CELIBATE, the same with celibacy; but it is chiefly used with reference to the single life of the Popish clergy, or the obligation they are under to abstain from marriage. In this sense we speak of the law of celibate. Monks and religious persons take a vow of celibate, and of chastity.
The Church of Rome imposes celibacy on all its clergy, from the pope to the lowest deacon and subdeacon. The advocates for this usage pretend that a vow of perpetual celibacy was required in the ancient church as a condition of ordination, even from the earliest apostolic ages. But the contrary is evident from numerous examples of bishops and archbishops who lived in a state of matrimony, without prejudice to their ordination or their function. It is generally agreed that most of the apostles were married; some say all of them, except St Paul and St John. In the ages immediately succeeding the apostles, we have accounts of many married bishops, presbyters, and deacons, without any reproof or mark of dishonour being set on them: for instance, Valens, presbyter of Philippi, mentioned by Polyarp; and Chæremon, bishop of Nilus. Novatus was a married presbyter of Carthage, as we learn from Cyprian, who himself was also a married man, as Pagi confesses; and so was Cæcilius, the presbyter who converted him, and Numidius, another presbyter of Carthage. The reply which the Romanists give to this is, that all married persons when they came to be ordained promised to live separate from their wives by consent, which answered the vow of celibacy in other persons. But this is not only said without proof, but against it; for Novatus, presbyter of Carthage, was certainly allowed to retain his wife after ordination, as appears from the charge which Cyprian brings against him, that he had struck and abused his wife, and thereby caused her to miscarry. There seems indeed to have been in some cases a tendency towards the introduction of such a law by one or two zealots; but the motion was no sooner made than it was quashed by the authority of wiser men. Thus Eusebius observes, that Pinytus, bishop of Gnossus in Crete, was for laying the law of celibacy upon his brethren; but Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, wrote to him that he should consider the weakness of men, and not impose that heavy burden on them. In the council of Nice, A.D. 325, the motion was renewed for a law to oblige the clergy to abstain from all conjugal intercourse with their wives whom they had married before their ordination; but Paphnutius, a famous Egyptian bishop, and one who himself was not married, vigorously decried against it,—upon which it was unanimously rejected. The story is thus told by Socrates and Sozomen; and all that Valesius, after Bellarmin, has to say
against it is, that he suspects the truth of it. The council of Celidogra-
Trullo, held in 692, made a difference in this respect be-
tween bishops and presbyters; allowing presbyters, deacons,
and all the inferior orders, to live with their wives after or-
dination; and giving the Roman church a smart rebuke for
the contrary prohibition, but at the same time laying an in-
junction upon bishops to live separate from their wives, and
appointing the wives to betake themselves to a monastic
life, or become deaconesses in the church. And thus was
a total celibate established in the Greek church as to bishops,
but not as to any others. In the Latin church a similar
rule was established, but by slow degrees in many places;
for in Africa even bishops cohabited with their wives at the
time of the council of Trullo. The celibacy of the clergy,
however, appears of ancient standing, and if not of com-
mand and necessity, yet of counsel and choice. But as it
is clearly neither of divine nor apostolical institution, it is
not easy at first view to conceive from what motive the
court of Rome could have persisted so obstinately in im-
posing this institution on the clergy. But we are to ob-
serve that this was a leading step to the execution of the
project formed of making the clergy independent of princes,
and rendering them a separate body to be governed by
their own laws. In effect, while priests had children it was
difficult to prevent their dependence on princes, whose fa-
vours have such an influence on private men; but having
no family they were more at liberty to adhere to the pope.
That ambitious pontiff Gregory VII., perceiving the great
advantages in these respects that must accrue to the church,
enforced the laws of celibacy with unbending rigour.