£4 CEL 
CELET'TE, a town of France, in the department of 
the Loire and Cher, and chief place of a canton, in the 
difirift of Blois: four miles fouth of Bloisl 
CELEU'MA, f in antiquity, the (liout or cry of the 
feamen, whereby they animated each other in their woik 
of rowing. The word is formed from j'.eAeueii/, to call, to 
give the fignal. Celeuma was alfo a kind of fong or for. 
mula, rehearfed or played by the matter or others, to di- 
redl the tlrokes and movements of the mariners, as well 
as to encourage them to labour. 
CE'LEUS, a king of Eleufis, father to Triptolemus by 
Metanira. He gave a kind reception to Ceres, who 
taught liis fon the cultivation of the earth. His rultic 
drefs became proverbial. Virgil. 
CELEUS'TES, f. in ancient navigation, the boatfwain 
or officer appointed to give the rowers tho fignal when they 
were to ptdl, and when to flop. He was alfo denominated 
epopeus, and by the Romans portfculus; fometimes Amply 
hortator. 
CE'LIAC, adj. [from x#iAia, Gr. the belly.] Relating 
to the lower belly.—The blood moving (lowly through 
the celiac and mefenteric arteries, produces complaints. 
Arbulhnot.. 
CE'LIB ACY, f. [from Calebs, Lat.] Single life; un¬ 
married (late. — I can attribute their numbers to nothing 
but their frequent marriages, for they look on celibacy as 
an accurfed (late, and generally are married before twenty. 
SpcBator. —The ancient Romans ufed all means imagina¬ 
ble to difcourage celibacy. Nothing was more ufual than 
for the cenfors to impofe a fine on bachelors. Dionylius 
Halicarnaflenfis mentions an an-cient conflitution, whereby 
all perfons of full age were obliged to marry. But the 
firlt law of that kind, of which we have any certainty, is 
that under AnyuHus, called lex Julia de maritandis ordini- 
bus. It was afterwards denominated Papia Poppcr.a, and 
more ufually Julia Papia, in regard of fome new (auction 
and amendments made to it under the confuls Papius and 
Popieus. By this law, divers prerogatives were given to 
perfons who had many children; penalties iinpofed on 
thofe who lived a fingle life, as that they fiiould be inca¬ 
pable of receiving legacies, and not exceeding a certain 
proportion. 
CE'LIBATE, f. [ ccelibatus , Lat.] Single life.—The 
males oblige themfelves to celibate, and then multiplication 
is hindered. Graunt. —This word is chiefly ufed in fpeak- 
ing of the fingle life of the Romifli clergy, or the obliga¬ 
tion they are under to abltain from marriage. The church 
of Rome impofes an. univerfal celibacy on ail its clergy, 
from the pope to the lowed deacon and fubdeacon. The 
advocates for this ufage pretend, that a vow of perpetual 
celibacy was required in the ancient church as a condition 
of ordination, even from the earlied apodolic ages. But 
the contrary is evident, from numerous examples of 
biihops and archbifhops who lived in a date of matrimony, 
without any prejudice to their ordination or their function. 
It is generally agreed, that mod of the apodles were mar¬ 
ried. Some fav ail of them, except St. Paul and St.John. 
Others fay Sr. Paul himfelf was married, becaufe he writes 
to his yoke-fellow, whom fome interpret his wife. In the 
next ages.after the apodles, we have accounts of divers 
married biihops, piefbyters, and deacons, without any re¬ 
proof or mark of dilhonour fet upon them. The reply 
which the Romaoids give to this is, that alt married per¬ 
fons, when they came to be ordained, promifed to live le- 
parate from their wives by confent, which anfwered the 
vow of celibacy in other perfons. There feems, indeed, 
to have been, in fome cafes, a tendency towards the intro¬ 
duction of fucli a law; for Eufebius obferves, that Piny- 
tus, bi(hop of Gnoffus in Crete, was for laying the law of 
celibacy upon his brethren ; but Dionyfms, bifliop of Co¬ 
rinth, wrote to him that he (honld coniider the weuknefs of 
men, and not impofe that heavy burden on them. In the 
.council of Nice, anno 325, the motion was renewed for a 
law to oblige the clergy to abdain from ail conjugal fociety 
with their wives, whom they had married before their or. 
