On Celibacy

Taken directly from the book.

Insistence on the chastity of the clergy was, of course, part of the agenda of the reform movement. Strangely, there is little in the Bible that can be interpreted as indicating that priests ought not to marry. St. Paul, it is true, makes it clear that marriage is second best to celibacy but superior to fornication. Christ himself, on the other hand, does not forbid his disciples to marry. Many were married, including St. Peter, who founded the church in Rome and who is recorded as having a mother-in-law. In other words, the first pope was married. All of which might prompt one to wonder whether there was some other reason why in the Middle Ages the church suddenly found celibacy so important

Burge goes on to suggest that celibacy in the clergy was developed to prevent church hierarchy positions being passed down by heredity. That kept secular nobility from marrying into the church and gaining both aristocratic and clerical power. It was their method of separating church and state...in a small manner.


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