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An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church

Name: An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church
Author: Henry Charles Lea

by Henry Charles Lea

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Language: en1,510 downloads on Project Gutenberg

Subjects

Church history Catholic Church -- Clergy Celibacy -- Catholic Church

In: History - European·History - Religious

Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #61176.

About this book

Le H. C. Lea’s work is a scholarly survey of the enforced celibacy of the clergy from the earliest Jewish asceticism through the Reformation, deliberately avoiding the polemics that dominate many continental treatments. The author opens by declaring the intent to present facts, each backed by authoritative references, and to confine the study to the priestly class, leaving monastic communities and later sects such as the Dunkers and Shakers aside. The detailed table of contents maps a chronological journey, beginning with pre‑Nicene influences, moving through the councils of Nicaea, Elvira and Lateran, and tracing the ebb and flow of clerical marriage across Europe, the Eastern churches, and military orders, offering a concise yet comprehensive picture of how celibacy shaped both ecclesiastical policy and broader civilization.

Written in the measured, documentary style of a mid‑nineteenth‑century historian, the text reflects the author’s Philadelphia origins and the era’s penchant for exhaustive footnotes and systematic chronology. Readers who appreciate meticulous source‑based narrative, especially those interested in church law, medieval social history, or the interplay between religious discipline and societal development, will find Lea’s monograph a rewarding, if dense, exploration of a topic seldom treated without controversy.

The opening · free to read

So far as I am aware, no work of the kind exists in English literature, and those which have appeared in the Continental languages are almost exclusively of a controversial character. It has been my aim to avoid polemics, and I have therefore sought merely to state facts as I have found them, without regard to their bearing on either side of the questions involved. As those questions have long been the subject of ardent disputation, it has seemed proper to substantiate every statement with a reference to its authority.

The scope of the work is designedly confined to the enforced celibacy of the sacerdotal class. The vast history of monachism has therefore only been touched upon incidentally when it served to throw light upon the rise and progress of religious asceticism. The various celibate communities which have arisen in this country, such as the Dunkers and Shakers, are likewise excluded from the plan of the volume. These limitations occasion me less regret since the appearance of M. de Montalembert’s “Monks of the West” and Mr. W. Hepworth Dixon’s “New America,” in which the student will probably find all that he may require on these subjects.

Besides the controversial importance of the questions connected with Christian asceticism, it has seemed to me that a brief history like the present might perhaps possess interest for the general reader, not only on account of the influence which ecclesiastical celibacy has exerted, directly and indirectly, on the progress of civilization, but also from the occasional glimpse into the interior life of past ages afforded in reviewing the effect upon society of the policy of the church as respects the relations of the sexes. The more ambitious historian, in detailing the intrigues of the court and the vicissitudes of the field, must of necessity neglect the minuter incidents which illustrate the habits, the morals, and the modes of thought of bygone generations. From such materials a monograph like this is constructed, and it may not be unworthy the attention of those who deem that the life of nations does not consist exclusively of political revolutions and military achievements.

PHILADELPHIA, May, 1867.

In reprinting this work such changes have been made as further reading and reflection have seemed to render advisable. The first two and the last sections have been wholly rewritten, and numerous additions have been made throughout the volume. To accommodate as far as possible the considerable amount of matter thus introduced, I have omitted from the footnotes all extracts which merely verified without illustrating the text.