“In the old Pagan times celibacy had been held in honor,” notes M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia. Other reference works indicate that such “old Pagan times” go back to ancient Babylon and Egypt. The New Encyclopædia Britannica states: “With the rise of the great civilizations of antiquity, celibacy emerged in various contexts.” It was, for instance, connected with the worship of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility, as the Britannica notes: “Sexual abstinence was an absolute requirement of those who celebrated her holy mysteries.”

In addition, Alexander Hislop observed in his book The Two Babylons: “Every scholar knows that when the worship of Cybele, the Babylonian goddess, was introduced into Pagan Rome, it was introduced in its primitive form, with its celibate clergy.”

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History of Clerical Celibacy

First Century: “We do not find in the New Testament any indication of celibacy being made compulsory either upon the Apostles or those whom they ordained.”​—The Catholic Encyclopedia.

Fourth Century: “The oldest evidence of a law on priestly celibacy is Canon 33 of the Council of Elvira [Spain], circa 300 C.E.”​—Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique.

“The Council of Nicaea [325 C.E.] refused to impose this law [Elvira Canon 33] on the whole Church.”​—A Catholic Dictionary.

Up to Tenth Century: “For centuries this question of the celibacy of the clergy was a subject of constant struggle within the Church. Unnatural crimes abounded among the clergy; their office, in the ninth and tenth centuries, seemed to be held as a license for excess. . . . Many priests lived openly in wedlock, although the councils were always issuing new orders against them.”​—M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia.

Eleventh Century: “The Synod of Paris (1074), without hesitation, declared that the law of celibacy was intolerable and unreasonable. . . . In some countries, again, the law remained unobserved, either wholly or in part for a long time. In England the Synod of Winchester in 1076 thought it right to allow, at least to priests already married, in the country and small towns, permission to retain their wives.”​—A Manual of Church History (Catholic), by F. X. Funk.

Twelfth Century: “Finally, in 1123, at the First Lateran Council, an enactment was passed (confirmed more explicitly in the Second Lateran Council, can[on] vii) which, while not in itself very plainly worded, was held to pronounce the marriages contracted by subdeacons or ecclesiastics of any of the higher orders to be invalid. . . . This may be said to mark the victory of the cause of celibacy.” (Italics ours.)​—The Catholic Encyclopedia.

Up to Sixteenth Century: “In the Latin Church, the publishing of the law [of celibacy] did not end the controversy. In the 13th and 14th centuries, many specialists in canon law and even bishops called for the adoption of Eastern [Church] legislation that allowed priests to marry. They found a ready argument in the degradation of priestly and even religious morals that were characteristic of the early Middle Ages. The great councils of Constance (1414-18), Basel (1431-39), and Trent (1545-63) witnessed bishops and theologians calling for the abrogation of the law of celibacy.”​—Encyclopædia Universalis.

“At the Council of Trent (1545-63) several bishops, and the emperor Charles V, favored a relaxation of the [celibacy] rule. But the majority of voices decided that God would not withhold the gift of chastity from those that rightly prayed for it, and the rule of celibacy was thus finally and forever imposed on the ministers of the Roman Catholic Church.” (Italics ours.)​—M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia.

Twentieth Century: “In connection with the second Vatican Council (1962-65) clerical celibacy has once again become a cause of ferment in the Roman Church. . . . Subsequent to the council, the number of priests seeking to leave the priesthood and marry has vastly increased. . . . Pope Paul VI, however, issued an encyclical, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (June 23, 1967), reaffirming the traditional law on celibacy.”​—Encyclopædia Britannica.