Chapter XIX: Front Matter (19)

CELESTINA, LA, the popular alternative title attached from 1519 (or earlier) to the anonymous _Comedia de Caliste y Melibea_, a Spanish novel in dialogue which was celebrated throughout Europe during the 16th century. In the two earliest known editions (Burgos, 1499, and Seville, 1501) the _Comedia_ consists of sixteen acts; the reprints issued after 1501 are entitled _Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea_, and contain twenty-one acts. Three of these reprints include a twenty-second act which is admittedly spurious, and the authenticity of Acts XVII.-XXI. is disputed. The authorship of the _Celestina_ and the date of its composition are doubtful. An anonymous prefatory letter in the editions subsequent to 1501 attributes the book to Juan de Mena or Rodrigo Cota, but this ascription is universally rejected. The prevailing opinion is that the author of the twenty-one acts was Fernando de Rojas, apparently a Spanish Jew resident at the Puebla de Montalban in the province of Toledo; R. Foulche-Delbose, however, maintains that the original sixteen acts are by an unknown writer who had no part in the five supplementary acts. Some scholars give 1483 as the date of composition; others hold that the book was written in 1497. These questions are still unsettled. Though profoundly original in treatment, the _Celestina_ has points of analogy with the work of earlier writers, such as Juan Ruiz (q.v.), the archpriest of Hita; his rapid sketches of Trota-conventas, Melon and Endrina no doubt suggested the finished portraits of Celestina, Calisto and Melibea, and the closing scene in the _Celestina_ recalls the suicide in Diego Fernandez de San Pedro's _Carcel de Amor_. Allowing for these and other debts of the same kind, it cannot be denied that the _Celestina_ excels all earlier Spanish works in tragic force, in impressive conception, and in the realistic rendering of characters drawn from all classes of society. It passed through innumerable editions in Spain, and was the first Spanish book to find acceptance throughout western Europe. At least twenty works by well-known Spanish authors are derived from it; it was adapted for the English stage as early as 1525-1530, and was translated into Italian (1505), French (1527) and other European languages. A Latin version by Caspar Barth was issued under the title of _Pornoboscodidascalus latinus_ (1624) with all the critical apparatus of a recognized classic. James Mabbe's English rendering (1631) is one of the best translations ever published. The original edition of 1499 has been reprinted by R. Foulche-Delbose in the _Bibliotheca Hispanica_ (1902), vol. xii.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--R. Foulche-Delbose, "Observations sur la Celestine" in
the _Revue hispanique_ (Paris, 1900), vol. vii. pp. 28-80 and (Paris.
1902) vol. ix. pp. 171-199; K. Haebler, "Bemerkungen zur Celestina" in
the _Revue hispanique_ (Paris, 1902), vol. ix. pp. 139-170; and M.
Menendez y Pelayo's introduction to the _Celestina_ (Vigo, 1899-1900)
(J. F.-K.)

CELESTINE (CAELESTINUS), the name of five popes.

CELESTINE I., pope from 422 to 432. At his accession the dissensions caused by the faction of Eulalius (see BONIFACE I.) had not yet abated. He, however, triumphed over them, and his episcopate was peaceful. When the doctrines of Nestorius were denounced to him, he instructed Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, to follow up the matter. The emperor Theodosius II. convoked an ecumenical council at Ephesus, to which Celestine sent his legates. He had some difficulties with the bishops in Africa on the question of appeals to Rome, and with the bishops of Provence with regard to the doctrines of St Augustine. To expedite the extirpation of Pelagianism, he sent to Britain a deacon called Palladius, at whose instigation St Germanus of Auxerre crossed the English Channel, as delegate of the pope and bishops of Gaul, to inculcate orthodox principles upon the clergy of Britain. He also commissioned Palladius to preach the gospel in Ireland which was beginning to rally to Christianity. Celestine was the first pope who is known to have taken a direct interest in the churches of Britain and Ireland. (L. D.*)

CELESTINE II., pope in 1143-1144. Guido of Citta di Castello (Tiferno), born of noble Tuscan family, able and learned, studied under Abelard and became a cardinal priest. Elected the successor of Innocent II. on the 26th of September 1143, he died on the 8th of March following. He removed the interdict which Innocent had employed against Louis VII. of France. At the time of his death he was on the verge of a controversy with Roger of Sicily.

See A. Certini, _Vita_ (Foligno, 1716); M. Bouquet, _Recueil des
historiens des Gaules_ (Paris, 1738 ff.), tome 15, 408-411; Migne,
_Patrologiae cursus completus_, 179, 765-820; P. Jaffe, _Regesta
Pontificum Romanorum_, 2nd ed. vol. ii. (Lipsiae, 1888), 1 ff.; Wetzer
und Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_, 2nd ed. vol. iii. (Freiburg, 1884), 578
ff.; Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_, 3rd ed. vol. iv. (Leipzig,
1898), 201.

CELESTINE III. (Giacinto Bobo), pope from 1191 to 1198, was cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin as early as 1144, and had reached the age of eighty-five when chosen on the 30th of March 1191 to succeed Clement III. The first pope of the house of the Orsini, his policy was marked by mildness and indecision. Henry VI. of Germany at once forced the pontiff to crown him emperor, and three or four years later took possession of the Norman kingdom of Sicily; he refused tribute and the oath of allegiance, and even appointed bishops subject to his own jurisdiction; moreover, he gave his brother in fief the estates which had belonged to the countess Matilda of Tuscany. Celestine did not dare so much as to threaten him with excommunication. It was Celestine's purpose to lay England under the interdict; but Prince John and the barons still refused to recognize the papal legate, the bishop of Ely. Richard I. had been set free before the dilatory pope put Leopold of Austria under the ban. In his last sickness Celestine wished to resign his office, but the cardinals protested. Death released him from his perplexities on the 8th of January 1198.

