This article is about voluntary sexual abstinence; it is not to be confused withAsexuality.
"Sworn virgins" redirects here. For the Balkan gender category, seeAlbanian sworn virgins.
Celibacy (fromLatincaelibatus) is the state of voluntarily beingunmarried,sexually abstinent, or both. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee.[1] In its narrow sense, the termcelibacy is applied only to those for whom the unmarried state is the result of a sacredvow, act ofrenunciation, or religious conviction.[1][2] In a wider sense, it is commonly understood to only mean abstinence fromsexual activity.[1][2][3][4][5]
Celibacy has existed in one form or another throughout history, invirtually all the major religions of the world, and views on it have varied. TheHindu concept ofbrahmacharya encourages celibacy during adolescence, to allow one to focus on learning, and in later years, as a way of attaining spiritual liberation.Jainism, on the other hand, preached complete celibacy even for young monks and considered celibacy to be an essential behavior to attainmoksha.Buddhism is similar to Jainism in this respect. There were, however, significant cultural differences in the various areas where Buddhism spread, which affected the local attitudes toward celibacy. A somewhat similar situation existed in Japan, where theShinto tradition also opposed celibacy. In most native African and Native American religious traditions, celibacy has been viewed negatively as well, although there were exceptions like periodic celibacy practiced by some Mesoamerican warriors.[6]
The English wordcelibacy derives from the Latincaelibatus, "state of being unmarried", from Latincaelebs, meaning "unmarried". This word derives from twoProto-Indo-European stems,*kaiwelo- "alone" and*lib(h)s- "living".[11]
The wordsabstinence andcelibacy are often used interchangeably, but are not necessarily the same thing.Sexual abstinence, also known ascontinence,[12] is abstaining from some or all aspects of sexual activity, often for some limited period of time,[13] while celibacy may be defined as a voluntary religious vow not to marry or engage in sexual activity.[14][15][16][17]Asexuality is commonly conflated with celibacy and sexual abstinence, but it is considered distinct from the two,[18][19] as celibacy and sexual abstinence are behavioral and those who use those terms for themselves are generally motivated by factors such as an individual's personal or religious beliefs.[20]
A. W. Richard Sipe, while focusing on the topic of celibacy in Catholicism, states that "the most commonly assumed definition ofcelibate is simply an unmarried or single person, and celibacy is perceived as synonymous with sexual abstinence or restraint."[21] Sipe adds that even in the relatively uniform milieu of Catholic priests in the United States there seems to be "simply no clearoperational definition of celibacy".[22]Elizabeth Abbott commented on the terminology in herA History of Celibacy (2001) writing that she "drafted a definition of celibacy that discarded the rigidly pedantic and unhelpful distinctions between celibacy, chastity, andvirginity".[23]
The concept of "new" celibacy was introduced by Gabrielle Brown in her 1980 bookThe New Celibacy.[24] In a revised version (1989) of her book, she claims abstinence to be "a response on the outside to what's going on, and celibacy is a response from the inside".[25] According to her definition, celibacy (even short-term celibacy that is pursued for non-religious reasons) is much more than not having sex. It is more intentional than abstinence, and its goal is personal growth and empowerment. Although Brown repeatedly states that celibacy is a matter of choice, she clearly suggests that those who do not choose this route are somehow missing out.[26] This new perspective on celibacy is echoed by several authors, including Elizabeth Abbott, Wendy Keller, andWendy Shalit.[27]
The rule of celibacy in the Buddhist religion, whetherMahayana orTheravada, has a long history. Celibacy was advocated as an ideal rule of life for allmonks andnuns byGautama Buddha, except in Japan where it is not strictly followed due to historical and political developments following theMeiji Restoration. In Japan, celibacy was an ideal among Buddhist clerics for hundreds of years. But violations of clerical celibacy were so common for so long that finally, in 1872, state laws made marriage legal for Buddhist clerics. Subsequently, ninety percent of Buddhist monks/clerics married.[28] An example isHigashifushimi Kunihide, a prominent Buddhist priest of Japanese royal ancestry who was married and a father whilst serving as a monk for most of his lifetime.
