24'1 TIIIED PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
says of the practice of liis time, that in Thesriulia matrinionia. intercourse after " ordination had been forbidden under penaltj* of deposition from the time of Ileliodorus of Trica, who in his youth had been an amatory writer ; but that in the East the clergy and bishops vohmtarily abstained from intercourse with their wives, without being required by any law to do so ; for many, he adds, have had children during their episcopate by their lawful wives.' There v/ere Greek divines, however, like Epiphanius, who agreed with the Roman theory. Justinian I. was ntterly opposed to the marriage of priests, declared the children of such connection illegitimate, and forbade the election of a married man to the episcopal office (a. d. 528). Nevertheless, down to the end of the seventh century, many bishops in Africa, Libya, and elsewhere, continued to live in the married state, as is expressly said in the twelfth canon of the Trullan council ; but this gave offence and was forbidden. From that time the marriage of bishops gradually disappears, while marriage among the lower clergy continues to be the rule.
This Trullan council, which was the sixth ecumenical'' (a. d. 092), closes the legislation of the Eastern church on the subject of clerical marriage. Here — to anticipate somewhat — the continuance of a first marriage contracted before ordination was prohibited in the case of bishops on pain of deposition, but, in accordance with the Apostolic Constitutions and Canons, allowed in the case of presbyters and deacons (contrary to the Roman practice), with the Old Testament restriction,
ham, Christ. Antiq. b. iv. ch. 5 ; J. A. Thcinei- and A. Theiner, Die Einfiihrung tier erzwungenen Ehclosigkeit der christl. Goistlichcn u. ihre Folgen (Altenburg, 1828), vol. i. p. 2G3 sqq., and Gieseler, vol. i. div. 2, § 97, notes at the close. The marriage of Gregory of Nyssa with Thcosebia is di.spiited by some Roman Catholic writers, but seems well supported by Greg. Naz. Ep. 95, and Grog Nyss. De virg. 3.
' Hist. Eccl. V. cap. 22 : Twy iv avaroAy irdvTwv yvcinri (i. e. from principle or voluntarily — according to the reading of the Florentine codex) an-exoMfcDj', koI ran iiri<TK6irtvv, 61 Kal ^ovXoivro, oii HT)t> avdyKti vofjLOV roino -noiovvrtui/. TloWoX yap avriit iv T(£ Kaipw rrjs i-rrKTKOVTJs Kal walSar 4k t^s vofxliit)^ ya/xerris TtetTOirjKacnv.
* More preciaely, the Kecond Trullan council, held in the Trullan hall of the imperial palace in Constantinople; also called CoTicilium QinniscxtKm, avvoSot inv ^fKT-n, being considered a supplement to tlie fifth and sixth general councils. Cump respecting it Hefele, iii. 298 sqq.
§ 50. MAURIAGE AND CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 24:'
that, they abstain from sexual intercourse during the season of otticial service, because he who administers holy things must be pure.' The same relation is thus condemned in the one case as immoral, in the other approved and encouraged as moral ; the bishop is deposed if he retains his lawful wife and does not, immediately after being ordained, send her to a distant cloister ; while tlie presbyter or deacon is threatened with deposition and even excommunication for doing the opposite and ] Kitting his wife away.
The Western cliurch, starting from the perverted and almost Manichc^an ascetic principle, that the married state is incompatible witli clerical dignity and holiness, instituted a vigorous effort at the end of the fourtli century, to make celibacy, which liad hitherto been left to the option of individuals, the universal law of the priesthood ; thus placing itself in direct contradiction to the Levitical law, to which in other respects it made so mucli account of conforming. The law, however, though repeatedly enacted, could not for a long time 1)0 consistently enforced. The canon, already mentioned, of the Spanish council of Elvira in 305, was only provincial. Tlie first prohibition of clerical mari'iage, which laid claim to universal ecclesiastical authority, at least in the West, proceeded in 385 from the Roman cburch in the form of a decretal letter of the bishop Siricius to Himerius, bishop of Tarragona in Spain, who had referred several questions of discipline to the Roman bishop for decision. It is significant of the connection between the celibacy of the clergy and the interest of the hierarchy, that the first properly papal decree, which was issued in the tone of supreme authority, imposed such an unscriptural, unnatural, and morally dangerous restriction. Siricius contested the appeal of dissenting parties to the Mosaic law, on the ground that the Christian priesthood has to stand not merely for a time, but perpetually, in the service of the sanctuary, and that it is not hereditary, like the Jewish ; and he ordained that second maiTiage and marriage with a widow
' Can. 3, 4, and especially 12, 13, and 48. In the latter canon bishops are directed, after oidiuation, to commit their wives to a somewhat remote cloister tliough to provide for their support