See "Epistolae Coelestini III. Papae," in M. Bouquet, _Receuil des
historiens des Gaules et de la France_, tome 19 (Paris, 1738 ff.);
J.P. Migne, _Patrologiae cursus completus_, tome 206 (Paris, 1855),
867 ff.; further sources in _Neues Archiv fur die altere deutsche
Geschichtskunde_, 2. 218; 11. 398 f.; 12.411-414; P. Jaffe, _Regesta
Pontificum Romanorum_, vol. ii. (2nd ed.. Leipzig, 1888), 577 ff.
(W. W. R.*)

CELESTINE IV. (Godfrey Castiglione), pope in 1241, son of a sister of Urban III. (1185-1187), was archpriest and chancellor at Milan. After Urban's death he entered the Cistercian monastery at Hautecombe in Savoy. In 1227 Gregory IX. created him cardinal priest of St Mark's, and in 1233 made him cardinal bishop of Sabina. Elected to succeed Gregory on the 25th of October 1241, he died on the 10th of November, before consecration, and was buried in St Peter's.

See A. Potthast, _Regesta Pontificum Romanorum_, vol. i. (Berlin,
1874), 940 f.

CELESTINE V. (St Peter Celestine), pope in 1294, was born of poor parents at Isernia about 1215, and early entered the Benedictine order. Living as a hermit on Monte Morrone near Sulmone in the Abruzzi, he attracted other ascetics about him and organized them into a congregation of the Benedictines which was later called the Celestines (q.v.). The assistance of a vicar enabled him to escape from the growing administrative cares and devote himself solely to asceticism, apparently the only field of human activity in which he excelled. His _Opuscula_, published by Telera at Naples in 1640, are probably not genuine; he was _indoctus libris_. A fight between the Colonna and the Orsini, as well as hopeless dissensions among the cardinals, prevented a papal election for two years and three months after the death of Nicholas IV. Charles II. of Naples, needing a pope in order that he might regain Sicily, brought about a conclave. As the election of any cardinal seemed impossible, on the 5th of July 1294 the Sacred College united on Pietro di Morrone; the cardinals expected to rule in the name of the celebrated but incapable ascetic. Apocalyptic notions then current doubtless aided his election, for Joachim of Floris and his school looked to monasticism to furnish deliverance to the church and to the world. Multitudes came to Celestine's coronation at Aquila, and he began his reign the idol of visionaries, of extremists and of the populace. But the pope was in the power of Charles II. of Naples, and became his tool against Aragon. The king's son Louis, a layman of twenty-one, was made archbishop of Lyons. The cardinals, scarcely consulted at all, were discontented. The pope, who wanted more time for his devotions, offered to leave three cardinals in charge of affairs; but his proposition was rejected. He then wished to abdicate, and at length Benedetto Gaetano, destined to succeed him as Boniface VIII., removed all scruples against this unheard-of procedure by finding a precedent in the case of Clement I. Celestine abdicated on the 13th of December 1294. There is no sufficient ground for finding an allusion to this act in the noted line of Dante, "Che fece per viltate il gran rifiuto" ("who made from cowardice the great refusal," _Inferno_, 3, 60). Boniface at length put him in prison for safe keeping; he died in a monastic cell in the castle of Fumone near Anagni on the 19th of May 1296. He was canonized by Clement V. in 1313.

See Wetzer und Welte and Herzog-Hauck (with excellent bibliography) as
above; Jean Aurelien, Superieur de la Congregation des Celestins, _La
Vie admirable de ... Saint Pierre Celestin_ (Bar-le-Duc, 1873); H.
Finke, _Aus den Tagen Bonifaz VIII._ (Munster, 1902), pp. 24-43.
(W. W. R.*)

CELESTINE, or CELESTITE, a name applied to native strontium sulphate (SrSO4), having been suggested by the celestial blue colour which it occasionally presents. This colour has been referred to a trace of iron phosphate, but in some cases such an explanation appears doubtful. The mineral is usually colourless, or has only a delicate shade of blue. Celestine crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, being isomorphous with barytes (q.v.). The angle between the prism faces is 76 deg. 17'. The cleavage is perfect parallel to the basal pinacoid, and less marked parallel to the prism. Although celestine much resembles barytes in its physical properties, having for example the same degree of hardness (3), it is less dense, its specific gravity being 3.9. Celestine is a less abundant mineral than barytes. It is, however, much more soluble, and occurs frequently in mineral waters. W.W. Stoddart showed that many plants growing on Keuper marls containing celestine near Bristol appropriated the strontium salt, and the metal could be detected spectroscopically in their ashes.

Celestine occurs in the Triassic rocks of Britain, especially in veins and geodes in the Keuper marl in the neighbourhood of Bristol. At Wickwar and Yate in Gloucestershire it is worked for industrial purposes. Colourless crystals, of great beauty, occur in association with calcite and native sulphur in the sulphur deposits of Sicily, as at Girgenti. Fine blue crystals are yielded by the copper mines of Herrengrund, in Hungary; a dark blue fibrous form is known from Jena; and small crystals occur in flint at Meudon near Paris. Very large tabular crystals are found in limestone on Strontian Island in Lake Erie; and a blue fibrous variety from near Frankstown, Blair Co., Penn., is notable as having been the original celestine on which the species was founded by A.G. Werner in 1798.

