If there is any question about the families of Abraham and Jacob, a longer discussion will be found in the book I wrote about the polygamy and large families of the ancient men of God. To this I must refer the student, only warning him that according to the laws of the new covenant the producing of children is certainly not forbidden, but the provisions are similar to those followed by the ancient men of God.

20, Ζητουμένης δὲ τῆς κατὰ τὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰακὼβ παιδοποιίας͵ ἐν ἑτέροις τὸν λόγον σχολαίτερον ἀποδεδώκαμεν͵ ἐν οἷς περὶ τῆς τῶν πάλαι θεοφιλῶν ἀνδρῶν πολυγαμίας τε καὶ πολυπαιδίας διει λήφαμεν͵ ἐφ΄ ἃ καὶ νῦν τοὺς φιλομαθεῖς ἀναπέμπομεν͵ τοσοῦτον ἐπισημηνάμενοι͵ ὅτι καὶ κατὰ τοὺς τῆς καινῆς διαθήκης νόμους οὐ πάμπαν ἀπηγόρευται τὰ τῆς παιδοποιίας͵ ἀλλὰ κἀν τούτῳ τὰ παρα πλήσια τοῖς πάλαι θεοφιλέσιν διατέτακται.

“For a bishop,” says the Scripture, “must be the husband of one wife.”

χρῆναι γάρ φησιν ὁ λόγος τὸν ἐπίσκοπον γεγονέναι μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἄνδρα.

Yet it is fitting that _[p.54] those in the priesthood and occupied in the service of God, should abstain after ordination from the intercourse of marriage.

21 πλὴν ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἱερωμένοις καὶ περὶ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ θεραπείαν ἀσχολουμένοις ἀνέχειν λοιπὸν σφᾶς αὐτοὺς προσήκει τῆς γαμικῆς ὁμιλίας·

To all who have not undertaken this wondrous priesthood, Scripture almost completely gives way, when it says: “Marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

ὅσοι δὲ μὴ τῆς τοσαύτης ἠξίωνται ἱερουργίας͵ τούτοις ὁ λόγος καθυφίησιν μονονουχὶ διαρρήδην ἅπασιν κηρύττων͵ ὅτι δὴ τίμιος ὁ γάμος καὶ ἡ κοίτη ἀμίαντος͵ πόρνους δὲ καὶ μοιχοὺς κρινεῖ ὁ θεός.

This, then, is my answer to the first question.

ταῦτα μὲν οὖν εἰς τὴν πρώτην ἡμῖν εἰρήσθω πρότασιν.

Chapter 7, Decreta Decretal in answer to Bishop Himerius

Let us talk now about the very holy clerical Orders. As your Charity advises us, we see that in your provinces they are trampled underfoot and confused, with great prejudice to the honor due to religion. It has come to the point where we must say with Jeremiah: “Who will turn my head into a fountain, and my eyes into a spring for tears, so that I may weep all day, all night for all the dead out of the daughter of my people?” (Jer 8:23). If the blessed prophet declares that tears are not enough to lament the sins of the people, how much more can we be grief stricken when we have to bemoan the crimes of those in our own body? We especially, because as Blessed Paul put it, we must constantly be preoccupied daily, anxious for all the Churches. “When any man has had scruples. I have had scruples with him; when any man is made to fall, I am tortured” (2 Cor 11:29). We have indeed discovered that many priests and deacons of Christ brought children into the world, either through union with their wives or through shameful intercourse. And they used as an excuse the feet that in the Old Testaments we can read—priests and ministers were permitted to beget children.

Whatever the case may be, if one of these disciples of the passions and tutors of vices thinks that the Lord—in the law of Moses—gives an indistinct license to those in sacred Orders so that they may satisfy their passions, let him tell me now: why does [the Lord] warn those who had the custody of the most holy things in the following way: “You must make yourselves holy, for I am Yahweh your God” (Lev 20:7). Likewise, why were the priests ordered, during the year of their tour of duty, to live in the temple. away from their homes? Quite obviously so that they would not be able to have carnal knowledge of any woman, even their wives, and, thus, having a conscience radiating integrity, they could offer to God offerings worthy of his acceptance. Those men, once they had fulfilled their time of service, were permitted to have marital intercourse for the sole purpose of ensuring their descent, because no one except (the members] of the tribe of Levi could be admitted to the divine ministry.

