This is from Carthusian@yahoogroups.com. Thought it might be of interest and use to us Catholic apologists.
The early Church did in fact presume perpetual continence of both
married and unmarried clerics -- bishops, priests, deacons -- and in
some cases, subdeacons and acolytes as well. This fact is extensively
documented in "The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy" by
Christian Conchini, SJ (1990) and "Clerical Celibacy in East and
West" by Roman Cholij (1989). Although there were many married men
who were admitted to sacred orders in the early centuries, all were
expected to practice continence after their ordination. No one was
allowed to marry after ordination, nor was any permitted to re-marry
if his wife died. If a married cleric was found to have fathered a
child (or otherwise resumed conjugal relations with his wife) after
ordination, he was deposed from sacred orders. From these studies I
conclude that the subsequent legislation barring married men from
ordination was designed to remove (or at least reduce) the temptation
inherent in a man living with a woman in close quarters -- especially
with the very woman with whom he had previously (legitimately)
engaged in conjugal relations.
The eastern traditions did not, simply speaking, "[continue] the
patristic tradition of a married priesthood..." nor was it "the roman
tradition that broke away" from it. It was in fact the Church in the
west that maintained the apostolic tradition of universal and
absolute clerical continence from the moment of ordination -- and the
eastern churches that abandoned it by the Council of Trullo (A.D.
691, whose novel legislation on clerical continence was rightly
rejected by Rome) in order to attempt to put a good face on what
amounted to a serious lack of discipline among their married clergy.
---
The early Church did in fact presume perpetual continence of both
married and unmarried clerics -- bishops, priests, deacons -- and in
some cases, subdeacons and acolytes as well. This fact is extensively
documented in "The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy" by
Christian Conchini, SJ (1990) and "Clerical Celibacy in East and
West" by Roman Cholij (1989). Although there were many married men
who were admitted to sacred orders in the early centuries, all were
expected to practice continence after their ordination. No one was
allowed to marry after ordination, nor was any permitted to re-marry
if his wife died. If a married cleric was found to have fathered a
child (or otherwise resumed conjugal relations with his wife) after
ordination, he was deposed from sacred orders. From these studies I
conclude that the subsequent legislation barring married men from
ordination was designed to remove (or at least reduce) the temptation
inherent in a man living with a woman in close quarters -- especially
with the very woman with whom he had previously (legitimately)
engaged in conjugal relations.
The eastern traditions did not, simply speaking, "[continue] the
patristic tradition of a married priesthood..." nor was it "the roman
tradition that broke away" from it. It was in fact the Church in the
west that maintained the apostolic tradition of universal and
absolute clerical continence from the moment of ordination -- and the
eastern churches that abandoned it by the Council of Trullo (A.D.
691, whose novel legislation on clerical continence was rightly
rejected by Rome) in order to attempt to put a good face on what
amounted to a serious lack of discipline among their married clergy.
---
