In reply to your correspondent's query as to the "wives of
ecclesiastics," I find amongst my notes one to this effect:--
ERROR, to assume in ancient genealogies that a branch is
necessarily extinct, simply because the last known representative
is described as "Clericus," and _ergo_, must have died S.P.L.
It will be obvious to many of your readers that Clericus is _nomen
generale_ for all such as were learned in the arts of reading and
writing, and whom the old law deemed capable of claiming benefit of
clergy,--a benefit not confined to those in orders, if the ordinary's
deputy standing by could say "_legit ut clericus_."
The title of Clericus, then, in earlier times as now, belonged not only
to those in the holy ministry of the Church, and to whom more strictly
applied the term Clergy, either regular or secular, but to those as well
who by their function or course of life practised their pens in any
court or otherwise, as Clerk of the King's Wardrobe, Clerks of the
Exchequer, &c. Though in former times clerks of this description were
frequently in holy orders and held benefices, it must be evident that
they were not all so of necessity; and the instances are so numerous
where persons having the title of "Clericus" appear nevertheless to have
been in the married state, and to have discharged functions incompatible
with the service of the Church, that the assertion will not be denied
that the restrictions as to contracting matrimonial alliances did not
extend to clerks not in holy orders or below the grade of _subdiaconus_.
The _Registrum Brevium_ furnishes a precedent of a writ, "_De clerico
infra sacros ordines constituto non eligendo in officium_." This
distinction alone would prove that other clerks were not ineligible to
office. The various decrees of the Church may be cited to show that the
prohibition to marry did not include all clerks generally. Pope Gregory
VII., in a synod held in 1074, "interdixit clericis, maxime divino
ministerio consecratis uxores habere, vel cum mulicribus habitare, nisi
quas Nicena Synodus vel alii canones exceperunt."
The statutes made by Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas,
Archbishop elect of York, and all the other bishops of England, in 1108,
in presence of King Henry I., and with the assent of his barons, confine
the interdiction respecting marriages to _Presbyteri, Diaconi et
Subdiaconi_, and a provision is made by them for those cases where
marriages had been contracted since the interdict at the Council of
London (that probably in 1103), viz. that such should be precluded
thereafter from celebrating mass, if they persist in retaining their
wives. "Illi vero presbyteri, diaconi, subdiaconi, qui post interdictum
Londoniensis Concilii foeminas suas tenuerunt vel alins duxcrunt, si
amplius missam celebrare voluerint, eas a se omnino sic facient alienas,
ut nec illae in domos eorum, nec ipsi in domos earum intrent.... Illi
autem presbyteri qui divini altaris et sacrorum ordinum contemptores
praelegerint cum mulicribus habitare a divino officio remoti, omnique
ecclesiastico beneficio privati, extra chorum ponantur, infames
pronunciati. Qui vero rebellis et contemptor foeminam non reliquerit, et
missam celebrare presumpserit, vocatus ad satisfactionem si neglexerit,
viiij. die excommunicetur. Eadem sententia archidiaconos et cononicos
omnes complectitur, et de mulieribus relinquendis et de vitanda carum
conversatione, et de districtione censurae si statuta transgressi
fuerint.... Presbyteri vero qui relictis mulieribus, Deo et sacris
altaribus servire elegerint, xl. dies ab officio cessantes, pro se
interim vicarios habebunt, injuncta eis poenitentia secundum hoc quod
episcopis corum visum fuerit." In 1138 the penalty for priests marrying
was deprivation of their benefices, and exclusion from the celebration
of divine service:--"Sanctorum patrum vestigiis inhaerentes,
presbyteros, diaconos, subdiaconos uxoratos, aut concubinarios,
ecclesiasticis officiis et beneficiis privamus, ac ne quis eorum missam
audire praesumat Apostolica auctoriate prohibemus."
Many such decrees have been made at various synods and councils holden
for reformation of the clergy, but I can find none wherein marriage is
interdicted to clerks generally. I will refer to one more only, viz.
that made in the Council of London, held at Westminster in 1175. Here it
will be seen most distinctly that the prohibition against entering the
marriage state was confined expressly to _Clerici in sacris ordinibus
constituti_, and that is was not only lawful for clerks below the grade
of subdeacon to marry, but that having subsequently once entered the
marriage state and being subsequently desirous _ad religionem transire_,
and to continue in the service of the Church, they could not do so and
be separated from their wives unless _de communi consensu_; if they
continued, however, to live with their wives, they could not hold an
ecclesiastical benefice: "Si quis sacerdos vel clericus in sacris
ordinibus constitutus, ecclesiam vel ecclesiasticum beneficium habens
publice fornicarium habeat," &c.... "Si qui vero infra subdiaconatum
constituti matrimonia contraxerint, ab uxoribus sius nisi de communi
consensu ad religionem transire voluerint, et ibi in Dei servitio
vigilanter permanere, nullatenus separentur: sed cum uxoribus viventes,
ecclesiastica benficia nullo modo percipiant. Qui autem in subdiaconatu,
vel supra, ad matrimonia convolaverint, mulieres etiam invitas et
renitentes relinquant."
This it will be seen that the title "Clericus" under some circumstances,
affords no certain indication that a lawful marriage may not have been
contracted by the person so described and consequently that he might not
have _prolem legitimam_.