10. Sacerdotes et diaconi insolubili continentiae lege [1139A] constringuntur

This is why, after having enlightened us by his coming, the Lord Jesus formally stipulated in the Gospel that he had not come to abolish the law, but to bring it to perfection; this is also why he wanted the beauty of the Church whose Bridegroom he is to shine with the splendor of chastity, so that when he returns, on the Day of Judgment, he will find her without stain or wrinkle, as his Apostle taught. It is through the indissoluble law of these decisions that all of us, priests and deacons, arc bound together from the day of our ordination, and (held to] put our hearts and our bodies to the service of sobriety and purity; may we be pleasing to our God in all things, in the sacrifices we offer daily. “People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God”, says the Chosen Vessel. “Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you” (Rom 8:8-9).

. Unde et Dominus Jesus cum nos suo illustrasset adventu, in Evangelio protestatur, quia Legem venerit implere, non solvere. Et ideo Ecclesiae, cujus sponsus est, formam castitatis voluit splendore radiare (Matth. V, 27), ut in die judicii, cum rursus advenerit, sine macula et ruga eam possit, sicut per Apostolum suum instituit, reperire (Ephes. V, 27). Quarum sanctionum omnes sacerdotes atque levitae insolubili lege constringimur, ut a die ordinationis nostrae, sobrietati ac pudicitiae et corda nostra mancipemus et corpora, dummodo per omnia Deo nostro in his, quae quotidie offerimus, sacrificiis placeamus. Qui autem in carne sunt, dicente electionis vase, Deo placere non possunt. Vos autem jam non estis in carne, sed in spiritu, si tamen [1139B]spiritus Dei habitat in vobis (Rom. VIII, 8, 9). Et ubi poterit, nisi in corporibus, sicut legimus, sanctis, Dei spiritus habitare?

Moreover, as it is worthy, chaste, and honest to do so, this is what we advise: let the priests and Levites have no intercourse with their wives, inasmuch as they are absorbed in the daily duties of their ministries.

3. Praeterea quod dignum et pudicum et honestum est suademus , ut sacerdotes et levitae cum uxoribus suis non coeant (Aeneas Paris. lib. cont. Graec. c. 102); quia in ministerio, ministerii quotidianis necessitatibus, occupantur.

With what shame, in what state of mind would he carry out his functions? What testimony of conscience, what merit would give him the trust to have his prayers granted, when it is said: “To all who are pure themselves, everything is pure; but to those who have been corrupted and lack faith, nothing can be pure” (Titus 1:15).

Quo pudore, qua mente usurpabit? Qua conscientia, quo merito hic exaudiri se credit, cum dictum sit: Omnia munda mundis, coinquinatis autem et infidelibus nihil mundum (Tit. I, 15)?

 Which is why I am exhorting, warning, supplicating: let us do away with this opprobrium that even the pagans can rightly hold against us. Perhaps does one believe that this [is permitted] because it is written: “He must not have been married more than once” (ι Tim 3:2). But [Paul] was not talking about [a man] persisting in his desire to beget: he spoke about the continence that one should observe [propter continentiam futuram]. He did not accept those who were not beyond reproach [in this matter], and he said: “I should like everyone to be like me” (1 Cor 7:7). And he stated even more clearly: “People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual” (Rom 8:8-9).

 Qua de re hortor, moneo, rogo, tollatur hoc opprobrium, quod potest jure etiam gentilitas accusare. Forte hoc creditur; quia scriptum est, Unius uxoris virum (I Tim. III, 2). Non permanentem in concupiscentia generandi dixit, sed propter continentiam futuram. Neque enim integros non admisit, qui ait: Vellem autem omnes homines sic esse, sicuti et ego (I Cor. VII, 7). Et apertius declarat dicens: Qui autem in carne sunt, Deo placere non possunt. Vos autem jam non estis in carne, sed in spiritu (Rom. VIII, 8).

CAP. II.---5. Episcopos, presbyteros ac diaconos continentiae lege obstringi.

Indeed, we have already frequently touched upon these matters—and our word has been spread in many churches—especially when it comes to priests whose dignity demands that they be the very rule of their good works for the people [...]

