CELLA
1SS
CELLA
higher grade, and if they are guilty of incontinence
with any other person or marry a third time, they are
no longer allowed to exercise their functions. Sub-
deacons seem to be able to marry a second time with-
out being deposed, but in that ease they cannot be
promoted to the priesthood. Again, a priest who
before his ordination has contracted an unlawful mar-
riage, even unwittingly, is no longer permitted to ex-
ercise his priestly functions when the fact is discov-
ered. Priests and deacons are bidden to practise
continence during the time of their service of the
altar. In 1S97 there seem to have been 4025 parish
churches in Greece, and these were served by 5423
married and 242 unmarried priests.
In the Russian Church, though a previous marriage seems to be, practically speaking, a conditio sine qua non for ordination in the case of the secular clergy, still their canonists deny that this is a strict obliga- tion. The candidate for orders must either be already married or must formally declare his intention of re- maining celibate. Any marriage attempted after the reception of the subdiaconate is invalid and the ecclesiastic so offending renders himself liable to severe penalties. Further, to have been already married, or to have married a widow, or to have con- tracted any other marriage which offends against the canons — e. g. with a near relative, an unbeliever, or person of notoriously loose character, e. g. an actress — constitutes a disqualification for ordination. Formerly the priest who lost his wife was required to retire into a monastery. He is still free to do so and in this way may qualify for higher functions, e. g. for the episcopate, etc., the bishops in the Greek and Russian Church being selected exclusively from the monastic clergy. Since the beginning of the eigh- teenth century, widower priests are no longer com- pelled to retire into monasteries, but they need the permission of the Synod to continue to discharge their parochial functions.
In the Armenian Church, again, clerics in minor orders are still free to contract marriage, and such marriage is required as a condition for ordination to the simple secular priesthood. Besides monks and the ordinary clergy, the Armenian Church recognizes a class of Yartapeds, or preachers, who are celibate priests of higher education. From their ranks the bishops and higher clergy are as a rule selected. It is only by exception that a monk is chosen to the episcopate.
Amongst the Nestorians celibacy is not so much honoured as amongst most of the Oriental Churches. Priests and deacons may marry even after ordination, and if their wife should die they may marry a second or even a third time. Still, bishops are required to live as celibates, though formerly this does not seem to have been the case.
The Copts and also the Abyssinian Monophysites resemble the Greek Church in their laws regarding clerical marriage. A marriage contracted after the reception of Holy orders, or any second marriage, in- volves deposition. All the Coptic bishops are chosen from the monastic clergy. Among the Syrian Jaco- bites similar rules prevail. Bishops, as a rule, are chosen from the monks and a second marriage is for- bidden to a priest who is left a widower. If, how- ever, he marries, the marriage is regarded as valid though he is deprived of bis clerical functions.
Turning now to the Oriental Churches in com- munion with the Holy See, we may note that as a il principle married clerics are not ineligible for the subdiaconate. diaconate, and priesthood. As in the Russian Church they must either be married in accordance with tin' canons (i. e. not to a widow, etc.), or else as a preliminary to ordination they are asked whether they will promise to observe chastity. The full recognition of the right of the Oriental clergy to retain their wives will be found in the Constitution of
Benedict XIV, "Etsi pastoralis", 2G May, 1742.
There has, however, been a strong movement of
recent years among the Oriental 1'niat Churches
favouring conformity with Western Christendom in
this matter of celibacy. For example, the Armenian
Church dependent upon the Patriarch of Cilicia, even
as far back as July, 1869, passed a resolution that
celibacy should be required of all the higher orders of
the clergy. Again the Synod of Scharfa in Syria, in
1888, decreed that "the celibate life which is already
observed by the great majority of the priests of our
Church should henceforth be common to all", al-
though the deacons and priests who were already
married were allowed to continue as before, and
though a certain power of dispensation in cases of
necessity was left with the patriarch. Similarly in
1898 a synod of the Uniat Copts at Alexandria de-
creed that henceforth all candidates for any of the
higher orders must be celibate "according to the
ancient discipline of the Church of Alexandria and
the other Churches of God".
