On the Articles: Article XXXII

The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

LORD we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

XXXII. Of the Marriage of Priests
Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, are not commanded by God’s Law, either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage: therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness.

The prohibition on the marriage of priests and bishops in the Roman Catholic Church was an innovation of the medieval period, much like the administration of the Lord’s Supper in one kind only. While in the case of the Eucharist the full reasons behind the decision are no longer entirely clear, the decision to prohibit the marriage of priests and bishops is known and relates to abuses among families where positions were being inherited.

In the Scriptures, as noted in the Article which says that celibacy is not commanded by God’s Law, while St Paul does commend celibacy for those who are able to practice it, it is not commanded, and indeed in I Tm 3. 2-12 when St Paul gives qualifications for bishops and deacons, he mentions that they may be married.

While in the early Church celibacy was sought as Godly by many, it was never particularly enforced, and often those who promoted it did so for all Christians, not simply for the religious or clergy. Pope St Gregory the Great was the first to truly advocate it, given his monastic origins, though he was unable to enforce this on clergy in his time.

The Council in Trullo in 691, almost a century after St Gregory’s attempts to enforce celibacy, established the rule that married Christians could become priests, but priests could no longer marry, meaning that even if your wife died you could not be remarried, nor could a celibate priest be married after ordination. In addition, bishops were required to come from monastics and celibate priests (including priests whose wife had died). These canons remain in force among the Eastern Orthodox today, however the council was never ratified in the West, and its practices were not adopted.

In the West, then, both priests and bishops were permitted to marry, and often did. This led to dynastic tenures in various offices, where fathers would ordain their sons and offer them plum positions only for the son to later inherit the bishopric. This led to particular families becoming rather wealthy. In the West the First Lateran Council of 1123 sought to impose clerical celibacy, however despite the Pope’s efforts to enforce it, it was never wholly received, for instance in Ireland where married priests remained the norm.

At the time of the Reformation, the practice fell under challenge in the West. Martin Luther, a monk, had broken his vow of celibacy and married a nun. To justify this position, he attacked the authority of enforced celibacy by pointing to the freedom for clergy to marry in Scripture. Among Protestants, the practice soon became normative.

In England, it took until 1549 for clerical celibacy to be abolished, however during the reign of Mary I, celibacy was again enforced and married clergy were defrocked. It took some time for the practice of married clergy to again become normative, but it had by the early 18th century.

It should be noted that the Article does note that it is lawful for priests to marry, the Article concludes by saying that each individual should judge how best to serve godliness by either marrying or not. This passage is reminiscent of St Paul’s exhortation in I Cor 6. 12 that, “all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.”