions, but from ecclesiastics, 
 both secular and regular, who were moved to resistance solely 
 by the terrible consequences to clergy and people which it 
 entailed. According to Peter Comestor, the devil had never 
 circumvented the church so successfully as when the vow of 
 celibacy was introduced.^ Alexander III, horrified at the evil 
 lives of the clergj' and the danger in which it placed the church, 
 advocated a return to the custom of the Greek Church, and his 
 proposal was supported by all but one of the members of his 
 Curia whose opposition resulted in its rejection. ^ Aeneas 
 Sylvius, who became Pope Pius II, recommended the same 
 course and had the concurrence of other churchmen therein.^ 
 Among them was the famous canonist, Nicholas Tudcschi, who 
 urgued that since the results of the law of celibacy had not been 
 to produce a more spiritual and unworldly clergy, but on the 
 contrary', one stained Ijy illicit indulgence and the most grievous 
 sins, it would be salutary for the church and in the interests 
 of the salvation of souls, to decree that only those who desired 
 to remain celibates should be allowed to take a vow of chastity. "* 
 
 ' Giruldus Camhrensis Clenima Ecclesiiu, Dist. 2, cap. (i. Iter. Brit. Med. 
 Aev. Script. 21, P. 2, 187. 
 
 ' lb. 
 
 ' Platina, De Vif.-i Pii II., 329. 
 
 * Nichohus TudeHchi, Lectura. T. .3, Itiihr. dc; cler. coiiiuK., Super, caiioii 
 cum olim. The opinion that the privile«e of marriage .should l)e extended U) 
 the clergy was not uncommon among men high in the service of the rliurch. 
 
 Item, circa coricubitiario.s providcatiir cum efTcctu, .-dia.s sic ncgiigendo 
 pra-staret permittere coniugium cicrici.s. Franci.sri ZaKarcll.e Card. Flor. 
 Capita . . . de Reformatione, cap. 12. von der Hanlt, I' '.I, .'>2». 
 
 Quamvis.seniogravor, nequc mentcm haheo ad coniugiutn, Hancf iiiri tatnen 
 arhitror, uxorcs rcstituis HacerdotihuH; quia nf)n est ()miiil)UH gratia Deicoii- 
 ce8.sa, ut Icgi lumhorum re.siHtant, ut de Paulo lcgimu.«. I'lx) rart from a H|M'ech 
 of the Cardinal of St. Peter at Bfisel. Milman. Hi.story of Latin ChriHtianity, 
 7, .W2. 
 
 Alain de Charticr, Secretary of Charles VII of France, expre.s.se(l hiuiHcIf 
 thu.s concerning celil)acy. Or fut il pieca fait ting nouuel statut en legliHo 
 latine qui desscura lordre du sanct mariage dauec lu dignite dc preatrise aoubz
 
 50 
 
 The chief jjiirpose of the Council of Basel was the reformation 
 of these evils, but like the Council of Constance, it did nothing 
 to make the existing legislation more effective, and simply 
 passed anew the oft-repeated canons. ^ 
 
 During the half century immediately following the Council, 
 and in the opening decades of the sixteenth century, clerical 
 morality continued unimproved, if the testimony of contemp- 
 oraries is to be believed. 2 As in the past the priests were 
 charged with corrupting the people both by example and by 
 deliberate seduction. ^ The members of the hierarchy upon 
 
 couleur de purete et chaste sans souilleur; mainteant court le statut de con- 
 cul)inage au contraire et les a attraitz aux estatz raondains et aux delictz 
 sensuelz et corporelz. Les Oeuvres d'Alain Chartier, Le Curial, p. 88. Que 
 apporte la constitution de non marier les prestres sinon tourner, et euiter 
 legitime generation pour conuertir en aduoultrie; et Ihoneste cohabitation 
 dune seule epouse en multiplication de eschouldee luxure. lb. 
 
 ' Con. Basil. Sess. 20. Harduin, 8, 1194. 
 