Historical. — Vacandard in Diet, de Theoloffie, s. v. Celibat: Idem in Etudes de Critique (Paris. 1905), 71-120; Phillips in Kirchenlex., s. v. Calibat : FrNK, Kirchengeschiehtliche Ahhandlungcn (Paderborn. 1S97). I. i21-15S and 450-455; Hefei.e. BatrOge :ar Kirchengeschichte, I; Bickell in Zeil- srhnjtf. Kath thcalogic (Innsbruck, 1S7S-1879); Thomassin, Yrtus >t .Vera Eccles. DiscipUna. I, Bk. II. c. 60-67; Zaccaria, Staria Polemica Jet Celibato Sacra (Fulismo, 17S5I; Friedberq in Railencyk. f. prat, theol., IV, s. v. Colibat: Pavt. Du celibat ecrU-ttiastiijue (Paris, 1852); Carry, Le celibal ecclesiaslique (Paris, 1901).
Canon Law. — Wernz. Jus Decrctalium (Rome, 1905), II. 295-321, and IV, 574-607; Roskovany, Calibatus el Breria- rium (17 vols., Pesth, 1S61-1S90); Laurin. Der Calibat der
(1 ■ "' ■ '• n«»i(t»i'ti Recti te (Wien. lssoi; Dn.e.SKROX.
in \i,alectaEcclesiastica (1893, 1894); Gavgusch, Ehehindernis der » fc< a It ..A, (1902). .
Oriental Churches. — Milasch, Das Kirchenrecht Jer Morgen- lunjisrhen Kirche (2nd ed., Mostar, 1905). 267. 598; Silber- nagel, Verfassung und gegenwartiger Bestrand siimtlicher Kirch- en Jes Orients (Freiburg, 1903); Papp-Szilagyi. Encheiridion Juris Eccl. Orientalis Catholici: Callectio Lacensis, II.
Opponents of Celibacy. — Lea. History of Sacerdotal Celibacy (2 vols., London, 1907, 3rd ed.); Wordsworth, The Ministry of Grace (London, 1901), 206-256; Wharton, On Celibacy; Theiver, Die Einfuhrung der erzwungenen Ehelosigkcit (3 vols., 1892, 3rd ed.).
Herbert Thurston.
Cella, one of the names by which the small me- morial chapels sometimes erected in the Christian cemeteries of the first age were known; these edifices are also referred to as memories martyrum , confessiones, etc. The term cella in this sense occurs in a very interesting inscription of Caesarea in Mauretania quoted by De Rossi (Bullet., April, 1S64):—
AREAM AT [ad] SEPULCHRA CULTOR VERBI
CONTULIT, ET CELLAM STRt'XIT SVIS CTJNCTIS SUMPTIBUS.
[This cemetery (area) was given by a worshipper of the Word, who also erected a chapel (cella) at his own expense.] It is the general opinion of archae- ologists that the edifices erected in the Roman ceme- teries by Pope Fabian (236-250) [Multas fabricas per cymeteria fieri pnecepti (Lib. Pont., 1. 148)] were memorial cilia: constructed primarily as places for the celebration of the funeral agapa or anniversaries by friends of the deceased, when the oblatio pro dor- mitione, or Mass for the dead, was offered. Two such celUe, or cemeterial basilicas, dedicated respectively to Sts. Sixtus and Cecilia and St. Soter, may still be Men in the cemetery of St. Callistus. In form they belong to the class of edifices known as cclhc trichora, each consisting of a rectangular nave terminating in three semicircular apses, the chords of which form three sides of a square. In other instances cetta ter- minate in a single apse. Originally eat hof these a Ua consisted of three apses alone which probably served as a choir or sanctuary for the clergy during the cele- bration of the liturgy, while the congregation assisted at the services from the adjacent lawn. Owing to the great respect of the Roman civil authorities for
