Roman Catholic priests were often married men until the First Lateran Council of 1123, when the church declared: “We absolutely forbid priests, deacons, subdeacons, and monks to have concubines or to contract marriage. We decree in accordance with the definitions of the sacred canons, that marriages already contracted by such persons must be dissolved, and that the persons be condemned to do penance.” One of the reasons for this injunction—along with the old admonition against carnal pleasure—was Rome’s fear that offspring would inherit church properties.
