Jonathan Bacon's Web Site

27-29 C.E.

Jesus lived a celibate lifestyle during his ministry, but most of his apostles were married. Peter (First Pope based on Matthew 16:18-19) is married to Perpetua.[i]

53-55 C.E.

Paul writes (NIV I Corinthians 7:32-38):[32] I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs--how he can please the Lord. [33] But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world--how he can please his wife—[34] and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world--how she can please her husband. [35] I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. [36] If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if she is getting along in years and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. [37] But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin--this man also does the right thing. [38] So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better.

300-306 C.E.[ii] or 310 C.E.[iii]

Council of Elvira (a regional council in Spain) produced Canon 33: It is decided that marriage be altogether prohibited to bishops, priests, and deacons, or to all clerics placed in the ministry, and that they keep away from their wives and not beget children; whoever does this, shall be deprived of the honor of the clerical office.[iv] Most priests ignored this regional decree.[v]

325 C.E.

The First Ecumenical Council--Nicaea, 325 A.D. The law of celibacy of the clergy was discussed however, it was rejected. The Eastern clergy had always married and it was they who dominated the Council. Various other important doctrines held by some of the groups were condemned as heresies.[vi] “However the council did condemn the practice in which supposedly celibate priests harbored young women in their households in order to ‘test their sexual restraint and prove their moral strength.’”[vii]

384-399

Siricius is Bishop of Rome (Pope). Abandons his wife and children to gain the papal position. Authors two decrees on clerical celibacy.[viii]

390 C.E.

(419 C.E.[ix])

Council of Carthage Canon 3: It is fitting that the holy bishops and priests of God as well as the Levites, i.e. those who are in the service of the divine sacraments, observe perfect continence, so that they may obtain in all simplicity what they are asking from God; what the Apostles taught and what antiquity itself observed, let us also endeavour to keep... It pleases us all that bishop, priest and deacon, guardians of purity, abstain from conjugal intercourse with their wives, so that those who serve at the altar may keep a perfect chastity.[x]

567 C.E.

The Second Council of Tours decrees that “any cleric found guilty of having sex with his wife would be excommunicated for a year. So many clerics were discovered to be sleeping with their wives that instead of losing hundreds of priests through excommunication, the Church decided to punish the wives with excommunication.”[xi]

580 C.E.

Pope Pelagius II “tolerated married clerics as long as they did not give Church property and money to wives and children. And as long as married priests bequeathed their deathbed estates to the Church.”[xii] Over the ensuing 550 years, marriage was not strictly forbade but “insisted that priestly marriage be continent.” However, clerics including priests and popes bore children during this time period.[xiii]

1012-1024 C.E.

Pope Beneduct VIII “promulgated drastic canons prohibiting marriage—and concubinage, since priests forbidden to marry were taking mistresses.” Children of such marriages were considered illegitimate and “condemned to a life of serfdom.”[xiv]

1074 C.E.

Pope Gregory VII legislated that anyone to be ordained must first pledge celibacy.[xv]

1085 C.E.

Married priests with families faced increasing repression. The priests would be imprisoned and their wives and children sold into slavery.[xvi]

1139 C.E.

Pope Innocent II (and the Second Lateran Council[xvii]) finally decreed that clerical marriage was invalid.[xviii]

1981 C.E.

Papal decree called the "pastoral provision" includes provision that allows married Episcopal priests to become married Catholic priests and keep their families.[xix]