Title III: On Married Clerics

Latin source headnote: A marriage contracted by a cleric existing in sacred orders does not hold; it is otherwise in minor orders, but then he is compelled to relinquish his benefice.

Alexander III.

But if any of those clerics themselves below the subdiaconate have taken wives, you shall compel them by ecclesiastical severity to relinquish ecclesiastical benefices, if they have any, and to retain their wives. But if they are known perhaps to have taken wives in the subdiaconate and other higher orders, take care to compel them by a sentence of suspension and excommunication, appeal being set aside, to dismiss the wives and do penance for the offense, by our authority.

Latin source headnote: A married man is not promoted to an ecclesiastical administration, order, or benefice unless he promises chastity and is not a bigamist.

The same, to the Bishop of Hereford.

Indeed, concerning clerics of the lower orders who, constituted in marriage, have for a long time held ecclesiastical benefices by grant of your predecessors, of which they cannot be deprived without great danger and shedding of blood, we have thought that this answer should be given to your fraternity: that, because a nation and a barbarous people and a multitude are involved there, you should tolerate under dissimulation their possession of the ecclesiastical benefices held for so long. Take more attentive care that henceforth a married cleric not be admitted to ecclesiastical benefices, sacred orders, or ecclesiastical administrations, unless perhaps he should vow perpetual chastity and had had one wife, and a virgin.

Latin source headnote: If a beneficed cleric in minor orders contracts marriage, he is deprived of the benefice, and what he gave to the church is restored to him. This it says, and in this last point there is a noteworthy and highly citable case.

The same, to the Bishop of Veroli.

What by you—(And below:) For the future, because the diligence of your fraternity seeks to know whether clerics constituted below the order of subdeacon, who, overcome by the vice of the flesh and unable to contain themselves, take wives, ought canonically to be despoiled of ecclesiastical benefice: we wish you to hold with undoubted truth that, since they cannot at the same time devote themselves to pleasures and carnal desires and to divine and ecclesiastical services, they are, because of their uncleanness, unworthy to handle ecclesiastical sacraments and are without doubt to be deprived of ecclesiastical benefices. Indeed, if they are known to have conferred upon the churches to which they had been attached anything from their own possessions or other goods, when they have been separated from the ministry and benefice of those churches, dominion and ownership ought by the direct way to return to them freely and without any contradiction.

Latin source headnote: After penance has been completed, bishops dispense with priests who have contracted marriage in fact.

The same.

Indeed, those priests who contract nuptials, which are to be called not nuptials but rather concubinages, will be able, after long penance and a praiseworthy continent life, to be restored to their office and, by indulgence of their bishop, to have its exercise.

Latin source headnote: Benefices that a cleric had at the time of contracting marriage are to be taken away from him; but those knowingly conferred afterward by the bishop cannot be taken away by the same bishop, but by a superior. This it says.

Innocent III, to the Bishop of Norwich.

Ensnared by diverse deceits, they endeavor to serve God and mammon, although according to evangelical truth no one can serve two masters, because, if he loves one, he will hold the other in hatred, or, having despised one, will sustain the other. We have learned that certain clerics of your diocese who have contracted marriage solemnly in the sight of the Church contend that they may retain ecclesiastical benefices, in whose manner of life the harp agrees badly with the psaltery. Since, therefore, a husband thinks how he may please his wife and for that reason is less able to think about the things that are God's, since, as though divided in two, he does not have full power over himself so as to serve more fully him from whom he receives a stipend, by the authority of the present letters we command your fraternity that, supported by our authority, you deprive clerics of this kind of the ecclesiastical benefices they have obtained in your diocese, with appeal removed, especially since the substance of ecclesiastical property is accustomed to perish through such men; unless perhaps you knowingly conferred ecclesiastical benefices upon such men, in which case we decree that they are to be despoiled of them not by you but by a superior. [Let no one therefore, etc. Given at Ferentino, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of July, 1203.]

Latin source headnote: The son of a Greek priest, begotten of a wife, is lawfully promoted among the Latins if scandal does not stand in the way. This it says, and it is a noteworthy case.

The same, to the Archbishop of Acerenza.

