Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[Wade Riddick <riddick AT mail.la.utexas.edu>]

>I read an editorial -- and I can't attest to its accuracy as I don't know
>and haven't researched this topic, but if it is accurate, it has very
>interesting implications for the Church -- that the celibacy requirement was
>not for any deep seated theological reasons, but that early in the last
>millennium, Rome gave land to priests and didn't want the church (priests'
>sons) to inherit.

Inheritence is certainly important.  The Catholic Church was also used to
settle bloody political disputes by the landed estates.  If you were on a
losing side, you always had the opportunity to go into the monestary where
celibacy guaranteed you wouldn't have children to come back and reassert
your familial rights.  It was a way to retire from the bloodlines of
nobility and make peace deals stick.