Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/539

 CELESTINES

4S1

CELIBACY

Gelestuies, Conqrbqa.tion of. See Celestine V,

Saint, 1'oi-e.

Celibacy of the Clergy is the renunciation of marriage implicitly or explicitly made, for the more perfect observance of chastity, by all those who receive the Sacrament of Orders in any of the higher grades. The character of this renunciation, as we shall see, is differently understood in the Eastern and in the Western Church. Speaking, for the moment, only of Western Christendom, t he candidates for orders, when they are presented for the grade of subdeacon, are solemnly warned by the bishop at the beginning of the ceremony regarding the gravity of the obligation which they are incurring. "You ought", he tells them, "anxiously to consider again and again what sort of a burden this is which you are taking upon you of your ownaccord. Up to this you are free. You may still, if you choose, turn to t he aims and desires of the world (licet vobis pro arbitrio ad scecidaria oota transire). But if you receive tliis order (of the subdiaeonate) it will no longer be lawful to turn back from your purpose. You will be required to continue in the service of God, and with His assistance to observe chastity and to be bound for ever in the ministrations of the Al- tar, to serve whom is to reign." By stepping for- ward despite this warning, when invited to do so, and by co-operating in the rest of the ordination service, the candidate is understood to bind himself equiva- lent ly by a vow of chastity. He is henceforth unable to contract a valid marriage, and any serious trans- gression in the matter of this vow is not only a griev- ous sin in itself but incurs the additional guilt of sacrilege.

Before turning to the history of this observance it will be convenient to deal in the first place with certain general principles involved. The law of celibacy has repeatedly been made the object of at- tack, especially of recent years (see, for example, H. C. Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy, third edition, 1907, in two volumes), and it is important at the outset to correct certain prejudices thus created. Although we do not find in the New Testa- ment any indication of celibacy being made com- pulsory either upon the Apostles or those whom they ordained, we have ample warrant in the language of Our Saviour, and of St. Paul for looking upon virgin- ity as the higher call, and by inference, as the condi- tion befitting those who are set apart for the work of the ministry. In Matt., xix, 12. Christ clearly com- mends those who, "for t ho sake of the kingdom of God", have held aloof from the married state, though He adds: "he that can take it, let him take it". St. Paul is even more explicit. "I would", he says, "that all men were even as myself; but every one hath his proper gift from God. . . . But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for them if they so continue, even as I." And further on: "But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is wit hout a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife, is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But she that is mar- ried thinketh on tlie things of this world how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your profit, not to cast a snare upon you, but for that which is decent and which may give you power to attend upon the Lord without impediment." (I Cor., vii, 7-8 and 32-35.)

Further, although we grant that the motive here appealed to is in some measure utilitarian, we shall probably be justified in saying, with the distinguished canonist George Phillips, that the principle which underlies the Church's action in en- III.— 31

forcing celibacy upon her clergy is not limited to this utilitarian aspect but goes even deeper. From the earliest period the Church was personified and con- ceived of by her disciples as the Virgin Bride and as the pure Body of Christ, or again as the Virgin Mother (vap64vos /utjttjp), and it was plainly fitting that this virgin Church should be served by a virgin priesthood. Among Jews and pagans the priesthood was hereditary. Its functions and powers were transmitted by natural generation. But in the Church of Christ, as an antithesis to this, the priestly character was imparted by the Holy Ghost in the Divinely-instituted Sacrament of Orders. Virginity is consequently the special prerogative of the Chris- tian priesthood. Virginity and marriage are both hoi}', but in different ways. The conviction that virginity possesses a higher sanctity and clearer spiritual intuitions, seems to be an instinct planted deep in the heart of man. Even in the Jewish Dis- pensation where the priest begot children to whom his functions descended, it was nevertheless enjoined that he should observe continence during the period in which he served in the Temple. No doubt a mys- tical reason of this kind does not appeal to all, but such considerations have always held a prominent place in the thought of the Fathers of the Church; as is seen, for example, in the admonition very com- monly addressed to subdeacons of the Middle Ages it the time of their ordination. "With regard to them it has pleased our fathers that they who handle the sacred mysteries should observe the law of conti- nence, as it is written 'be clean ye who handle the vessels of the Lord'" (Maskell, Monumenta Rit- ualia, II. 242).

On the other hand, such motives as are dwelt upon in the passage just quoted from the Epistle to the Corinthians are of a kind which must appeal to the intelligence of all. The more holy and exalted we represent the state of marriage to be, the more we justify the married priest in giving the first place in his thoughts to his wife and family and only the second to his work. It would be hard to find more unexceptionable testimony to this point of view than that of Dr. Dollinger. No scholar of this generation was more intimately acquainted with the by-ways of medieval history. No one could have supplied so much material for a chrtmiqve scandaleuse like that which Dr. Lea has compiled in his history of celibacy. Moreover, when Dr. Dollinger severed his connexion with the Church after the Vatican Council, he had absolutely no motive to influence his judgment in favour of Rome's traditional discipline, if it were not that he believed that the lesson both of the past and the present was char. Nevertheless, when the Old Catholics abolished compulsory celibacy for the priesthood, Dr. Dollinger, as we are told by an inti- mate friend of his, an Anglican, was "sorely grieved" by the step, and this seems to have been one of the principal tilings which kept him from any formal par- ticipation in the Old Catholic communion. In refer- ence to this matter lie wrote to the same Anglican friend : —

" You in England cannot understand how com- pletely engrained it is into our people that a priest is a man who sacrifices himself for the sake of his pa- rishioners. He has no children of his own, in order that all the children in the parish may be his children. His people know that his small wants are supplied, and that he can devote all his time and thought to them. They know that it is quite otherwise with the married pastors of the Protestants. The pastor's income may be enough for himself, but it is not enough for his wife and children also. In order to maintain them he must take other work, literary or scholastic, only a portion of his tunc can be given to his people; and they know that when the interests of lus family and those of his flock collide, his family