 ' Hinc quosdam religiosos et sacerdotes ac clericos in sacris ordinibus consti- 
 tutes, videmus multo incorrigibiliores et obstinatiores, carnaliores quam laicis 
 ac mundanis hominibus. Dionysius Carthusianus. Opera minora. T. l,art. 
 18, 387. Porro quam multa atque enormia scelera, quam nocentissima 
 scandala, quam lamentaliilis ac deflenda deformatio et ruina nascantur ex 
 cohabitatione mulierum cum sacerdotibus atque canonicis, experimentaliter 
 et ad oculum innotescit, ita ut iam a capite usque ad pedes quasi nulla sit 
 sanitas, sicut Osee propheta praidixit, Fornicatio et adulterium inundaverunt. 
 lb. art. 12, 461. See also art. 20, 21, 55, 408-409, 409-410, 503. Further, 
 
 DiviLaurentii Justinian) Opera, cap. 16, 499, and Faac. Rer. Expet. ac Fug. 
 
 p. 386. 
 
 ^ SjBpenumero enim compertum est, ut quum ita consecratis, prsesertim 
 sacerdotibus, per jura canonica legitimse uxores sunt interdicti; quod dehinc 
 pudicitiam matronarum, virginum, laicorum scilicet uxorum, filiarum soror- 
 umque attantant, ac noctu inter diuque sollicitant. EfTiciunt quoque per 
 assiduum ac indefessum laborem, partim muneribus, donis ac blanditiis, ut 
 complures honesttc alioque virgines ac matronie, partim etiam in secretis, 
 qua.s vocant, confessionibus (id quod eventu ipso compertum est) diuturna 
 opera labefactentur, ad peccata, offendiculaque commoveantur. Nee raro 
 etiam evenit, ut ii, uxores ac filias, martiis patribusque detineant ac rem- 
 orentur; minantes interim, gladio, acqua, ignive, ulteros repetitas uxores; 
 Sacri Romani Imperii Principum ac Procerum Gravamina centum cap. 21. 
 Goldast, Const. Imperiales, T. 1, 464.
 
 51 
 
 whom depended the maintenance of disciphne were sometimes 
 lax, and frequently, as had long been the custom, accepted 
 bribes for allowing the priests to retain their wives or concu- 
 bines.^ According to Trithemius, so many priests lived open- 
 ly with women to whom they were bound by licit or illicit 
 ties that they were beginning to view marriage as their right; 
 and he states that if any bishop had wished to enforce obed- 
 ience in his diocese, he would have been deterred bj'' the very 
 multitude of offenders. ^ Those more enlightened and far-see- 
 ing among the clergj^ who were able to inter] )rct the signs of 
 the times and saw that revolution was coming, assign as one 
 of its principal causes the flagitious lives of their depraved 
 brethren. 3 
 
 Nulla sacerdotum luxu nunc casta puella est. . . Conradi Celtis Elegia 
 Amorum, Vienna et Norimbergse 1502, Fol. 30. 
 
 ' Quod pralati, prsesertim cpiscopi, innumeris atque magnis vitiis involvun- 
 tur, qui peccata subditorum suorum non satis acriter ac frequenter corripiunt 
 et castigant. Dion Carthus. cap. 31, p. 391. 
 
 Jam illud obsecro quale est, quod plerisque in Diocesibus, rectores par- 
 ochiaruin ex certo et conducto cum suis Pra'latis pretio, passim et publice 
 concubinas tenent Nichlaus de Clemangis, de Corrupt. Eccles. Stat. Fasc. 
 Rer. Expct et Fug. 2, .502. 
 
 Quia vero in quilju.sdiim rcgionil)us nonulli jurisdictioncm ccclesiasticam 
 habente.s, pccuniarios qiia'Stus a concubinariis perciperc non eruljcscunt, . . . 
 Con. Ha.sil. Sess. 20, Harduin, 8, 1194. For further statements of the 
 existence of this custom, see Dion, f.-irtlms. art. 19, lOS. Synod. l{ogia 
 (1507). liatthyani 1, 508. Synod. Strig. I'rov. Pet.Tify 1, V. 1,212. (irnv. 
 centum Ger. nationis. (1522), Fa.sc. Rer. Expet. ac Fug. cap. 91, f. 187. 
 
