Church History 101 For Those Born Yesterday

Lateran Councils

   The first of four Lateran Councils was held in 1123. They are so named after Saint John Lateran, the church in Rome which was prior to the Vatican being built the effective vatican and central seat of the bishops where these councils met. It is a beautiful building which still exists- worth a visit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbasilica_of_St._John_Lateran

    Here are the canons established by the First Lateran Council. CANONS [Laws] HERE
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum09.htm

   You will note that there is a Canon prohibiting a priest from taking or living with a wife or concubine.
[Canon 7 and 21] There is a law outlawing it - when prior it was common practice. They had to make a law to make it stop-and even then for quite a while it was ignored but the practice just went underground. Some say the practice is still underground. Once in a while a soul with integrity can't live with the secrecy and comes out and says- guess what! I have been married already for a year and you guys couldn't even tell!

    The rationale for the Lateran Council is easy to see for anyone with knowledge of European history and the conflicts with the church. The emerging states were confiscating church properties and using inheritance laws to do it.

    Jesus never ever ever forbade any priest to marry. In fact in the 613 some Jewish laws there are strict rules regarding who a priest could marry- with different levels of priesthood having different restrictions.
The Cohenic priesthood could only marry virgins. No divorced women, no widows. Virgins. The Levites were not so strict- they held different functions in Jewish life. Marriage was clearly mandatory.
The Christian New Testament also in keeping with the Jewish rules makes it mandatory-[1 Timothy 3, Titus 1] A Bishop MUST be the husband of only one wife. By rule of the New Testament. Not multiple wives in a pagan sense, not polytheism but ONE wife to mirror the fact that there is ONE God. Marital love was to be between Adam and Eve not Adam and Eve, Bridget, Mary, Katherine, and Elaine.

    When the church decided for the preservation of the vast enormous churches being built in building their asset base to forbid marriage it was to prevent property confiscation by the state or inheritance laws from divesting church properties. If you look at Saint John Lateran you get a sense of how massive these church structures at the age were. There are huge investments.  If an aristocratic wife married a Bishop, when the Bishop died the Aristocratic wife, or Princess or Marquise or Countessa could inherit the property. That couldn't happen. So they made these laws. Bishops came often from the Aristocratic class because then you could buy yourself a bishopric- it had a lot to do with the money you could generate back to the Pontiff and the wealthier the family the greater your chances of getting a Bishop title.
These rules against marriage for priests have NOTHING to with Jesus nor the spirituality of the priesthood and is an Unholy burden.  They had to delegitimize wives- create a definition of holiness abstracted from marital love to theologically make the unpalatable palatable. They had to convince people it was more holy. Some abusive and discriminatory treatment of women by the church stems from this bastardization of the concept of holiness.

Thirteen Popes were married. Many others had mistresses or 'concubines.'  http://marriage.about.com/od/historyofmarriage/ss/marriedpopes.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sexually_active_popes

     Canons are man made laws. They are not statements of scripture. In scripture Paul says basically, hey don't i have a right to travel with a wife like the rest of the apostles? (a right he declines) This is viewed by Paul as a RIGHT. Paul's statement that I wish everyone were like me (and is careful to state its his preference, he isn't channelling God, God isn't talking through him when he states his preference) makes it clear that this isn't what God would want in all cases. What God wants is what is in scripture- the inspired word of God.
Canons-  are man made laws in the institution of the church that serve the particular human objectives of the church in a particular point in history. They are in some cases rationally related to earthly objectives and in some cases in direct contradiction to heavenly wisdom.

  A blanket prohibition on a married priesthood is against heavenly wisdom, against scripture, a bastardization of scripture, an excuse for abuse against women and an open door to unspeakable perversions. click-This is directly related to this false theology  It needs to change. Badly.  It's such BS I don't know why they all have not just gone on strike until the rule changes or Benedict cries Ok you win- I will follow Jesus, the Jew from Nazareth.
http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2007/03/married-bishops-now.html

There is firm evidence of the fact that priests married in Rome. The Basillica that is the Rome seat of the Archbishop of Washington Wuerl which was consecrated in 439 AD has a burial plaque on the floor noting that a Cynthia the wife of a Bishop is buried there. It was the norm- because it is the scriptural rule.