Clerical Marriage and Clerical Celibacy
Clerical Marriage and Clerical Celibacy
Though demands for clerical celibacy in Western Europe dated back to the late Roman period, clerical marriage was common before 1066 both in England and Normandy. Starting with the Gregorian reform, the papacy strove to eliminate clerical marriage throughout Europe. Archbishops Lanfranc and Anselm brought the fight to England, and by the early thirteenth century, clerical marriage had been abolished, though concubinage remained fairly common. In England as elsewhere, the drive for clerical celibacy met fierce opposition. Church authority stifled open debate relatively quickly, but practical opposition remained strong, and clerical families, including concubines, could occasionally be depicted in surprisingly positive terms. Ultimately, the drive for celibacy had a fair amount of success, but only at the cost of increasing misogyny. The chapter also briefly discusses same-sex relations among the clergy.
Keywords: secular clergy, celibacy, marriage, reform, misogyny, sexuality, homosexuality, ritual purity
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