 ' Adeo vitium hoc incontinentise in clero iam pnevaluit, ut (jujisi ctrperit 
 e.s.so lififum, (\u\ii pu!)lirum est. Johannis Trithemii opera pia et spiritiialia. 
 Moguntia-, 1001. Instil. Vita- sarcrdotiilis, ra|). I, 7()9. 
 
 * Pico della Mirandol.i Iti a tr.icf, which was addressed to Leo X and the 
 Latcran Council held by liim, (h;dared that iin intestine revolution coiiiil only 
 be prevented l)y maintenance of disrii)line. He then proc(!C(is: Luxuin 
 cohibe ruiuscimque ordinis, modum (xine ambitione, compesee indormitos, 
 et effrenatos libidinis ob.sc(rna! furores, suspectis sacerdotum . . . contu- 
 bernis frena constitue . . . Fasc. Her. Exjiet. ac Ftig. f. 209. See also 
 Oratio habita in Synodo al) A. C. Lynniehano. lb. f. 217. .larobi Winipliel- 
 ingii Apologia pro Hep. (Christ. Argentina?, 1605. cap. 1 1. 
 
 Cardinal Campeggio, Papal legate to (iermany, referred thus to the opinion
 
 52 
 
 Their predictions were soon fulfilled, but as the revolution 
 had its source in the doctrinal disputes originated by Luther, 
 the question of celibacy was not at first given a prominent 
 place. By the summer of 1520, however, Luther had formed 
 his opinion concerning celibacy for the secular clergy, and 
 although still acknowledging the legality of monastic vows, 
 denied that the church had the authority to demand a vow of 
 chastity from priests. The arguments against celibacy which 
 he adduced were those which had been used by its opponents 
 for many centuries, namely, that celibacy was not enjoined by 
 Christ, but was of human invention, and that it produced in- 
 numerable evil results.^ 
 
 During the years 1 521 -1523 the parish priests of Germany, 
 conscious that the danger of punishment by the old ecclesias- 
 tical authorities was lessening, and sure of the approval of their 
 congregations, began to marry. 2 From this time the practice 
 of clerical marriage accompanied the spread of the Revolution, 
 save in England, where it was not definitely established and 
 legahzed until 1559, about twenty-five years after the opening 
 of the revolt there. 
 
 The great reforming Council of Trent completed the theory 
 
 of the Council of Ratisbon summoned by him in 1524. Paribus sententiis 
 receptum fuit, hanc perditissimam haeresim rudi populo plausibilem ob 
 libertam illi falso persuasam prastextu evangelicse charitatis, non parvam 
 habuisse occasionem, partim a perditis moribus et vita clericorum. . . . 
 Const, ad removendos abusus per D. Laurentium Card., etc. Fasc. Rer. 
 Expet. ac Fug. f. 211. 
 
 * My advice further is, whoever henceforth is ordained priest, he should in no 
 wise take the vow of chastity, but should protest to the bishop that he has no 
 authority to demand this vow, and that it is a devilish tyranny to demand it. 
 Luther's Addre-ss to the German nobility. The Ninety-five Theses and Three 
 Primary Works of Dr. Martin Luther. Wace and Buchheim, p. 60. This 
 (celibacy) has been the cause of .so much mi.sery that it cannot be told, and 
 has given occasion to the Grrek church to separate from us, and has caused 
 infinite disunion, sin, shame and scandal, like everything that the devil 
 does or suggests. Now, what are we to do? My advice is to restore liberty, 
 and to leave every man free to marry or not to marry. lb. p. 59. 
 
 ' Spalatini Annales, 1521, 1522, 1523.
 
 53 
 
 of sacerdotal celibacy by erecting it into a doctrine. The 
 doctrinal canons concerning the sacrament of matrimony 
 enacted by the twenty-fourth session of the Council (Nov. 
 1563) declare anathema all who assert that those in hoty orders 
 are capable of contracting a valid marriage. It also anathe- 
 matized those who maintained that marriage was superior to 
 virginity, or that it was not better and more blessed to remain a 
 celibate than to be joined in wedlock. ^ To cover with the 
 opprobrium of heresy those who resisted the rule of celibacy, 
 or refused to accept it as an article of faith, was the last resort 
 in the attempt to enforce it. 
 
