Note 104 — Chapter XII

From the beginning, single life had appealed to some Christians as more worthy than the married state. Gradually, under the influence of monasticism, the more devout and enthusiastic clergy voluntarily shunned marriage, or, if already married, gave up association with their wives after ordination. Finally the Western Church condemned marriage altogether for the deacon and the ranks above him, and later the sub-deacons were included in the prohibition. The records are too incomplete for the historian to form an accurate idea of how far the prohibition of the Church was really observed throughout the countries of the West. There were certainly great numbers of married clergymen in northern Italy, Germany, and elsewhere, in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Of course the Church refused to sanction the marriage of its officials and called the wife of a clergyman, however virtuous and faithful she might be, by the opprobrious name of "concubine."