Gautama, later known as the Buddha, is known for his renunciation of his wife, PrincessYasodharā, and son,Rahula. In order to pursue an ascetic life, he needed to renounce aspects of the impermanent world, including his wife and son. Later on both his wife and son joined the ascetic community and are mentioned in the Buddhist texts to have become enlightened.
There is no commandment in the New Testament thatJesus Christ's disciples have to live in celibacy.[29] However, it is a general view that Christ himself lived a life of perfectchastity; thus, "Voluntary chastity is the imitation of him who was the virgin Son of a virgin Mother".[30] One of his invocations is "King of virgins and lover of stainless chastity"(Rex virginum, amator castitatis).[31][32]
Furthermore, Christ, when his disciples suggest it is "better not to marry," stated "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can" (Matthew 19:10-12, NRSV). Whileeunuchs were not generally celibate, over subsequent centuries this statement has come to be interpreted as referring to celibacy.[33][34]
Paul the Apostle emphasized the importance of overcoming the desires of the flesh and saw the state of celibacy being superior to that of marriage.[35] Paul made parallels between the relations between spouses and God's relationship with the church. "Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church. Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies" (Ephesians 5:25–28). Paul himself was celibate and said that his wish was "that all of you were as I am" (1 Corinthians 7:7). In fact, this entire chapter endorses celibacy while also clarifying that marriage is also acceptable.
The early Christians lived in the belief that the end of the world would soon come upon them, and saw no point in planning new families and having children. According to Chadwick, this was why Paul encouraged both celibate and marital lifestyles[29] among the members of the Corinthian congregation, regarding celibacy as the preferable of the two.[29]
In the counsels of perfection (evangelical counsels), which include chastity alongside poverty and obedience, Jesus is said to have "[given] the rule of the higher life, founded upon his own most perfect life", for those who seek "the highest perfection" and feel "called to follow Christ in this way"—i.e. through such "exceptional sacrifices".[36]
A number of earlyChristian martyrs were women or girls who had given themselves to Christ in perpetual virginity, such asSaint Agnes andSaint Lucy. According to most Christian thought, the first sacred virgin wasMary, the mother of Jesus, who was consecrated by the Holy Spirit during the Annunciation. Tradition also has it that the Apostle Matthew consecrated virgins. In the Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches, aconsecrated virgin is a woman who has been consecrated by the church to a life of perpetual virginity in the service of the church.
Over time, the model of Anthony and other hermits attracted many followers, who lived alone in the desert or in small groups. They chose a life of extremeasceticism, renouncing all the pleasures of the senses, rich food, baths, rest, and anything that made them comfortable.[39] Thousands joined them in the desert, mostly men but also a handful of women. Religious seekers also began going to the desert seeking advice and counsel from the early Desert Fathers. By the time of Anthony's death, there were so many men and women living in the desert in celibacy that it was described as "a city" by Anthony's biographer.[37]
In the Catholic,Orthodox andOriental Orthodox traditions, bishops are required to be celibate.[43][44][45] In the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions, priests and deacons are allowed to be married, yet have to remain celibate if they are unmarried at the time ofordination.[46][47]
In the early Church, higherclerics lived in marriages. Augustine taught that theoriginal sin ofAdam and Eve was either an act of foolishness(insipientia) followed by pride and disobedience to God, or else inspired by pride.[48] The first couple disobeyed God, who had told them not to eat of thetree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17).[49] The tree was a symbol of the order of creation.[50] Self-centeredness made Adam and Eve eat of it, thus failing to acknowledge and respect the world as it was created by God, with its hierarchy of beings and values.[51] They would not have fallen into pride and lack of wisdom, if Satan had not sown into their senses "the root of evil"(radix mali).[52] Their nature was wounded byconcupiscence orlibido, which affected human intelligence and will, as well as affections and desires, including sexual desire.[53]The sin of Adam is inherited by all human beings. Already in his pre-Pelagian writings, Augustine taught that original sin was transmitted byconcupiscence,[54] which he regarded as the passion of both soul and body,[55] making humanity amassa damnata (mass of perdition, condemned crowd) and much enfeebling, though not destroying, the freedom of the will.