Celestine is much used for the preparation of strontium hydrate, which is employed in refining beetroot sugar in Germany. The mineral is used also as a source of various salts of strontium such as the nitrate, which finds application in pyrotechny for the production of red fire. (F. W. R.*)

CELESTINES, a religious order founded about 1260 by Peter of Morrone, afterwards Pope Celestine V. (1294). It was an attempt to unite the eremitical and cenobitical modes of life. Peter's first disciples lived as hermits on Mount Majella in the Abruzzi. The Benedictine rule was taken as the basis of the life, but was supplemented by regulations notably increasing the austerities practised. The form of government was borrowed largely from those prevailing in the mendicant orders. Indeed, though the Celestines are reckoned as a branch of the Benedictines, there is little in common between them. For all that, St Celestine, during his brief tenure of the papacy, tried to spread his ideas among the Benedictines, and induced the monks of Monte Cassino to adopt his idea of the monastic life instead of St Benedict's; for this purpose fifty Celestine monks were introduced into Monte Cassino, but on Celestine's abdication of the papacy the project fortunately was at once abandoned. During the founder's lifetime the order spread rapidly, and eventually there were about 150 monasteries in Italy, and others in France, Bohemia and the Netherlands. The French houses, twenty-one in number, formed a separate congregation, the head-house being in Paris. The French Revolution and those of the 19th century destroyed their houses, and the Celestine order seems no longer to exist.

Peter of Morrone was in close contact with the Franciscan Spirituals of the extreme type (see FRANCISCANS), and he endeavoured to form an amalgamation between them and his hermits, under the title "Poor Hermits of Celestine." On his abdication the amalgamation was dissolved, and the Franciscan element fled to the East and was finally suppressed by Boniface VIII. and compelled to re-enter the Franciscan order. The habit of the Celestines was black.

See Helyot, _Histoire des ordres religieux_ (1792), vi. c. 23; Max
Heimbucher, _Orden und Kongregationen_ (1896), i. S 22, p. 134; the
art. "Colestiner" in Wetzer und Welte, _Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. 2), and
Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (ed. 3). (E. C. B.)

CELIBACY (Lat. _caelibatus_, from _caelebs_, unmarried), the state of being unmarried, a term now commonly used in the sense of complete abstinence from marriage; it originally included the state of widowhood also, and any one was strictly a _caelebs_ who had no existing spouse. Physicians and physiologists have frequently discussed celibacy from their professional point of view; but it will be sufficient to note here the results of statistical inquiries. It has been established by the calculations of actuaries that married persons--women in a considerable, but men in a much greater degree---have at all periods of life a greater probability of living than the single. From the point of view of public utility, the state has sometimes attempted to discourage celibacy. The best-known enactment of this kind is that of the emperor Augustus, best known as _Lex Julia et Papia Poppaea_. This disabled _caelibes_ from receiving an inheritance unless the testator were related to them within the sixth degree; it limited the amount which a wife could take by a husband's will, or the husband by the wife's, unless they had children; and preference was given to candidates for office in proportion to the number of their children.[1] Ecclesiastical legislators, on the other hand, have frequently favoured the unmarried state; and celibacy, partial or complete, has been more or less stringently enforced upon the ministers of different religions; many instances are quoted by H.C. Lea. The best known, of course, are the Roman Vestals; though here even the great honours and privileges accorded to these maidens were often insufficient to keep the ranks filled. In the East, however, this and other forms of asceticism have always flourished more freely; and the Buddhist monastic system is not only far older than that of Christendom, but also proportionately more extensive.[2] In early Judaism, chastity was indeed enjoined upon the priests at certain solemn seasons; but there was no attempt to enforce celibacy upon the sacerdotal caste. On the contrary, all priests were the sons of priests, and the case of Elizabeth shows that here, as throughout the Jewish people, barrenness was considered a disgrace. But Alexander's conquests brought the Jews into contact with Hindu and Greek mysticism; and this probably explains the growth of the ascetic Essenes some two centuries before the Christian era. The adherents of this sect, unlike the Pharisees and Sadducees, were never denounced by Christ, who seems on the contrary to have had real sympathy with the voluntary celibacy of an exceptional few (Matt. xix. 12). St Paul's utterances on this subject, though they go somewhat further, amount only to the assertion that a struggling missionary body will find more freedom in its work in the absence of wives and children. At the same time, St Paul claimed emphatically for himself and the other apostles the right of leading about a wife; and he names among the qualifications for a bishop, an elder and a deacon, that he should be "the husband of one wife." Indeed it was freely admitted by the most learned men of the middle ages and Renaissance that celibacy had been no rule of the apostolic church; and, though writers of ability have attempted to maintain the contrary even in modern times, their contentions are unhesitatingly rejected by the latest Roman Catholic authority.[3]

