A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

456 A Source Book for Ancient Church HistoryThis is the earliest canon of any council requiring clericalcelibacy. For the Council of Elvira, see Hefele, § 13; A. W.W. Dale, The Synod of Elvira, London. 1882. For discussionof reasons for assigning a later date, see E. Hennecke, art.“Elvira, Synode um 313,” in PRE, and the literature therecited. The council was a provincial synod of southern Spain.Canon 33. It was voted that it be entirely forbidden 158 bishops,presbyters, and deacons, and all clergy placed in the ministry toabstain from their wives and not to beget sons: whoever doesthis, let him be deprived of the honor of the clergy.(b) Siricius, Decretal A. D. 385. (MSL, 13:1138.) Mirbt, nn.122 f.; cf. Denziger, nn. 87 ff.Clerical celibacy: the force of decretals.In the following passages from the first authentic decretal, thecelibacy of the clergy is laid down as of divine authority inthe Church, and the rule remains characteristic of the WesternChurch. See Canon 13 of the Quinisext Council, above, §78, c. The binding authority of the decretals of the bishop ofRome is also asserted, and this, too, becomes characteristic ofthe jurisprudence of the Western Church.[416]Ch. 7 (§ 8). Why did He admonish them to whom the holyof holies was committed, Be ye holy, because I the Lord yourGod am holy? [Lev. 20:7.] Why were they commanded todwell in the temple in the year of their turn to officiate, afarfrom their own homes? Evidently it was for the reason that theymight not be able to maintain their marital relations with their158 Note the extraordinary form in which the clergy are apparently forbiddento do what in reality the council commands; namely, that they should abandonmarital relations with their wives. Cf. Hefele, loc. cit. Can. 80 of Elvira usesthe same uncouth phraseology.