At 12:46 01/06/98 GMT0BST, you wrote:
>
> For
>example, there is a nice charter in the PRO which discloses the fact
>that Gerald of Wales' nephew, Gerald de Barri the younger, archdeacon
>of Brecon in succession to his uncle, had three children by the
>sister of a rural dean. We know the name of the rural dean and his
>brothers, but we don't know their sister's name.
>What intrigues me is at what point in time people began to think it
>was disreputable for women to be married to clerics (in higher
>orders, that is - clerics in lower orders could get married). I think
>Christopher Brooke thinks this process happened in the middle of the
>twelfth century, but I wonder if in many social milieux it mightn't
>have been a bit later?
>
>Julia Barrow
>
>
>Thank you. When Gerald returned from Paris in 1172, he became an agent in
Wales for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Finding that the Archdeacon of
Brecon was married - hardly an unusual state of affairs - Gerald informed on
him, and was rewarded with his job. When personal interests were not at
stake, Gerald was
however an enthusiastic supporter of clerical marriage, agreeing with Peter
Manducator that the enforcement of clerical celibacy was the greatest triumph
that the Devil had ever won over the Church [Opera, ed. Brewer, Rolls Series,
vol. II pp. 187-88]
>
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