The gradual growth of clerical celibacy, first as a custom and then as a rule of discipline, can be traced clearly enough even through the scanty records of the first few centuries. The most ascetic Christians began to question the legality of second marriages on the part of either sex, as even paganism had often reprobated second marriages of women. Though these extremists were presently branded as heretics for their eccentric ultra-ascetic tenets (Montanists, Cathari), yet as early as Tertullian's time (c. A.D. 220) the right of second marriages was theoretically denied to the priesthood. This was logically followed by a revival of the old Levitical rule which required that priests should marry none but virgins (Lev. xxi. 7, 13). Both these rules, however, proved difficult of enforcement and seem to have rested only on a vague basis of public opinion; twice-married men (_digami_) were admitted to the priesthood by Pope Calixtus I. (219-222), and even as late as the beginning of the 5th century we find husbands of widows consecrated to the episcopate. The so-called Apostolical Constitutions and Canons, the latter of which were compiled in the 4th century, give us the first clear and fairly general rules on the subject. Here we find "bishops and priests allowed to retain the wives whom they may have had before ordination, but not to marry in orders; the lower grades, deacons, subdeacons, &c., allowed to marry after entering the church; but all were to be husbands of but one wife, who must be neither a widow, a divorced woman nor a concubine" (Lea i. 28). Many causes, however, were already at work to carry public feeling beyond this stage. Quite apart from the few enthusiasts who would have given a literal interpretation to the text in Matt, xix. 12, vows of virginity became more and more frequent as the virtue itself was lauded by ecclesiastical writers in language of increasing fervour. These vows were at first purely voluntary and temporary; but public opinion naturally grew less and less tolerant of those who, having once formed and published so solemn a resolution, broke it afterwards. Again not only was the church doctrine itself more or less consciously influenced by the Manichaean tenet of the diabolical origin of all matter, including the human body, but churchmen were also naturally tempted to compete in asceticism with the many heretics who held this tenet, and whose abstinence brought them so much popular consideration. Moreover, in proportion as the clergy, no longer mere ringleaders of a despised and persecuted sect, became beneficiaries and administrators of rich endowments--and this at a time when the external safeguards against embezzlement were comparatively weak--a strong feeling grew up among the laity that church revenues should not go to support the priest's family.[4] Lastly, such partial attempts as we have already described to enforce upon the clergy a special rule of continence, by their very failure, suggested more heroic measures. Therefore, side by side with the evidence for difficult enforcement of the old rules, we find an equally constant series of new and more stringent enactments.

The first church council which definitely forbade marriage to the higher clergy was the local Spanish synod of Elvira (A.D. 305). A similar interpretation has sometimes been claimed for the third canon of that general council of Nicaea to which we owe the Nicene creed (325), but this is now abandoned by the best authorities on all sides. There can be no doubt, however, that the 4th century opened a wide breach in this respect between the Eastern and Western churches. The modern Greek custom is "(a) that most candidates for Holy Orders are dismissed from the episcopal seminaries shortly before being ordained deacons, in order that they may marry (their partners being in fact mostly daughters of clergymen), and after their marriage, return to the seminaries in order to take the higher orders; (b) that, as priests, they still continue the marriages thus contracted, but may not remarry on the death of their wife; and (c) that the Greek bishops, who may not continue their married life, are commonly not chosen out of the ranks of the married secular clergy, but from among the monks."[5] The Eastern Church, therefore, still adheres fairly closely to the rules laid down by the Apostolical Canons in the 4th century. In the West, however, a decisive forward step was taken by Popes Damasus and Siricius during the last quarter of that century. The famous decretal of Siricius (385) not only enjoined strict celibacy on bishops, priests and deacons, but insisted on the instant separation of those who had already married, and prescribed the punishment of expulsion for disobedience (Siric. _Ep._ i. c. 7; Migne, _P.L._ xiii. col. 1138). Although we find Siricius a year later writing to the African Church on this same subject in tones rather of persuasion than of command, yet the beginning of compulsory sacerdotal celibacy in the Western Church may be conveniently dated from his decretal of A.D. 385. Leo the Great (d. 461) and Gregory the Great (d. 604) further extended the rule of celibacy to subdeacons.

For the next three or four centuries there is little to note but the continual evidence of open or secret resistance to these decrees, and the parallel frequency and stringency of ecclesiastical legislation, which by its very monotony bears witness to its own want of success. At least seven episcopal constitutions of the 8th and 9th centuries forbade the priest to have even his mother or his sister in the house.[6] Nor did the only difficulty lie in such secret breaches of the law; in many districts the priesthood tended to become a mere hereditary caste, to the disadvantage of church and state alike. In northern and southern Italy public clerical marriages were extremely frequent, whether with or without regular forms.[7] The see of Rouen was held for more than a century (942-1054) by three successive bishops who were family men and two of whom were openly married.[8] In England St Swithun (d. 862) was married, though very likely by special papal dispensation; and the married clergy were apparently predominant in Alfred's time. In spite of Dunstan's reforms at the end of the 10th century, the Norman Lanfranc found so many wedded priests that he dared not decree their separation; and when his successor St Anselm attempted to go further, this seemed a perilous novelty even to so distinguished an ecclesiastic as Henry of Huntingdon, who wrote: "About Michaelmas of this same year (1102) Archbishop Anselm held a council in London, wherein he forbade wives to the English priesthood, heretofore not forbidden; which seemed to some a matter of great purity, but to others a perilous thing, lest the clergy, in striving after a purity too great for human strength, should fall into horrible impurity, to the extreme dishonour of the Christian name" (lib. vii.; Migne, _P.L._ cxcv. col. 944). Yet this was at a time when the decisive and continued action of two great popes ought to have left no possible doubt as to the law of the church.