When it had formerly come to our hearing that the canons of Anglona had elected the beloved son, the cantor of Tricarico, as their pastor, we gave you a mandate that, after examining the election and the person more diligently, if you found the election canonical and the person suitable, you should confirm the election itself by apostolic authority, proceeding as metropolitan in the other matters. Although it was established for you in other respects concerning the canonical form of the election and the suitability of the person, it nevertheless moved you, and induced you to consult us, that, since his father was a Greek and, according to the rite of the Greeks, had taken a wife while constituted in minor orders, he had begotten the cantor himself of a lawful wife while in the priesthood. We therefore, considering that the Eastern Church did not admit the vow of continence, because Easterners contract marriage in minor orders and in higher orders make use of a marriage already contracted, command your fraternity by apostolic writings that, unless the custom of the region opposes this because Greeks of this kind live among the Latins, if no other canonical impediment stands in the way, you proceed without hesitation to the confirmation and consecration of the same cantor. [Given at Ferentino, on the Nones of September, 1203.]

Latin source headnote: A married cleric who is not beneficed is not compelled to wear the tonsure.

The same, to the Bishop of Poitiers.

John, son of A., has shown us by complaint that, although he long ago took a lawful wife and begot sons and daughters of her, because he had previously been ordained an acolyte, you endeavor to compel him to wear the clerical tonsure, from which scandal could be generated between him and his wife, although according to the custom of your land married clerics are not compelled against their will to wear the tonsure. Therefore, because a man ought to think how he may please his wife, and the same man, even when tonsured, cannot enjoy clerical privilege, by the authority of the present letters we command that you no longer molest him concerning tonsure of this kind, provided that he receives no ecclesiastical benefice by reason of which he is bound to wear the clerical tonsure, because, since he must involve himself in secular business, the tonsure of one conducting secular affairs would indeed seem to redound to the reproach of our ministry.

Latin source headnote: Married men are not admitted to ecclesiastical dignities, and they are compelled to relinquish those that they have.

The same.

Since the adornment—(And below: [Cf. c. 15, On the Sons of Priests, I. 15.]) You are henceforth not to admit those who are publicly married to ecclesiastical dignities, those being relinquished by them which they cannot retain without a depraved example and grave scandal. Their sons also, etc. (Cf. c. 15, On the Sons of Priests, I. 15.) [Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, on the sixth day before the Ides of January, in the ninth year, 1207.]

Latin source headnote: Married clerics do not enjoy clerical privilege in their property.

Honorius III, to H., formerly Queen of the English.

It was proposed before us on your behalf that some learned men of your land, having laid aside clerical habit and tonsure, publicly take wives, being solicitous about the things of this world and how they may please their wives, who, although they apply themselves to commerce and other secular business, nevertheless, so that they may defraud you of customary dues and owed services, resume the discarded tonsure, under pretext of which they may be excused as clerics from things of this kind, although they serve not the Lord but rather the world, as do other married men. Certain men also, after receiving the first tonsure, similarly contract marriage and wear the same tonsure so that under the same pretext they may be excused from the aforesaid things, and the venerable brother the bishop and the beloved sons the dean, archdeacon, and chapter of Le Mans endeavor to favor them as clerics in the withdrawal of your services, to your prejudice and burden. Since, therefore, the things that are Caesar's are to be rendered to Caesar and the things that are God's to God, and publicly married men are not ecclesiastical men while they thus entangle themselves in secular business, we have thought that it should be tolerated with equanimity if you exact from such men the owed dues and customary services as from other married men and receive them from the same, since the tonsure which they appear to have resumed or received not on account of religion but fraudulently to withdraw services ought not to furnish them protection in these matters.

Latin source headnote: If a cleric in minor orders serves as a soldier, he is not to be compelled to wear the tonsure or clerical habit.

The same.

That your consultation may be satisfied briefly, we answer that R., a knight of your diocese, who, as he humbly confessed to you, formerly, when he was constituted in a younger age, when he knew how to read or sing but little, received only the tonsure and clerical crown, which he is ashamed to wear among soldiers and laypersons, is not to be compelled to wear clerical habit.