Clerical celibacy
- T16.1 Married clergy permitted in early practice (Paphnutius; Trullo); the West moved to required continence (medium)
- T16.2 Marriage after ordination is forbidden in Era III (Neocaesarea canon 1); Scripture is silent (medium)
Two separate measures, shown side by side; neither is combined with the other (confidence-weighted, out of 4; counts show how many of this doctrine's 2 questions each rests on; ⚠ marks coverage more than 10 points below the median, a less certain rank). This doctrine is third-order (tier weight 1). How scoring works · Scripture and tradition · Glossary · Every score with its citation
Closeness to Scripture
Closeness to the fathers
Charts: closeness to the fathers by question, and timeline
- c. 439 Socrates Scholasticus T16.1
- c. 692 Council in Trullo T16.1
- 1646 Westminster Confession Presbyterian
T16 · Clerical celibacy
Discipline, not dogma.
Tier: Third-order (scoring weight 1). How the tiers were set: theological triage. Method: conventions. Traditions’ sources: confessional sources.
In short
Scripture assumes church leaders may be married (‘husband of one wife’), and the apostle Peter had a wife. In the early church married clergy were normal. The Western church later required its priests to be celibate, while the Eastern churches kept married priests and chose bishops from the unmarried.
Plan
Question: T16.1: may ordained clergy marry, or is celibacy required? Scripture: 1 Cor 7:7–8, 32–35; 9:5; 1 Tim 3:2; 4:1–3; Titus 1:6. Fathers: Socrates, Church History I.11 (Paphnutius at Nicaea); Trullo canon 13 (692). Question: T16.2: May a priest marry after ordination?
Questions
Verdicts and trace
Weighed under the source-proximity principle: Scripture first, then the father eras I–IV.
T16.1 · Clerical celibacy
| Question | Verdict | Confidence | Reasoning | Key sources | Scripture (benchmark) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T16.1 | Married clergy permitted in early practice (Paphnutius; Trullo); the West moved to required continence | Medium | T16.1.1 · T16.1.3 weighing | socrates-t16-s1 · trullo-t16-s1 | T16.1.4: medium-high |
T16.2 · May a priest marry after ordination?
| Question | Verdict | Confidence | Reasoning | Key sources | Scripture (benchmark) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T16.2 | Marriage after ordination is forbidden in Era III (Neocaesarea canon 1); Scripture is silent | Medium | T16.2.1 · T16.2.3 weighing | neocaesarea-t16-s1 | T16.2.4: low |
Post-750 development
Which of this doctrine’s questions each tradition stays closest to, or departs from. Each row links to the tradition’s notes; exact scores and bases are in the reasoning.
| Tradition | Closest to the fathers on | Departs or sharpens on |
|---|---|---|
| Catholic | partly T16.1, T16.2 | — |
| Orthodox | T16.1, T16.2 | — |
| Oriental Orthodox | T16.1, T16.2 | — |
| Lutheran | partly T16.1, T16.2 | partly T16.2 |
| Anglican | partly T16.1, T16.2 | partly T16.2 |
| Presbyterian | partly T16.1, T16.2 | partly T16.2 |
| Reformed Baptist | partly T16.1, T16.2 | partly T16.2 |
| General Baptist | partly T16.1, T16.2 | partly T16.2 |
| Anabaptist | partly T16.1, T16.2 | partly T16.2 |
Overall verdict
Early practice and Scripture permit married clergy; the Orthodox families keep the earliest pattern; mandatory Latin celibacy departs from Scripture’s pattern. T16.2: the Orthodox and Catholic rule matches Neocaesarea.
Verification status
Status from the score data: 6 tradition cells cite a text checked against an online source (marked verified); 11 cite the named article or practice without a separate check in this project (see each tradition’s section); 1 are not assessed (T16.1 Oriental Orthodox), with the reason given in the reasoning page.