The growing tendency of the clergy to look upon their endowments as hereditary fiefs, their consequent worldliness and (it must be added) their vices, aroused the indignation of two very remarkable men in the latter half of the 11th century. St Pietro Damiani (988-1072) was a scholar, hermit and reformer, who did more perhaps than any one else to combat the open marriages of the clergy. He complained that exhortation was wasted even on the bishops, "because they despair of attaining to the pinnacle of chastity, and have no fear of condemnation in open synod for the vice of lechery.... If this evil were secret [he adds], it might perhaps be borne."[9] His _Liber Gomorrhianus_, addressed to and approved by St Leo IX., is sufficient in itself to explain the vehemence of his crusade, though it emphasizes even more strongly the impolicy of proceeding more severely against the open marriages of the clergy than against concubinage and other less public vices.[10] Damiani found a powerful ally in the equally ascetic but far more imperious and statesmanlike Hildebrand, afterwards Pope Gregory VII. Under the influence of these two men, five successive popes between 1045 and 1073 attempted a radical reform; and when, in this latter year, Hildebrand himself became pope, he took measures so stringent that he has sometimes been erroneously represented not merely as the most uncompromising champion, but actually as the author of the strict rule of celibacy for all clerics in sacred orders. His mind, strongly imbued with the theocratic ideal, saw more clearly than any other the enormous increase of influence which would accrue to a strictly celibate body of clergy, separated by their very ordination from the strongest earthly ties; and no statesman has ever pursued with greater energy and resolution a plan once formulated. In order to break down the desperate, and in many places organized, resistance of the clergy, he did not shrink from the perilous course, so contrary to his general policy, of subjecting them to the judgment of the laity. Not only were concubinary priests--a term which was now made to include also those who had openly married--forbidden to serve at the altar and threatened with actual deposition in cases of contumacy, but the laity were warned against attending mass said by "any priest certainly known to keep a concubine or _subintroducta_."[11]

But these heroic measures soon caused serious embarrassment. If the laity were to stand aloof from all incontinent priests, while (as the most orthodox churchmen constantly complained) many priests were still incontinent, then this could only result in estranging large bodies of the laity from the sacraments of the church. It became necessary, therefore, to soften a policy which to the lay mind might imply that the virtue of a sacrament was weakened by the vices of its ministers; and, whereas Peter Lombard (d. 1160) concludes that no excommunicated priest can effect transubstantiation, St Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) agrees with all the later Schoolmen in granting him that power, though to the peril of his own soul.[12] For, by the last quarter of the 13th century, the struggle had entered upon a new phase. The severest measures had been tried, especially against the priests' unhappy partners. As early as the council of Augsburg (952) these were condemned to be scourged, while Leo II. and Urban II., at the councils of Rome and Amalfi (1051, 1089), adjudged them to actual slavery.[13] Such enactments naturally defeated their own purpose. More was done by the gentler missionary zeal of the Franciscans and Dominicans in the early 13th century; but St Thomas Aquinas had seen half a century of that reform and had recognized its limitations; he therefore attenuated as much as possible the decree of Nicholas II. His contemporary St Bonaventura complained publicly that he himself and his fellow-friars were often compelled to hold their tongues about the evil clergy; partly because, even if one were expelled, another equally worthless would probably take his place, but "perhaps principally lest, if the people altogether lost faith in the clergy, heretics should arise and draw the people to themselves as sheep that have no shepherd, and make heretics of them, boasting that, as it were by our own testimony, the clergy were so vile that none need obey them or care for their teaching."[14] In other passages of his works St Bonaventura tells us plainly how little had as yet been gained by suppressing clerical marriages; and the evidence of orthodox and distinguished churchmen for the next three centuries is equally decisive. Alvarez Pelayo, a Spanish bishop and papal penitentiary, wrote in 1322 "The clergy sin commonly in these following ways ... fourthly, in that they live very incontinently, and would that they had never promised continence! especially in Spain and southern Italy, in which provinces the sons of the laity are scarcely more numerous than those of the clergy." Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly pleaded before the council of Constance in 1415 for the reform of "that most scandalous custom, or rather abuse, whereby many [clergy] fear not to keep concubines in public."[15]

Meanwhile, as has been said above, the custom of open marriage among clergy in holy orders (priests, deacons and subdeacons) was gradually stamped out. A series of synods, from the early 12th century onwards, declared such marriages to be not only unlawful, but null and void in themselves. Yet the custom lingered sporadically in Germany and England until the last few years of the 13th century, though it seems to have died out earlier in France and Italy. There was also a short-lived attempt to declare that even a clerk in lower orders should lose his clerical privileges on his marriage; but Boniface VIII. in 1300 definitely permitted such marriages under the already-quoted conditions of the Apostolic Canons; in these cases, however, a bishop's licence was required to enable the cleric to officiate in church, and the episcopal registers show that the diocesans frequently insisted on the celibacy of parish-clerks. As the middle ages drew to a close, earnest churchmen were compelled to ask themselves whether it would not be better to let the priests marry than to continue a system under which concubinage was even licensed in some districts.[16] Serious proposals were made to reintroduce clerical marriage at the great reforming councils of Constance (1415) and Basel (1432); but the overwhelming majority of orthodox churchmen were unwilling to abandon a rule for which the saints had fought during so many centuries, and to which many of them probably attributed an apostolic origin.[17] This conservative attitude was inevitably strengthened by the attacks first of Lollard and then, of Lutheran heretics; and Sir Thomas More was driven to declare, in answer to Tyndale, that the marriage of priests, being essentially null and void, "defileth the priest more than double or treble whoredom." It is well known that this became one of the most violently disputed questions at the Reformation, and that for eight years it was felony in England to defend sacerdotal marriage as permissible by the law of God (Statute of the Six Articles, 31 Hen. VIII. c. 14). The diversity of practice on this point drew one of the sharpest lines between reformers and orthodox, until the disorders introduced by these religious wars tempted the latter to imitate in considerable numbers the licence of their rivals.[18] This moved the emperor Charles V. to obtain from Paul III. dispensations for married priests in his dominions; and his successor Ferdinand, with the equally Catholic sovereigns of France, Bavaria and Poland, pleaded strongly at the council of Trent (1545) for permissive marriage. The council, after some hesitation, took the contrary course, and in the 9th canon of its 24th session it erected sacerdotal celibacy practically, if not formally, into an article of faith. In spite of this, the emperor Joseph II. reopened the question in 1783. In France the revolutionary constitution of 1791 abolished all restrictions on marriage, and during the Terror celibacy often exposed a priest to suspicion as an enemy to the Republic; but the better part of the clergy steadily resisted this innovation, and it is estimated that only about 2% were married. The Old Catholics adopted the principle of sacerdotal marriage in 1875.