In the early 3rd century, theCanons of theApostolic Constitutions decreed that only lower clerics might still marry after their ordination, but marriage of bishops, priests, and deacons were not allowed.[56][57][58]
Catholic priests from all over the world in Budapest, 2013
One explanation for the origin of obligatory celibacy is that it is based on the writings ofSaint Paul, who wrote of the advantages of celibacy allowed a man in serving the Lord.[59] Celibacy was popularised by the early Christian theologians likeSaint Augustine of Hippo andOrigen. Another possible explanation for the origins of obligatory celibacy revolves around more practical reason, "the need to avoid claims on church property by priests' offspring".[60] It remains a matter ofCanon Law (and often a criterion for certainreligious orders, especiallyFranciscans) that priests may not own land and therefore cannot pass it on to legitimate or illegitimate children. The land belongs to the Church through the local diocese as administered by the Local Ordinary (usually a bishop), who is often anex officiocorporation sole. Celibacy is viewed differently by the Catholic Church and the various Protestant communities. It includesclerical celibacy, celibacy of theconsecrated life[61] and voluntary celibacy.
Many evangelicals prefer the term "abstinence" to "celibacy". Assuming everyone will marry, they focus their discussion on refraining from premarital sex and focusing on the joys of a future marriage. But some evangelicals, particularly older singles, desire a positive message of celibacy that moves beyond the "wait until marriage" message of abstinence campaigns. They seek a new understanding of celibacy that is focused on God rather than a future marriage or a lifelong vow to the Church.[66]
There are also many Pentecostal churches which practice celibate ministry. For instance, the full-time ministers of the Pentecostal Mission are celibate and generally single. Married couples who enter full-time ministry may become celibate and could be sent to different locations.[67]
During the first three or four centuries, no law was promulgated prohibiting clerical marriage. Celibacy was a matter of choice for bishops, priests, and deacons.[68]
Statutes forbidding clergy from having wives were written beginning with the Council of Elvira (306) but these early statutes were not universal and were often defied by clerics and then retracted by hierarchy.[69] The Synod of Gangra (345) condemned a false asceticism whereby worshipers boycotted celebrations presided over by married clergy.[70] The Apostolic Constitutions (c. 400) excommunicated a priest or bishop who left his wife "under the pretense of piety" (Mansi, 1:51).[71]
"The Second Lateran Council (1139) seems to have enacted the first written law making sacred orders a direct impediment to marriage for the universal Church."[69] Celibacy was first required of some clerics in 1123 at theFirst Lateran Council. Because clerics resisted it, the celibacy mandate was restated at theSecond Lateran Council (1139) and theCouncil of Trent (1545–64).[73] In places, coercion and enslavement of clerical wives and children was apparently involved in the enforcement of the law.[74] "The earliest decree in which the children [of clerics] were declared to be slaves and never to be enfranchised [freed] seems to have been a canon of the Synod of Pavia in 1018. Similar penalties were promulgated against wives and concubines (see the Synod of Melfi, 1189 can. xii), who by the very fact of their unlawful connexion with a subdeacon or clerk of higher rank became liable to be seized by the over-lord".[74]
In theRoman Catholic Church, theTwelve Apostles are considered to have been the firstpriests andbishops of the Church. Some say the call to beeunuchs for the sake of Heaven in Matthew 19 was a call to be sexually continent and that this developed into celibacy for priests as the successors of the apostles. Others see the call to be sexually continent in Matthew 19 to be a caution for men who were too readily divorcing and remarrying.
