38 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.I). 1073-1085.
These motives controlled also the followers of Gregory and the whole hierarchy, and secured the ultimate triumph of sacerdotal celibacy. The question of abolishing it has from time to time been agitated, and in the exceptional cases of the Maronites and United Greeks the popes have allowed single marriage in deference to old custom and for pruden tial reasons. Pope Pius II., before he ascended the papal chair (1458-1464), said that good reasons required the pro hibition of clerical marriage, but better reasons required its restoration. The hierarchical interest, however, has always overruled these better reasons. Whatever may have been the advantages of clerical celibacy, its evils were much greater. The sexual immorality of the clergy, more than anything else, undermined the respect of the people for their spiritual guides, and was one of the chief causes of the Reformation, which restored honorable clerical marriage, created a pastoral home with its blessings, and established the supremacy of conscience over hierarchical ambition.
From the standpoint of a zealous reformer like Gregory, the morals of the clergy were certainly in a low condition. No practice did he condemn with such burning words as the open marriage of priests or their secret cohabitation with women who were to all intents and purposes their wives. Contemporary writers like Damiani, d. 1072, in his G-omorrhianus, give dark pictures of the lives of the priests. While descriptions of rigid ascetics are to be accepted with caution, the evidence abounds that in all parts of Latin Christendom the law of priestly celibacy was ignored.1 Modern Catholic historians, like Hefele2 and Funk,3 do not hesitate to adduce the proofs of this state of affairs. The pope Benedict IX., according to friendly testimony,
1 Mirbt, PuUizistik, 259, says that there was no such thing as a general observance of celibacy in Western Europe.
2 Kirchengesch., 339.
3 Kirchengesch., 271. It will be remembered that in Spain, in the eighth century, King Witiza formally abolished the law of clerical celibacy.
§ 13. THE ENFORCEMENT OF SACERDOTAL CELIBACY. 39
was thinking of taking a wife openly.1 The legislation, opening with the canons of the Roman synod of 1049 held by Leo IX., and emphasized at the Roman synod of 1059 held under Nicholas II., was given by Gregory VII. such a prominence that one might have supposed the very existence of the Church depended upon the enforcement of clerical celibacy. There were bishops even in Italy who openly per mitted the marriage of priests, as was the case with Kunibert of Turin.2 In Germany, Bishop Poppo of Toul did not conceal his quasi-marital relations which Gregory denounced as fornication,3 and the bishops of Spires and Lausanne had hard work clearing themselves in public synods from a like charge. Married priests were denominated by synods and by Gregory VII. as " incontinent " or " concubinary priests."4 Gregory spoke of Germany as afflicted with the " inveterate disease of clerical fornication."5 And what was true of Italy and Germany was true of England.
§ 13. The Enforcement of Sacerdotal Celibacy.
LITERATURE, special works : HENRY C. LEA : A Hist. Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Phil. 1867, 2d ed. Boston, 1884. — A. DRESDNER : Kultur und Sittengeschichte der italienischen Geistlichkeit im 10 und 11 Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1890. — MIRBT: Publizistik, pp. 239- 342 ; HEFELE, V. 20 sqq. The chief contemporary sources are DAMIANI : de codibatu sacerdotum, addressed to Nicolas II. and Qomorrhianus, commended by Leo IX., and other writings, — Gregory VII."1 s Letters. Mirbt gives a survey of this literature, pp. 274-342.
Gregory completed, with increased energy and the weight of official authority, the moral reform of the clergy as a means for securing the freedom and power of the Church. He held synod after synod, which passed summary laws against simony and Nicolaitism, and denounced all carnal
1 So Bonizo of Sutri ad amicum, lib. V.
2 So Damiani. See Mirbt, 248. s Gregory, Beg., II. 10. 4 Incontinentes sacerdotes et levitce . . . sacerdotes concubinati.
* Reg., II. 30.