Et jam quidem frequenter de talibus sermo noster per plures manavit ecclesias, maxime de sacerdotibus, quorum meritum exigit, ut bonorum operum suorum sint plebibus forma [...]

[Indeed,] when one does not observe what has been the object of useful warnings, the apostolic commandments are held in contempt and ignored as it were; [but] judgment with respect to those who have committed [these violations] cannot be changed. Here is what has been decided, first of all, with regard to bishops, priests, and deacons: those who have the responsibility of the divine sacrifice, and whose hands give the grace of baptism and consecrate the Body of Christ, are ordered by divine Scripture, and not only ourselves, to be very chaste; the Fathers themselves had ordered them to observe bodily continence. Let us not omit this point but explain the reason for it: how would a bishop or a priest dare preach continence and integrity to a widow or a virgin, or yet [how would he dare) exhort [spouses] to the chastity of the conjugal bed, if he himself is more concerned about begetting children for the world than begetting them for God?

Quando enim non servatur quod admonetur utiliter, apostolica mandata quasi ignota contemnuntur: judicium tamen de his quae commiserunt non potest immutari. Id de sacerdotibus. Primo in loco statutum est de episcopis, presbyteris, et diaconibus, quos sacrificiis divinis necesse est interesse, per quorum manus et gratia baptismatis traditur, et corpus Christi conficitur; quos non solum nos, sed et Scriptura divina compellit esse castissimos, et patres quoque jusserunt continentiam corporalem servare debere; qua de re non praetereamus, sed dicamus et causam. Quo enim pudore viduae aut virgini ausus est episcopus vel presbyter integritatem vel continentiam [1185A] praedicare, vel suadere castum cubile servare, si ipse saeculo magis institit filios generare, quam Deo?

[1185B] 6. Idolorum cultores daemoniis litaturi, continentiam sibi imperabant. 

 This is why we read in Scripture regarding these three ranks that the ministers of God are under the obligation to observe purity; it is obvious that this is always a necessity for them; they must either give baptism or offer the sacrifice. Would an impure man dare soil what is holy when holy things are for holy people? It was thus that (the priests of the Old Testament) who offered sacrifices in the temple rightly stayed there without going out during the entire year they were on duty and had nothing more to do with their homes. As to the idolaters, when they dedicate themselves to their impieties and immolate [sacrifices] to the demons, they impose on themselves continence with regard to women and also endeavor to keep themselves pure from [certain] foods; and you would ask me if the priest of the living God, who must offer spiritual sacrifices, must be constantly purified, if he must, in his whole flesh, be concerned about flesh? if commixture is defiling, it is obvious that the priest must be ready to carry out his celestial functions—he who has to supplicate on behalf of the sins of the others—so that he himself not be found impure. If the lay people are told: “Leave yourselves free for prayer” (1 Cor 7:5), these men who put themselves first at the service of human procreation might have the title of priests, but they cannot have that dignity[...]’

De his itaque tribus gradibus, quos legimus in Scripturis, a ministris Dei munditia praecepta est observari, quibus necessitas semper in promptu est. Aut enim baptisma tradendum est, aut offerenda sunt sacrificia (Vide Siric. epist. 1, c. 7, et Innoc. ep. 6, n. 2). Numquid immundus ausus erit contaminare quod sanctum est, quando quae sancta sunt, sanctis sancta sunt? Denique illi, qui in templo sacrificia offerebant, ut mundi essent, toto anno in templo, solo observationis merito, permanebant, domus suas penitus nescientes. Certe idololatrae, ut impietates exerceant, et daemonibus immolent, imperant sibi continentiam muliebrem, et [1186A] ab escis quoque se purgari volunt: et me interrogas, si sacerdos Dei veri, spiritalia oblaturus sacrificia, purgatus perpetuo debeat esse, an totus in carne carnis curam debeat facere? Si commixtio pollutio est, utique sacerdos stare debet ad officium coeleste praeparatus, qui pro alienis peccatis est postulaturus; ne ipse inveniatur indignus. Nam si ad laicos dicitur: Abstinete vos ad tempus, ut vacetis orationi (I Cor. VII, 5), et illi creaturae utique generatione deserviunt; sacerdotes tale possunt habere nomen, meritum habere non possunt.