The view of the Church is that celibacy is a reflection of life in Heaven, a source of detachment from the material world which aids in one's relationship with God. Celibacy is designed to "consecrate themselves with undivided heart to the Lord and to "the affairs of the Lord, they give themselves entirely to God and to men. It is a sign of this new life to the service of which the Church's minister is consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart celibacy radiantly proclaims the Reign of God."[75] In contrast,Saint Peter, whom the Church considers its firstPope, was married given that he had amother-in-law whom Christ healed (Matthew 8). But some argue that Peter was a widower, due to the fact that this passage does not mention his wife, and that his mother-in-law is the one who serves Christ and the apostles after she is healed.[76] Furthermore, Peter himself states: "Then Peter spoke up, 'We have left everything to follow you!' 'Truly I tell you', Jesus replied, 'no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much'" (Mark 10,28–30).
Usually, only celibate men are ordained as priests in theLatin Church.[77][78] Married clergy who have converted from other Christian denominations can be ordained Roman Catholic priests without becoming celibate.[79] Priestly celibacy is notdoctrine of the Church (such as the belief in theAssumption of Mary) but a matter of discipline, like the use of the vernacular (local) language in Mass or Lenten fasting and abstinence.[80] As such, it can theoretically change at any time though it still must be obeyed by Catholics until the change were to take place. TheEastern Catholic Churches ordain both celibate and married men. However, in both the East and the West, bishops are chosen from among those who are celibate.[81][82] In Ireland, several priests have fathered children, the two most prominent being bishopEamonn Casey andMichael Cleary.
Discalced Carmelites from Argentina, 2013
The classical heritage flourished throughout the Middle Ages in both the Byzantine Greek East and the Latin West. When discerning the population of Christendom in medieval Europe during the Middle Ages,Will Durant, referring to Plato'sideal community, stated on theoratores (clergy):[83]
"The clergy, like Plato's guardians, were placed in authority not by the suffrages of the people, but by their talent as shown in ecclesiastical studies and administration, by their disposition to a life of meditation and simplicity, and (perhaps it should be added) by the influence of their relatives with the powers of state and church. In the latter half of the period in which they ruled [AD 800 onwards], the clergy were as free from family cares as even Plato could desire; and in some cases it would seem they enjoyed no little of the reproductive freedom accorded to the guardians. Celibacy was part of the psychological structure of the power of the clergy; for on the one hand they were unimpeded by the narrowing egoism of the family, and on the other their apparent superiority to the call of the flesh added to the awe in which lay sinners held them and to the readiness of these sinners to bare their lives in the confessional."[83]
With respect to clerical celibacy, Richard P. O'Brien stated in 1995, that in his opinion, "greater understanding of human psychology has led to questions regarding the impact of celibacy on the human development of the clergy. The realization that many non-European countries view celibacy negatively has prompted questions concerning the value of retaining celibacy as an absolute and universal requirement for ordained ministry in the Roman Catholic Church".[84]
In Hinduism, celibacy is usually associated with thesadhus ("holy men"), ascetics who withdraw from society and renounce all worldly ties. Celibacy, termedbrahmacharya in Vedic scripture, is the fourth of theyamas and the word literally translated means "dedicated to the Divinity of Life". The word is often used in yogic practice to refer to celibacy or denying pleasure, but this is only a small part of whatbrahmacharya represents. The purpose of practicingbrahmacharya is to keep a person focused on the purpose in life, the things that instill a feeling of peace and contentment. It is also used to cultivate occult powers and many supernatural feats, calledsiddhi.