CEL 
dination • but Paphnutius, a famous Egyptian bifliop, and 
one who himfelf never'was married, vigorouily declaimed 
agamd it, upon which it was unanimouily rejected. So 
Socrates and Sndomen tell the dory ; to which all that Va- 
ledus, after Bellarmin, has to fay, is, that he fufpedts the 
truth of it. The council in Trullo, held in 692, made a 
difference in tins rdpect between biffiops and preffiyters 
allowing pi elbyters, deacons, and all tlie inferior orders, to 
cohabit with their wives after ordination ; and giving the 
Roman church a rebuke for the contrary prohibition; but 
at the fame time laying an injunction upon biffiops to live 
leparate from their wives, and appointing the wives to be¬ 
take themfelves to a monadic life, or become deaconefles 
in tiie church. And thus was a total celibate edabliffied 
in the Greek church as to biihops, but not any others. Jn 
the Latin church the like eftabiifhment was alfo made, but 
bv (low deps, in many places. For in Africa even biffiops 
themfelves cohabited with their wives, at the time of the 
council of Trullo. The celibacy of the clergy, however 
appears of an ancient danding, if not of command and ne- 
ceffity, yet as of counfel and choice. But, as it is dearly 
neither ot divine nor apodolical inditution, it is hard to con¬ 
ceive from what motive the court of Rome perfided fo 
very obdinately to impofe this inditution on the cler^v. 
But vve are to obferve, that this was a leading dep to the 
execution of the project formed of making the clergy in¬ 
dependent of princes, and rendering them a feparate°body 
to be governed by their own laws. In effeiT, while prieds 
had children, it was very difficult to prevent their depend¬ 
ence on princes, whole favours have fuch an influence on 
private men; but, having no family, they were'more at 
liberty to adhere to the pope. 
After all, it feems an inditution highly repugnant to 
reafon, and to the defign of Providence. For the preva¬ 
lence of a notion fo pernicious, and literally dedrudliveto 
the human fpecies, during a period of grols ignorance, we 
may eatily account; but, when the world began to be en¬ 
lightened by the revival of learning and philofophy, it 
might have been expected, that an opinion fo palpably con¬ 
tradictory to tiie fird law of nature, with every abfurd prac¬ 
tice to which it had given birth, would indantly difappear. 
To the no (mall diferedit, however, of the reformers of the 
world, the fame opinion, even through ages of increafino- 
knovvledge, lias (iill remained; or, periiaps, it mi°ht 
more judly be faid, that the practice arifing from it has 
exided long after the parent notion has in reality been dead. 
Not only have the whole body of the Romifh priedhood 
been kept in the unnatural date of celibacy, but a consi¬ 
derable body of the protedant clergy, in conformity to the 
ancient Romiffi inllitutions, have been obliged, in order to 
poifefs certain academical honours and emoluments in our 
univerfities, to deny themfelves tiie enjoyment of domedic 
comforts. It is impoflible that a redaction of fo ferious a 
nature ffiould not tong have been lamented as a grievous 
burden ; yet fo difficult is it to alter ancient edabliffiments, 
that this grievance remains even up to the clofe of the 
eighteenth century ! 
CELIDOGRA'PHIA, f. The description of the fpots 
whicli appear on the furfaces of the fun and planets. 
CE'LIS, J. [y.ri At?, from to burn.] A fpot or ble- 
mifh upon tiie (kin, particularly that which is occafioned 
by a burn. N 
CELL,y. [cella, Lat.] A fmal! cavity or hollow place: 
The brain contains ten thoufand cells; 
In each fome aClive fancy dwells. Prior. 
The cave or little habitation of a religious perfon : 
Then did religion in a lazy cell. 
In empty, airy, contemplations dwell. Denham. 
A final 1 and ctofe apartment in aprifon; any fmall place 
of reildence ; a cottage : 
In cottages and lowly cells 
True piety neglected dwells; 
Till call’d to lieav’n, its native feat, 
Where the good man alone is great. Somerville. 
Little 
