win the first prize for virtue; but where there was no such
rivalry, no pains were taken to preserve appearances, and
natural inclinations were followed without pretence.

After the closing years of the fourth century the bishops
of Rome took the cause of celibacy in hand. Then appeared
the decretals of Lirice, of Innocent, and of Leo, which forbade
the marriage of bishops, priests, deacons, and, after Leo, of
sub-deacons. At this time the Roman Church had to impose
its will on all the bishops of the Latin world, a right de-
rived from Valentinian I., from Gratian, and lastly from
Valentinian III. Moreover, the councils of Carthage ( 390),
Hippo ( 393) in Africa, the council of Toledo in Spain ( 400);
in Gaul, the councils of Orange ( 442), Angers ( 453), Tours
( 561), and Vannes ( 465) obeyed the orders of the Pope,
which were also those of the emperor. In 476 the western
empire disappeared; but celibacy was prescribed in the
ecclesiastical legislation, and there it remained. The councils
of Agde ( 506), Orleans ( 511), Tarragon ( 516), Epaone ( 517),
Toledo ( 527), Auvergne ( 535), Orleans ( 538, 541, and 549),
Eauze ( 551), Tours ( 567), Auxerre (about 580), Lyons ( 583),
Mâcon ( 583), Toledo ( 589, 633, 653, 655), Paris (after 614),
Châlons ( 648), Bordeaux ( about 663), St. Jean de Losne
( 673), adhered to the Roman discipline. This discipline,
which on the one hand was severe, on the other was rather
lenient. It removed from the surroundings of the clergy all
women who were "strangers," exception being made of the
mother, the sister, and the aunt. But it authorized those
who before taking orders had married--until the seventh
century this was almost universally the case--to keep their
wives on condition that they treated them as sisters. In
other words, in the matter of wives, it permitted a common
dwelling, but not a common bed.

The law of ecclesiastical celibacy was promulgated by
numerous councils in the sixth and seventh centuries. Diffi-
culties arose when it was enforced. We may first mention the
work of Pope Gregory and its results. The possessor of vast
estates in Italy and the islands adjacent, in Dalmatia, and in
southern Gaul, invested throughout his domains with almost

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