In the religious movement ofBrahma Kumaris, celibacy is also promoted for peace and to defeat power oflust.[86][87]
Islamic attitudes toward celibacy have been complex, Muhammad denounced it, however someSufi orders embrace it. Islam does not promote celibacy; rather it condemnspremarital sex andextramarital sex.[88][89][90][91][92] In fact, according to Islam, marriage enables one to attain the highest form of righteousness within this sacred spiritual bond but the Qur'an does not state it as an obligation. TheQur'an (Q57:27) states, "But the Monasticism which they (who followed Jesus) invented for themselves, We did not prescribe for them but only to please God therewith, but that they did not observe it with the right observance."[93] Therefore, religion is clearly not a reason to stay unmarried although people are allowed to live their lives however they are comfortable; but relationships and sex outside of marriage, let alone forced marriage, is definitely a sin, "Oh you who believe! You are forbidden to inherit women against their will" (Q4:19). In addition, marriage partners can be distractions from practicing religion at the same time, "Your mates and children are only a trial for you" (Q64:15) however that still does not mean Islam does not encourage people who have sexual desires and are willing to marry. Anyone who does not (intend to) get married in this life can always do it in the Hereafter instead.
Celibacy appears as a peculiarity among some Sufis.[94]
Celibacy was practiced by women saints in Sufism.[95] Celibacy was debated along with women's roles in Sufism in medieval times.[96]
Celibacy, poverty, meditation, and mysticism within an ascetic context along with worship centered around saints' tombs were promoted by the Qadiri Sufi order among Hui Muslims in China.[97][98] In China, unlike other Muslim sects, the leaders (Shaikhs) of theQadiriyya Sufi order are celibate.[99][100][101][102][103] Unlike other Sufi orders in China, the leadership within the order is not a hereditary position, rather, one of the disciples of the celibate Shaikh is chosen by the Shaikh to succeed him. The 92-year-old celibate Shaikh Yang Shijun was the leader of the Qadiriya order in China as of 1998.[104]
The spiritual teacherMeher Baba stated that "[F]or the [spiritual] aspirant a life of strict celibacy is preferable to married life, if restraint comes to him easily without undue sense of self-repression. Such restraint is difficult for most persons and sometimes impossible, and for them married life is decidedly more helpful than a life of celibacy. For ordinary persons, married life is undoubtedly advisable unless they have a special aptitude for celibacy".[108] Baba also asserted that "The value of celibacy lies in the habit of restraint and the sense of detachment and independence which it gives"[109] and that "The aspirant must choose one of the two courses which are open to him. He must take to the life of celibacy or to the married life, and he must avoid at all costs a cheap compromise between the two. Promiscuity in sex gratification is bound to land the aspirant in a most pitiful and dangerous chaos of ungovernable lust."[110]
InSparta and many other Greek cities, failure to marry was grounds for loss of citizenship, and could be prosecuted as a crime. BothCicero andDionysius of Halicarnassus stated that Roman law forbade celibacy. There are no records of such a prosecution, nor is the Roman punishment for refusing to marry known.[111]
Pythagoreanism was the system ofesoteric andmetaphysical beliefs held byPythagoras and his followers. Pythagorean thinking was dominated by a profoundly mystical view of the world. The Pythagorean code further restricted his members from eating meat, fish, and beans which they practised for religious, ethical and ascetic reasons, in particular the idea ofmetempsychosis – the transmigration of souls into the bodies of other animals.[112][113]"Pythagoras himself established a small community that set a premium on study, vegetarianism, and sexual restraint or abstinence. Later philosophers believed that celibacy would be conducive to the detachment and equilibrium required by the philosopher's calling."[114]
The tradition of sworn virgins developed out of theKanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit (English:The Code of Lekë Dukagjini, or simply theKanun). TheKanun is not a religious document – many groups follow this code, includingRoman Catholics, theAlbanian Orthodox, andMuslims.
Women who become sworn virgins make a vow of celibacy, and are allowed to take on the social role of men: inheriting land, wearing male clothing, etc.