The working of the system in modern times is perhaps too controversial a question to be discussed here; but one or two points may be noted on which all fairly well informed writers would probably agree. It can scarcely be denied that the Roman Catholic clergy have always owed much of their influence to their celibacy, and that in many cases this influence has been most justly earned by the celibate's devotion to an unworldly ideal. Again, the most adverse critics would admit that much was done by the counter-Reformation, and that modern ecclesiastical discipline on this point is considerably superior to that of the middle ages; while, on the other hand, many authorities of undoubted orthodoxy are ready to confess that it is not free from serious risks even in these days of easy publicity and stringent civil discipline.[19] Lastly, statistical research has shown that the children of the married British clergy have been distinguished far beyond their mere numerical proportion.[20]

AUTHORITIES.--Henry Charles Lea, _History of Sacerdotal Celibacy_ (3rd
ed., 1907, 2 vols), is by far the fullest and best work on this
subject, though a good deal of important matter omitted by Dr Lea may
be found in _Die Einfuhrung der erzwungenen Ehelosigkeit_ by the
brothers Johann Anton and Augustin Theiner, which was put on the Roman
_Index_, though Augustin afterwards became archivist at the Vatican
(Altenburg, 1828, 2 vols.). The history of monastic celibacy has not
yet been fully treated anywhere; the most important evidence of the
episcopal registers is either still in MS. or has been published only
in comparatively recent years. The most learned work on clerical
celibacy from the strictly conservative point of view is that of
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, _Storia Polemica del celibato sacro_
(Rome, 1774); but many of his most important conclusions are set
aside by the abbe E. Vacandard in his contribution to the
_Dictionnaire de theologie catholique_ (vol. ii. art. "Celibat
ecclesiastique"). (G. G. Co.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] W. Smith, _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ (3rd ed.), vol.
ii. p. 44.

[2] "In the 14th century, the city of Ilchi, in Chinese Tartary,
possessed 14 monasteries, averaging 3000 devotees in each; while in
Tibet, at the present time, there are in the vicinity of Lhassa 12
great monasteries, containing a population of 18,500 lamas. In Ladak
the proportion of lamas to the laity is as 1 to 13, in Spiti 1 to 7,
and in Burmah 1 to 30" (Lea i. 103).

[3] 1 Cor. vii. 25 sq., ix. 5; 1 Tim. iii. 2, 11, 12; Titus i. 6; E.
Vacandard in _Dict. de Theol. Cath._, s.v. "Celibat."

[4] This was a natural argument for the defenders of clerical
celibacy even in far later times. St Bonaventura (d. 1274) puts this
very strongly: "For if archbishops and bishops now had children, they
would rob and plunder all the goods of the Church so that little or
nothing would be left for the poor. For since they now heap up wealth
and enrich nephews removed from them by almost incalculable degrees
of affinity, what would they do if they had legitimate children?...
Therefore the Holy Ghost in His providence hath removed this
stumbling-block," &c. &c. (_In Sent._ lib. iv. dist. xxxvii art. i.
quaest. 3).

[5] Hefele, _Beitrage zur Kirchengesch. u.s.w._ i. 139.

[6] See the quotations in Lea i. 156. These prohibitions were renewed
in the 13th and 14th centuries (ibid. i. 410).

[7] Ratherius, _Itinerarium_, c. 5 (Migne, _P.L._ cxxxvi. col. 585).
Gulielmus Apulus writes of southern Italy in 1059: "In these parts
priests, deacons and the whole clergy were publicly married" (_De
Normann._ lib. ii.).

[8] Dom Pommeraye, _S. Rotomag. Eccl. Concilia_, pp. 56, 65; cf.
similar instances on p. 315 of Dr A. Dresdner's _Kultur-und
Sittengeschichte d. italienischen Geistlichkeit im 10. und 11. Jhdt._
(Breslau, 1890).

[9] _Opusc._ xvii. praef. The saint's evidence is carefully weighed
by Dresdner (l.c.), especially on pp. 309 ff. and 321 ff.

[10] Even Pope Innocent III. was compelled to decide that priests who
had kept two or more concubines, successively or simultaneously, did
not thereby incur the disabilities which attended digamists; or, in
other words, that a layman who had contracted two lawful marriages
and then proceeded to ordination on the death of his second wife,
could be absolved only by the pope; whereas the concubinary priest,
"as a man branded with simple fornication," might receive a valid
dispensation from his own bishop (Letter to archbishop of Lund in
1212. _Regest._ lib. xvi. ep. 118; Migne, _P.L._ ccxvi. col. 914). As
the great canonist Gratian remarked on a similar decretal of Pope
Pelagius, "Here is a case where lechery has more rights at law than
has chastity" (_Decret._ p. i. dist. xxxiv. c. vii. note a).

[11] The actual originator of this policy was Nicholas II., probably
at Hildebrand's suggestion; but the decree remained practically a
dead letter until Gregory's accession.

[12] Peter Lombard, _Sentent._ lib. iv. dist. 13; Aquinas, _Summa
Theol._ pars iii. Q. lxxxiii. art. 7, 9.

