44 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



Meanwhile the clergy married and unmarried 

 themselves like other members of the community. 

 Until the third century no restriction was placed 

 upon the marriage of priests, but about that time the 

 opinions of the fathers touching celibacy began to 

 make it difficult for priestly unions to be entered 

 into, and in the fourth century such unions, although 

 common, were generally held to be inexpedient. In 

 the fifth century priests were expected at least to 

 abstain from the privileges of marriage, if not from 

 marriage itself. Pope Innocent I. refused holy orders 

 to any one who had married a widow, and commanded 

 every priest to be deposed who should be guilty of 

 the crime of having children by his wife. It was 

 not, however, until the twelfth century that the wives 

 of the clergy were driven forth for good, and that the 

 Eoman Catholic priesthood was permanently estab- 

 lished upon a celibate basis. During all this time 

 the greatest disorders, both outside and inside the 

 Church, prevailed. Marriage was restrained, but not 

 indulgence. Chassez la nature, says the French pro- 

 verb, elle revient au galop, and the Church contrived 

 to furnish a striking exemplification of the proverb. 

 Some of the popes led scandalous lives, and the clergy 

 who did abstain from marriage kept concubines, some- 