During theMay Fourth Movement in China, pledges of celibacy were a means through which participants resisted traditional marriage and devoted themselves to revolutionary causes.[115]: 97
^abRuthven, Malise (2006).Islam in the World.New York:Oxford University Press. p. 153.ISBN978-0-19-530503-6.Themisogynism inIslam may perhaps be partly attributed to the absence of outlets for celibacy.Ascetical tendencies are usually strong among the pious: the whole history of Western religions illustrates an intimate connection between religious enthusiasm and sexual repression. In Islam, however, celibacy was explicitly discouraged both by the Prophet's own example and by the famoushadith, "There is no monasticism in Islam – the monasticism (rahbaniya) of my community is thejihad".
^Online Etymology Dictionary,Celibacy. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
^ Melody, John (1913)."Continence". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved23 July 2011.
^Palazzini, Pietro, ed. (1962). "Abstinence and Continence".Dictionary of Moral Theology. London: Burns & Oates.
^Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Encyclopaedia Britannica. May 2008. p. 359.ISBN9781593394929. Retrieved12 October 2016.The deliberate abstinence from sexual activity, usually in connection with a religious role or practice.
^"celibacy".Britannica Kids. Retrieved12 October 2016.A voluntary refusal to marry or engage in sexual intercourse, celibacy is often associated with taking religious vows. The three types of religious celibacy are sacerdotal, monastic, and institutional.
^Abbott, Elizabeth.A History of Celibacy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: DaCapo, 1999; Keller, Wendy.The Cult of the Born-Again Virgin: How Single Women Can Reclaim Their Sexual Power. Deerfield Beach, Florida: Health Communications, 1999; Shalit, Wendy.A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue. New York: Touchstone, 2000.
^Richard M. 2001. Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, p. 4
^Hester, J. David (September 2005), "Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19.12 and Transgressive Sexualities",Journal for the Study of the New Testament,28 (1):13–40,doi:10.1177/0142064X05057772,S2CID145724743
^Kuefler, Mathew (2001).The manly eunuch: masculinity, gender ambiguity, and Christian ideology in late antiquity. The Chicago series on sexuality, history, and society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p. 437.ISBN978-0-226-45739-0.
^Roman CholijClerical Celibacy in East and West. Gracewing 1990; 2nd Rev. ed., p. 36.
^art. Celibacy, clerical, inDictionary of Moral Theology. Compiled under the Direction of H. E. Cardinal Roberti. Ed. Mgr. Pietro Palazzini. London: Burns & Oates Publishers of the Holy See 1962;
^Aduersus Jovinianum I, 7. 26 (PL 23, 230C; 256C).
^He explained to Julian of Eclanum that it was a most subtle job to discern what came first:Sed si disputatione subtilissima et elimatissima opus est, ut sciamus utrum primos homines insipientia superbos, an insipientes superbia fecerit ("But if we need a very precise and clear discussion, that we may know whether foolishness made the first men proud, or pride made them foolish." [Contra Julianum, V, 4.18; PL 44, 795])
^Augustine of Hippo,On the Literal Meaning of Genesis (De Genesi ad litteram), VIII, 6:12, vol. 1, pp. 192–3 and 12:28, vol. 2, pp. 219–20, trans. John Hammond Taylor SJ;BA 49,28 and 50–52;PL 34, 377; cf. idem,De Trinitate, XII, 12.17;CCL 50, 371–372 [v. 26–31;1–36];De natura boni 34–35; CSEL 25, 872; PL 42, 551–572
^Augustine of Hippo,On the Literal Meaning of Genesis (De Genesi ad litteram), VIII, 4.8;BA 49, 20
^Augustine explained it in this way: "Why therefore is it enjoined upon mind, that it should know itself? I suppose, in order that it may consider itself, and live according to its own nature; that is, seek to be regulated according to its own nature, viz., under Him to whom it ought to be subject, and above those things to which it is to be preferred; under Him by whom it ought to be ruled, above those things which it ought to rule. For it does many things through vicious desire, as though in forgetfulness of itself. For it sees some things intrinsically excellent, in that more excellent nature which is God: and whereas it ought to remain steadfast that it may enjoy them, it is turned away from Him, by wishing to appropriate those things to itself, and not to be like to Him by His gift, but to be what He is by its own, and it begins to move and slip gradually down into less and less, which it thinks to be more and more." ("On the Trinity" (De Trinitate), 5:7;CCL 50, 320 [1–12])
