tine monks were introduced into Monte Cassino, but on
Celestine's abdication of the papacy the project fortunately was at once
abandoned. During the founder's lifetime the order spread rapidly, and
eventually there were about 150 monasteries in Italy, and others in
France, Bohemia and the Netherlands. The French houses, twenty-one in
number, formed a separate congregation, the head-house being in Paris.
The French Revolution and those of the 19th century destroyed their
houses, and the Celestine order seems no longer to exist.

Peter of Morrone was in close contact with the Franciscan Spirituals of
the extreme type (see FRANCISCANS), and he endeavoured to form an
amalgamation between them and his hermits, under the title "Poor Hermits
of Celestine." On his abdication the amalgamation was dissolved, and the
Franciscan element fled to the East and was finally suppressed by
Boniface VIII. and compelled to re-enter the Franciscan order. The habit
of the Celestines was black.

See Helyot, _Histoire des ordres religieux_ (1792), vi. c. 23; Max
Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. S 22, p. 134; the
art. "Colestiner" in Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), and
Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (ed. 3). (E. C. B.)

CELIBACY (Lat. _caelibatus_, from _caelebs_, unmarried), the state of
being unmarried, a term now commonly used in the sense of complete
abstinence from marriage; it originally included the state of widowhood
also, and any one was strictly a _caelebs_ who had no existing spouse.
Physicians and physiologists have frequently discussed celibacy from
their professional point of view; but it will be sufficient to note here
the results of statistical inquiries. It has been established by the
calculations of actuaries that married persons--women in a considerable,
but men in a much greater degree---have at all periods of life a greater
probability of living than the single. From the point of view of public
utility, the state has sometimes attempted to discourage celibacy. The
best-known enactment of this kind is that of the emperor Augustus, best
known as _Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea_. This disabled _caelibes_ from
receiving an inheritance unless the testator were related to them within
the sixth degree; it limited the amount which a wife could take by a
husband's will, or the husband by the wife's, unless they had children;
and preference was given to candidates for office in proportion