session it erected sacerdotal celibacy
practically, if not formally, into an article of faith. In spite of
this, the emperor Joseph II. reopened the question in 1783. In France
the revolutionary constitution of 1791 abolished all restrictions on
marriage, and during the Terror celibacy often exposed a priest to
suspicion as an enemy to the Republic; but the better part of the clergy
steadily resisted this innovation, and it is estimated that only about
2% were married. The Old Catholics adopted the principle of sacerdotal
marriage in 1875.

The working of the system in modern times is perhaps too controversial a
question to be discussed here; but one or two points may be noted on
which all fairly well informed writers would probably agree. It can
scarcely be denied that the Roman Catholic clergy have always owed much
of their influence to their celibacy, and that in many cases this
influence has been most justly earned by the celibate's devotion to an
unworldly ideal. Again, the most adverse critics would admit that much
was done by the counter-Reformation, and that modern ecclesiastical
discipline on this point is considerably superior to that of the middle
ages; while, on the other hand, many authorities of undoubted orthodoxy
are ready to confess that it is not free from serious risks even in
these days of easy publicity and stringent civil discipline.[19] Lastly,
statistical research has shown that the children of the married British
clergy have been distinguished far beyond their mere numerical
proportion.[20]

AUTHORITIES.--Henry Charles Lea, _History of Sacerdotal Celibacy_ (3rd
ed., 1907, 2 vols), is by far the fullest and best work on this
subject, though a good deal of important matter omitted by Dr Lea may
be found in _Die Einfuhrung der erzwungenen Ehelosigkeit_ by the
brothers Johann Anton and Augustin Theiner, which was put on the Roman
_Index_, though Augustin afterwards became archivist at the Vatican
(Altenburg, 1828, 2 vols.). The history of monastic celibacy has not
yet been fully treated anywhere; the most important evidence of the
episcopal registers is either still in MS. or has been published only
in comparatively recent years. The most learned work on clerical
celibacy from the strictly conservative point of view is that of
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, _Storia Polemica del celibato sacro_
(Rome, 1774); but many of his most important conclusions are set
aside by the ab