[13] Labbe-Mansi, _Concilia_, vol. xix. col. 796 and xx. col. 724. Dr
Lea is probably right in suggesting that it was a confused
recollection of these decrees which prompted one of Cranmer's judges
to assure him that "his children were bondmen to the see of
Canterbury." Strype, _Memorials of Cranmer_, bk iii. c. 28 (ed. 1812,
vol. i. p. 601).

[14] Bonaventura, _Libell. Apologet._ quaest. i.; cf. his parallel
treatise _Quare Fratres Minores praedicent_. The first visitation of
his friend Odo Rigaldi, archbishop of Rouen, shows that about 15% of
the parish clergy in that diocese were notoriously incontinent
(_Regestrum Visitationum_, ed. Bonnin, Rouen, 1852, pp. 17 ff.).
Vacandard (loc. cit. p. 2087) appeals rather misleadingly to this
record as proving the progress made during the half-century before
Odo's time. It is probable that there were many more offenders than
these 15% known to the archbishop.

[15] Alvarus Pelagius, _De Planctu Ecclesiae_, ed. 1517, f. 131a,
col. 2; cf. f. 102b, col. 2; Hermann von der Hardt, _Constantiensis
Concilii_, &c. vol. i. pars. viii. col. 428.

[16] This more or less regular sale of licences by bishops and
archdeacons flourished from the days of Gregory VII. to the 16th
century; see index to Lea, s.v. "Licences." Dr Lea has, however,
omitted the most striking authority of all. Gascoigne, the most
distinguished Oxford chancellor of his day, writing about 1450 of
John de la Bere, then bishop of St David's, says that he had refused
to separate the clergy of his diocese from their concubines, giving
publicly as his reason, "for then I your bishop should lose the 400
marks which I receive yearly in my diocese for the priests' lemans"
(Gascoigne, _Lib. Ver._ ed. Rogers, p. 36). Even Sir Thomas More, in
his polemic against the Reformers, admitted that this concubinage was
too often tolerated in Wales (_English Works_, ed. 1557, p. 231, cf.
619).

[17] One of Dr Lea's few serious mistakes is his acceptance of the
spurious pamphlet in favour of priestly marriage which was attributed
in the 11th century to St Ulrich of Augsburg (i. 171).

[18] Janssen, _Gesch. d. deutschen Volkes_, 13th ed., vol. viii. pp.
423, 4, 9; 434; Lea ii. 195, 204. ff.

[19] Lea (ii. 339. ff.) gives a long series of quotations to this
effect from church synods and orthodox disciplinary writers of modern
times.

[20] Havelock Ellis, _A Study of British Genius_ (London, 1904, p.
80), "Even if we compare the church with the other professions with
which it is most usually classed, we find that the eminent children
of the clergy considerably outnumber those of lawyers, doctors and
army officers put together." Mr Ellis points put, however, that "the
clerical profession ... also produces more idiots than any other
class."

CELL (from Lat. _cella_, probably from an Indo-European _kal_--seen in Lat. _celare_, to hide; another suggestion connects the word with Lat. _cera_, wax, taking the original meaning to refer to the honeycomb), in its earliest application a small detached room in a building, particularly a small monastic house (see ABBEY), generally in the country, belonging to large conventual buildings, and intended for change of air for the monks, as well as places to reside in to look after the lands, vassals, &c. Thus Tynemouth was a cell to St Albans; Ashwell, Herts, to Westminster Abbey. The term was also used of the small sleeping apartments of the monks, or a small apartment used by the anchorite or hermit. This use still survives in the application to the small separate chambers in a prison (q.v.) in which prisoners are confined. The word is applied to various small compartments which build up a compound structure such as a honeycomb, to the minute compartments in a tissue, &c. More particularly the word is used, in electrical science, of the single constituent compartments of a voltaic battery (q.v.), and in biology of the living units of protoplasm of which plants and animals are composed (see CYTOLOGY).

CELLA, in architecture, the Latin name for the sanctuary of a Roman temple, corresponding with the naos of the Greek temple. In the Etruscan temples, according to Vitruvius, there were three cellas, side by side; and in the temple of Venus built by Hadrian at Rome there were two cellas, both enclosed, however, in a single peristyle.

CELLARET (i.e. little cellar), strictly that portion of a sideboard which is used for holding bottles and decanters, so called from a cellar (which in general may be any underground unlighted apartment) being commonly used for keeping wine. Sometimes it is a drawer, divided into compartments lined with zinc, and sometimes a cupboard, but still an integral part of the sideboard. In the latter part of the 18th century, when the sideboard was in process of evolution from a side-table with drawers into the large and important piece of furniture which it eventually became, the cellaret was a detached receptacle. It was most commonly of mahogany or rosewood, many-sided or even octagonal, and occasionally oval, bound with broad bands of brass and lined with zinc partitions to hold the ice for cooling wine. Sometimes a tap was fixed in the lower part for drawing off the water from the melted ice. Cellarets were usually placed under the sideboard, and were, as a rule, handsome and well-proportioned; but as the artistic impulse which created the great 18th-century English school of furniture died away, their form grew debased, and under the influence of the English Empire fashion, which drew its inspiration from a bastard classicism, they assumed the shape of sarcophagi incongruously mounted with lions' heads and claw-feet. Hepplewhite called them "gardes du vin"; they are now nearly always known as "wine-coolers."

