Clerical marriage was much more common and more open in Wales and
clergy feature in a number of medieval gentry pedigrees. Even monks
openly acknowledged their marriages. My own perspective on this is
slightly later, in the immediate post-Reformation period, when
clerical marriage has been seen as one source for the economic
problems of the clergy. However, the clergy of the diocese of Bangor,
writing to Thomas Cromwell in defence of clerical marriage, claimed
that they would be less well off and less able to exercise
hospitality in their parishes if they were forced to separate from
their wives. This may not have been their real reason, but they
obviously thought it was a credible argument.
Maddy Gray
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