Pope Leo the Great writes to Bishop Rusticus of Narbonne (458/9):

The law of continence is the same for the ministers of the altar, for the bishops and for the priests; when they were (still) lay people or lectors, they could freely take a wife and beget children. But once they have reached the ranks mentioned above, what had been permitted is no longer so

Question 3. Concerning those who minister at the altar and have wives, whether they may lawfully cohabit with them?

INQUIS. III.
De his qui altario ministrant et conjuges habent, utrum eis licito misceantur?

Reply. The law of continence is the same for the ministers of the altar as for bishops and priests, who when they were laymen or readers, could lawfully marry and have offspring. But when they reached to the said ranks, what was before lawful ceased to be so. And hence, in order that their wedlock may become spiritual instead of carnal, it behoves them not to put away their wives but to “have them as though they had them not,” whereby both the affection of their wives may be retained and the marriage functions cease.

RESP. Lex continentiae eadem est ministris altaris quae episcopis atque presbyteris, qui cum essent laici sive lectores, licito et uxores ducere et filios procreare potuerunt. Sed cum ad praedictos pervenerunt gradus, coepit eis non licere quod licuit. Unde, ut de carnali fiat spirituale conjugium, oportet eos nec dimittere uxores, et quasi non habeant sic habere, quo et salva sit charitas connubiorum, et cesset opera nuptiarum.

LETTER 36

EPISTOLA XXXVI.

To Leo, Bishop

AD LEONEM EPISCOPUM

Subdeacons may not have intercourse with their wives

Ne subdiaconi cum suis uxoribus misceantur. [...]

Gregory to Leo, Bishop of Catana.

[0710C] Gregorius Leoni episcopo Catanensi.

This order had been given by pope Pelagius in a.d. 588

that those who at that time had been coupled to wives should choose one of two things, that is, either to abstain from their wives, or on no account whatever presume to exercise their ministry. And, according to report, Speciosus, then a subdeacon, did for this reason suspend himself from the office of administration, and up to the time of his death bore indeed the office of a notary, but ceased from the ministry which a subdeacon should have exercised. After his death we have learnt that his widow, Honorata, has been relegated to a monastery by thy Fraternity for having associated herself with a husband. And so if, as is said, her husband suspended himself from ministration, it ought not to be to the prejudice of the aforesaid woman that she has contracted a second marriage, especially if she had not been joined to the subdeacon with the intention of abstaining from the pleasures of the flesh.

ut eodem tempore hi qui jam uxoribus fuerant copulati unum ex duobus eligerent, id est, aut a suis uxoribus abstinerent, aut certe nulla ratione ministrare praesumerent. Et quantum dicitur, Speciosus tunc subdiaconus pro hac re ab administrationis se suspendit officio, et usque in obitus sui tempus notarii quidem gessit officium, et a ministerio, quod subdiaconum oportuerat exhibere, cessavit. Post cujus [0710D] obitum, quia relicta ejus Honorata marito est sociata, a tua eam fraternitate 717 in monasterio cognovimus esse deputatam. Ideoque si, ut fertur, [0711A] ejus se maritus ab administratione suspendit, ante dictae mulieri non debet officere, quod ad secundam conjugii copulationem migravit, praesertim si non tali mente subdiacono juncta est, ut a carnis voluptatibus abstineret.

If, then, you find the truth to be as we have been informed, it is right for you to release altogether the aforesaid woman from the monastery, that she may be at liberty to return without any fear to her husband.

Si ergo ita se veritatem quemadmodum edocti sumus habere cognoscis, praedictam te mulierem de monasterio per omnia convenit relaxare, ut ad suum maritum sine aliqua possit formidine remeare.

But for the future let thy Fraternity be exceedingly careful, in the case of any who may be promoted to this office, to look to this with the utmost diligence, that, if they have wives, they shall enjoy no licence to have intercourse with them: but you must still strictly order them to observe all things after the pattern of the Apostolic See.

De caetero vero fraternitas tua sit omnino sollicita, ut quos ad hoc jam officium contigerit promoveri, hoc quam maxime diligenter inspiciat, ne si uxores habent, miscendi se cum eis licentia potiantur, sed ad similitudinem sedis apostolicae eos cuncta observare sua nihilominus districtione constituat.