^Augustine of Hippo,Nisi radicem mali humanus tunc reciperet sensus ("Contra Julianum", I, 9.42; PL 44, 670)
^In one of Augustine's late works,Retractationes, he made a significant remark indicating the way he understood difference between spiritual, moral libido and the sexual desire: "Libido is not good and righteous use of the libido" ("libido non-est bonus et rectus usus libidinis"). See the whole passage:Dixi etiam quodam loco: «Quod enim est cibus ad salutem hominis, hoc est concubitus ad salutem generis, et utrumque non-est sine delectatione carnali, quae tamen modificata et temperantia refrenante in usum naturalem redacta, libido esse non-potest». Quod ideo dictum est, quoniam "libido non-est bonus et rectus usus libidinis". Sicut enim malum est male uti bonis, ita bonum bene uti malis. De qua re alias, maxime contra novos haereticos Pelagianos, diligentius disputavi. Cf.De bono coniugali, 16.18; PL 40, 385;De nuptiis et concupiscentia, II, 21.36; PL 44, 443;Contra Iulianum, III, 7.16; PL 44, 710; ibid., V, 16.60; PL 44, 817. See alsoIdem (1983).Le mariage chrétien dans l'oeuvre de Saint Augustin. Une théologie baptismale de la vie conjugale. Paris: Études Augustiniennes. p. 97.
^Augustine of Hippo,Imperfectum Opus contra Iulianum, II, 218
^In 393 or 394 he commented: "Moreover, if unbelief is fornication, and idolatry unbelief, and covetousness idolatry, it is not to be doubted that covetousness also is fornication. Who, then, in that case can rightly separate any unlawful lust whatever from the category of fornication, if covetousness is fornication? And from this we perceive, that because of unlawful lusts, not only those of which one is guilty in acts of uncleanness with another's husband or wife, but any unlawful lusts whatever, which cause the soul making a bad use of the body to wander from the law of God, and to be ruinously and basely corrupted, a man may, without crime, put away his wife, and a wife her husband, because the Lord makes the cause of fornication an exception; which fornication, in accordance with the above considerations, we are compelled to understand as being general and universal" ("On the Sermon on the Mount",De sermone Domini in monte, 1:16:46;CCL 35, 52)
^DuBois, Thomas A. (1 January 2018).Sacred to the Touch: Nordic and Baltic Religious Wood Carving. University of Washington Press. p. 24.ISBN978-0-295-74242-7.
^Celibacy. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009.Archived 31 October 2009.
^Colon, Christine, and Bonnie Field. Singled Out: Why Celibacy Must Be Reinvented in Today's Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2009.
^Cholij, Roman (1993)."Priestly Celibacy in Patristics and in the History of the Church". Vatican. A priest who is married at time of ordination continues to be married, with full obligation to all expectations of the marriage, but cannot remarry and remain in the practice of the priesthood.
^Babb, Lawrence A. (1987). Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles in the Hindu Tradition (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society). Oxford University Press.ISBN0-7069-2563-7. "Sexual intercourse is unnecessary for reproduction because the souls that enter the world during the first half of the Cycle are in possession of a special yogic power (yog bal) by which they conceive children"
^Barrett, David V (2001). The New Believers. Cassell & Co. pp. 265.ISBN0-304-35592-5.
^"celibacy", The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed., vol 3, Chicago, 2007.
^Wang, Xian (2025).Gendered Memories: An Imaginary Museum for Ding Ling and Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyrs. China Understandings Today series. Ann Arbor:University of Michigan Press.ISBN978-0-472-05719-1.
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