CELESTINS CELIBACY 171 that it consisted of 600 monks and 36 monas- teries. This order was approved by Urban IV., who incorporated it with the Benedictine order. Gregory X. confirmed it in 1274, in the second general council of Lyons. It spread through- out Italy, France, and Germany, and was sup- pressed in 1778. Pietro was elected pope July 5, 1294, after an interregnum which followed the death of Nicholas IV. The account of his election being forwarded to him in his retire- ment, he refused to accept the dignity, though the cardinals and Charles II. of Naples and Andrew III. of Hungary urged him strongly to do so. He attempted to fly from his retreat, but was prevented by a vast concourse of people. At length he consented, and proceeded to Perugia accompanied by the kings of Naples and Hungary, and was crowned Aug. 29. He made his public entrance into the city amid the applause of more than 200,000 people. In the city of Aquila he appointed twelve cardinals, five of whom were Italians and seven French, and then went to Naples. He made two con- stitutions which provided for the cardinals en- tering into conclave on the election of a pope, thus renewing a constitution already made by Gregory X. in the council of Lyons; and also another respecting the pope resigning his of- fice. After occupying the pontifical see du- ring five months, he' renounced the tiara, Dec. 13, 1294, on finding that he was but little ac- quainted with temporal matters, and still re- tained his unconquerable love for solitude. The see remained vacant ten days, when Boni- face VIII. was elected his successor. Celestine then retired again to his solitude at Majella, to devote himself altogether to prayer and to mortification. Boniface VIII., fearing difficul- ties might be caused by artful persons, who would turn his simplicity to their own ac- count, wished to keep him under his control, and at first confined him in a house in Anagni near his own residence, and afterward trans- ferred him to Fumone, near Ferentiuo in the Campagna, where he languished for ten months in a climate so sickly that the religious who waited on him were obliged to be changed every two months. He finally died there, and was canonized at Avignon by Pope Clement V., May 5, 1313. He wrote the following treatises, which were published at Naples in 1640: Relatio Vita suce; De Virtutibm ; De Vitiis ; De Hominis Vanitate ; De Exemplis ; De Sententiis Patrum. Several lives of this pope have been written ; among them one by LelioMarini (Milan, 1630). CELESTLS. See CELESTINE V. CELIBACY (Lat. ccelebs, unmarried), the state of being unmarried, whether the person be a bachelor or a widower, a maid or a widow. In its restricted and more usual sense, it means the state of those who have formally renounced matrimony for the future, especially by a reli- gious vow. In ancient Greece and Koine celi- bates, outside of the priesthood, were sub- jected to various penalties. In Sparta un- married men were regarded as infamous, and by the laws of Lycurgus might be seized and severely punished by the women in the temple of Hercules. Plato, in his imaginary republic, declared all those who had remain- ed unmarried till they were 35 years old to be incapable of holding any public office. At Rome celibates were forbidden to bear witness in courts, or to leave a will, and it was believed that special penalties were reserved for them in the future life. It is remarkable that while celibacy was proscribed in Europe, it was au- thorized in the East. There celibates bore hon- orable names, were raised to high positions, and styled favorites of heaven. With the prog- ress of civilization in Greece and Rome celiba- cy became more common. Thus often the men of letters, the philosophers, athletes, gladiators, and musicians, some from taste, and some from necessity, remained unmarried. This was fre- quently the case with the disciples of Pythago- ras and Diogenes. Celibacy was early regard- ed as a peculiar privilege and duty of the priest- hood. Among the Hebrews, persons intended for the service of the temple were permitted to marry, but under certain restrictions. Among the Egyptians, the priests of Isis were bound to chastity. The gymnosophists of India and the hierophants of the Athenians lived in celibacy. There were maidens among the Persians con- secrated to the worship of the sun, and vestal virgins among the Romans, who alone were permitted to guard the sacred fire. The celi- bacy of religious persons was regarded by the Greeks as a grace almost divine. No sacrifice was regarded as perfect without the interven- tion of a virgin. In the primitive Christian church celibacy came gradually to be esteemed a higher state than matrimony. The early fathers, especially St. Jerome, enthusiastically celebrated the virtue of continence. Yet there was no law nor uniformity of opinion or action on the subject, and it was not tall the 4th cen- tury that even the higher clergy began gene- rally to live in celibacy. The council of the Spanish and African churches at Elvira, in Spain, about A. D. 305, commanded ecclesiastics of the three first grades to abstain from conju- gal intercourse under penalty of deposition. A motion to the same effect was made in the general council of Nice, in 325, but it was rejected. Yet a tradition became prevalent about that time, that priests once admitted into holy orders should not afterward marry; and this practice, being once established, led natu- rally to the opinions that persons who were married should not be admitted into orders, and that celibacy was a holier state than mar- riage. In the Latin church the usage of celi- bacy was most strictly observed. Near the close of the 4th century Pope Siricius forbade con- jugal intercourse to priests without distinction, and this interdiction was repeated by the sub- sequent popes and councils. The emperor Jus- tinian declared the child of an ecclesiastic ille-
- gitimate, and incapable of being an heir. The
