24) Again he says: "What will the churches of the East, of
Egypt and of the Apostolic See do, which adopt their clergy from among
virgins, or if they have wives, they cease to live as married men."(525)

St. Epiphanius declares that "he who leads a married life is not admitted
by the Church to the order of Deacon, Priest, Bishop or sub-Deacon."(526)

In the primitive days of the Church, owing to the scarcity of vocations
among the unmarried, married men were admitted to sacred orders, but they
were enjoined, as we learn from various canons, to live separated from
their wives after their ordination.

This discipline, it is true, was relaxed to some extent in favor of a
portion of the clergy of the Oriental Church, who were permitted to live
with their wives if they happened to espouse them before ordination; but,
like the Priests of the Western Church, the Eastern clergy were forbidden
to contract marriage after their ordination. It is important also to
observe that the unmarried clergy of the East are held in much higher
esteem by the people than the married Priests.

It cannot, indeed, be denied that at certain epochs of the Church's
history, especially in periods of disordered society, there were too many
instances of the violation of clerical celibacy. But the repeated
violations of a law are no evidence of its non-existence. Whenever the
voice of the Church could be heard it always spoke in vindication of the
law of priestly chastity.

Let me now call your attention to the propriety and advantages of clerical
celibacy.

First--The Priest is the representative of Jesus Christ. He continues the
work begun by his Divine Master. It is his duty to preach the word, to
administer the Sacraments, and, above all, to consecrate the Body and
Blood of Christ and to distribute the same to the faithful. Is it not
becoming that a chaste Lord should be served by chaste ministers?

If the Jewish Priests, while engaged in their turn in offering the
sacrifice of animals in the Temple, were obliged to keep apart from their
wives, should not the Priests of the New Law, who offer daily the
sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb, practise continual chastity?

If David and his friends were not permitted to eat the bread of
Proposition till he had avowed that for the three preceding days they had
refrained from women,(527) how pure in body and soul should be the Priest
who daily partakes of that living Bread of which the bread of Propositi