Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene Church on Clerical Celibacy
+ "Let bishops, priests, an deacons, and in general all the clergy who are specially employed in the service of the altar, abstain from conjugal intercourse with their wives and the begetting of children; let those who persist be degraded from the ranks of the clergy."
─Council of Elvira, Canon 33. (ca. 305)
+ "If a priest marry, he shall be removed from the ranks of the clergy; if he commit fornication or adultery, he shall be excommunicated, and shall submit to penance."
─Council of Neocaesarea, Canon 1. (ca. 314─325)
+ "Now the Lord Jesus, when He illumined us by His appearing, declared in the Gospel that He was come to fulfil the law, not to abolish it. And so He desired that the Church, whose Bridegroom He is, should have her visage shining with the splendor of chastity, that in the day of judgment, when He comes again, He may find her without spot or blemish, as He ordained by His apostle. Hence all we priests and Levites (deacons) are bound by the unbreakable law of those instructions to subdue our hearts and bodies to soberness and modesty from the day of our ordination, that we may be wholly pleasing to our God in the sacrifices which we daily offer."
─Pope Siricius: "Decretal Letter to Himerius, Bishop of Terragona," 10. (Feb. 10, 385)
+ "We advise ('suademus') that priests and Levites (deacons) should not live with their wives."
─Council of Rome, Canon 9. (According to decretal letter of Pope Siricius to bishops of Africa) (386)
+ "Bishops, priests, and deacons must remain unmarried."
─Council of Rome, Canon 3. (402)
+ "Although they who are not within the ranks of the clergy are free to take pleasure in the companionship of wedlock and the procreation of children, yet, for the sake of exhibiting the purity of complete continence, even subdeacons are not allowed carnal marriage; that "both they that have wives be as though they had none" (1 Cor. 7:29), and they that have not may remain single. But if in this order, which is fourth from the head, this is worthy to be observed, how much more is it to be kept in the first, second, and third, lest anyone be reckoned fit for either the deacon's duties or the presbyter's honorable position, or the bishop's pre-eminence, who is discovered as yet having bridled his uxorious desires."
─Pope St. Leo I: "Letters," 14. (Norm for Western Church.) (5th cent.)
+ "Since it is declared in the apostolic canons that of those who are advanced to the clergy unmarried, only lectors and cantors are able to marry, we also, maintaining this, determine that henceforth it is in nowise lawful for any subdeacon, deacon, or presbyter after his ordination to contract matrimony; but if he shall dared to do so, let him be deposed. And if any of those who enter the clergy wishes to be joined to a wife in lawful marriage before he is ordained subdeacon, deacon, or presbyter, let it be done."
─Quinisext Council of Constantinople, Canon 6. (Norm for Eastern Church.) (692)
+ "Let bishops, priests, an deacons, and in general all the clergy who are specially employed in the service of the altar, abstain from conjugal intercourse with their wives and the begetting of children; let those who persist be degraded from the ranks of the clergy."
─Council of Elvira, Canon 33. (ca. 305)
+ "If a priest marry, he shall be removed from the ranks of the clergy; if he commit fornication or adultery, he shall be excommunicated, and shall submit to penance."
─Council of Neocaesarea, Canon 1. (ca. 314─325)
+ "Now the Lord Jesus, when He illumined us by His appearing, declared in the Gospel that He was come to fulfil the law, not to abolish it. And so He desired that the Church, whose Bridegroom He is, should have her visage shining with the splendor of chastity, that in the day of judgment, when He comes again, He may find her without spot or blemish, as He ordained by His apostle. Hence all we priests and Levites (deacons) are bound by the unbreakable law of those instructions to subdue our hearts and bodies to soberness and modesty from the day of our ordination, that we may be wholly pleasing to our God in the sacrifices which we daily offer."
─Pope Siricius: "Decretal Letter to Himerius, Bishop of Terragona," 10. (Feb. 10, 385)
+ "We advise ('suademus') that priests and Levites (deacons) should not live with their wives."
─Council of Rome, Canon 9. (According to decretal letter of Pope Siricius to bishops of Africa) (386)
+ "Bishops, priests, and deacons must remain unmarried."
─Council of Rome, Canon 3. (402)
+ "Although they who are not within the ranks of the clergy are free to take pleasure in the companionship of wedlock and the procreation of children, yet, for the sake of exhibiting the purity of complete continence, even subdeacons are not allowed carnal marriage; that "both they that have wives be as though they had none" (1 Cor. 7:29), and they that have not may remain single. But if in this order, which is fourth from the head, this is worthy to be observed, how much more is it to be kept in the first, second, and third, lest anyone be reckoned fit for either the deacon's duties or the presbyter's honorable position, or the bishop's pre-eminence, who is discovered as yet having bridled his uxorious desires."
─Pope St. Leo I: "Letters," 14. (Norm for Western Church.) (5th cent.)
+ "Since it is declared in the apostolic canons that of those who are advanced to the clergy unmarried, only lectors and cantors are able to marry, we also, maintaining this, determine that henceforth it is in nowise lawful for any subdeacon, deacon, or presbyter after his ordination to contract matrimony; but if he shall dared to do so, let him be deposed. And if any of those who enter the clergy wishes to be joined to a wife in lawful marriage before he is ordained subdeacon, deacon, or presbyter, let it be done."
─Quinisext Council of Constantinople, Canon 6. (Norm for Eastern Church.) (692)