 The disciplinary canons of the Council of Trent were not 
 more stringent or severe than those of the past. Ecclesias- 
 tics were prohibited from maintaining wives or other women, 
 either at their own houses or elsewhere. ^ The offenders who 
 did not reform after one admonition were to lose one third 
 of the fruits of their benefices; if still disobedient, they were 
 to be deprived of all ecclesiastical income and office until 
 manifest reform warranted a dispensation. A relapse follow- 
 ing upon these penalties was to be punished by irrevocable de- 
 privation of benefices and honors, along with excommunica- 
 tion.^ The illegitimate sons of ecclesiastics were forliidden to 
 hold benefices in the same parishes with their fathers, and all 
 so offending, who did not resign within three months and seek 
 
 ' Si quifl dixerit, clericos in sacris ()rclirr:liuscon.stitutxis, vol reRviIarcs, cjisti- 
 tatem Bolemnitcr profcssos, po.s.sc niatriiiKniiiim contriiherc, coiitnicdimiiiie 
 validtim nssf, noii ohstiuilr Icixf (•(•(•ic.si!i.slic;i, vcl voto; et oppositiiiii iiiliil 
 aliud enac, (|ii.'Uii dainiiarc matriiiioniiim; po.ssecpie oninrs cniitralicn' iiialri- 
 monium, qui non snnliunt se castitatis, etiamsi eain vovcrinl, Ii.iIkic <i()iiimi; 
 anathema sit; . . . Con. Tridont. Ho.ss. 24. c. 9. Maniuiii, 10, lis. 
 
 Si qiii.-H dixerit, atatiim coiijuK.alorii aiitcponendiiin v.shv. ntaliii virjiiiiilat Ih 
 vol ca-lihatiis; et, non es.se melius iir hcatiii.s manere in vir^initate aiit, ca-lihatu 
 quam jimgi matrimonio; anathema Hit, e. K) 11). 
 
 ' . . . prohihrt Hancta .svnodii.s (|niliiisciiin<|iic ciiTiciH, ne coneniiiiias, ant 
 
 alia.s nmliere.M, de finil)ii,s po.s.sit haheri HU.spitio, in domo, vel extra, detiiiere, 
 aut cum iis ullam ronHuetndinpm hiiMere audeant; . . . Con. Trident. Sees. 
 25. Dec. de Ref. rap. 11 Il.irduiii, 10, 186. 
 ' 11).
 
 54 
 
 appointment elsewhere, were to be punished by loss of bene- 
 fice. 1 These canons are the law of the Roman Catholic Church 
 to-day. 
 
 ' Ut paternre incontinentiiB memoria a locis Deo consecratis, quos maxime 
 puritas sanctitasque decet, longissime arceatur; non liceat filiis clericorum, qui 
 non ex legitimo nati sunt matrimonio, in ecclesiis, ubi eorum patres bene- 
 ficium aliquod ecclesiasticum habent aut habuerunt, quodcumque etiam 
 dissimile beneficium obtinere; nee in dictis ecclesiis quoque modo ministrare, 
 nee pensiones super fructibus beneficiorum, quse parentes eorum obtinent, 
 vel alias obtinuerunt, habere. Con. Trident. Sess. 25. Dec. de Ref. cap. 15. 
 Harduin, 10, 187.
 
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 56 
 
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 Earl Evelyn Sperry was bom in Jordan, N. Y., February 
 19, 1875. His common school education was begun in the public 
 schools of that town, continued in those of Coldwater, Mich., and 
 completed at the High School of Syracuse, N. Y., from which 
 he graduated in January, 1893. In September, 1894, he 
 entered Syracuse University and in June, 1898, received the 
 degree Bachelor of Philosophy. After spending the following 
 year there in further study and in teaching, he was awarded 
 a scholarship in European History at Columbia University 
 and the next year, 1900-1901, was University Fellow in History 
 there. He passed his examinations for the degree of Doctor 
 of Philosophy in May, 1901, and spent the following year in 
 Europe. After returning home he was appointed Instructor 
 in European History at Syracuse University.
 
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