CELLE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, on the left bank of the navigable Aller, near its junction with the Fuse and the Lachte, 23 m. N.E. of Hanover, on the main Lehrte-Hamburg railway. Pop. (1905) 21,400. The town has a Roman Catholic and five Protestant churches, among the latter the town-church with the burial vault of the dukes of Luneburg-Celle. Here rest the remains of Sophia Dorothea, wife of the elector George of Hanover, afterwards George I. of England, and those of Caroline Matilda, the divorced wife of Christian VII. of Denmark and sister of George III. of England, who resided here from 1772 until her death in 1775. The most interesting building in Celle is the former ducal palace, begun in 1485 in Late Gothic style, but with extensive Renaissance additions of the close of the 17th century. The building of the court of appeal (_Oberlandesgericht_), with a valuable library of 60,000 volumes and many MSS., including a priceless copy of the _Sachsenspiegel_, the museum and the hall of the estates (_Landschaftshaus_) are also worthy of notice. There are manufactures of woollen yarn, tobacco, biscuits, umbrellas and printers' ink, and a lively trade is carried on in wax, honey, wool and timber. Celle is the seat of the court of appeal from the superior courts of Aurich, Detmold, Gottingen, Hanover, Hildesheim, Luneburg, Osnabruck, Stade and Verden. Founded in 1292, the town was the residence of the dukes of Luneburg-Celle, a cadet branch of the ducal house of Brunswick, from the 14th century until 1705.

See Dehning, _Geschichte der Stadt Celle_ (Celle, 1891).

CELLIER, ALFRED (1844-1891), English musical composer, was born at Hackney on the 1st of December 1844. From 1855 to 1860 he was a chorister at the Chapel Royal, St James's, under the Rev. Thomas Helmore, where Arthur Sullivan was one of his youthful colleagues. His first appointment was that of organist at All Saints' church, Blackheath (1862). In 1866 he succeeded Dr Chipp as director of the Ulster Hall concerts, Belfast, at the same time acting as conductor of the Belfast Philharmonic Society. In 1868 he returned to London as organist of St Alban's, Holborn. From 1871 to 1875 he was conductor at the Prince's theatre, Manchester; and from 1877 to 1879 at various London theatres. During this period he composed many comic operas and operettas, of which the most successful was _The Sultan of Mocha_, which was produced at Manchester in 1874, in London at the St James's theatre in 1876, and revived at the Strand theatre in 1887. In 1880 Cellier visited America, producing a musical version of Longfellow's _Masque of Pandora_ at Boston (1881). In 1883 his setting of Gray's _Elegy_ in the form of a cantata was produced at the Leeds Festival. In 1886 he won the great success of his life in _Dorothy_, a comic opera written to a libretto by B.C. Stephenson, which was produced at the Gaiety theatre on the 25th of September 1886, and, transferred first to the Prince of Wales theatre and subsequently to the Lyric theatre, ran until April 1889. _Doris_ (1889), and _The Mountebanks_, which was produced in January 1892, a few days after the composer's death, were less successful. Cellier owed much to the influence of Sir Arthur Sullivan. He had little of the latter's humour and vivacity, but he was a fertile melodist, and his writing is invariably distinguished by elegance and refinement. He died in London on the 28th of December 1891.

CELLINI, BENVENUTO (1500-1571), Italian artist, metal worker and sculptor, was born in Florence, where his family, originally landowners in the Val d'Ambra, had for three generations been settled. His father, Giovanni Cellini, was a musician and artificer of musical instruments; he married Maria Lisabetta Granacci, and eighteen years elapsed before they had any progeny. Benvenuto (meaning "Welcome") was the third child. The father destined him for the same profession as himself, and endeavoured to thwart his inclination for design and metal work. When he had reached the age of fifteen his youthful predilection had become too strong to be resisted, and his father reluctantly gave consent to his being apprenticed to a goldsmith, Antonio di Sandro, named Marcone. He had already attracted some notice in his native place, when, being implicated in a fray with some of his companions, he was banished for six months to Siena, where he worked for Francesco Castoro, a goldsmith; from thence he removed to Bologna, where he became a more accomplished flute-player and made progress in the goldsmith's art. After visiting Pisa, and after twice resettling for a while in Florence (where he was visited by the sculptor Torrigiano, who unsuccessfully suggested his accompanying him to England), he decamped to Rome, aged nineteen. His first attempt at his craft here was a silver casket, followed by some silver candlesticks, and later by a vase for the bishop of Salamanca, which introduced him to the favourable notice of Pope Clement VII.; likewise at a later date one of his celebrated works, the gold medallion of "Leda and the Swan,"--the head and torso of Leda cut in hard stone--executed for Gonfaloniere Gabbriello Cesarino, which is now in the Vienna museum; he also reverted to music, practised flute-playing, and was appointed one of the pope's court-musicians. In the attack upon Rome by the constable de Bourbon, which occurred immediately after, in 1527, the bravery and address of Cellini proved of signal service to the pontiff; if we may believe his own accounts, his was the very hand which shot the Bourbon dead, and he afterwards killed Philibert, prince of Orange. His exploits paved the way for a reconciliation with the Florentine magistrates, and his return shortly after to his native place. Here he assiduously devoted himself to the execution of medals, the most famous of which (executed a short while later) are "Hercules and the Nemean Lion," in gold repousse work, and "Atlas supporting the Sphere," in chased gold, the latter eventually falling into the possession of Francis I. From Florence he went to the court of the duke of Mantua, and thence again to Florence and to Rome, where he was employed not only in the working of jewelry, but also in the execution of dies for private medals and for the papal mint. Here in 1529 he avenged a brother's death by slaying the slayer; and shortly afterwards had to flee to Naples to shelter himself from the consequences of an affray with a notary, Ser Benedetto, whom he wounded. Through the influence of several of the cardinals he obtained a pardon; and on the elevation of Paul III. to the pontifical throne he was reinstated in his former position of favour, notwithstanding a fresh homicide of a goldsmith which he had committed more by accident than of malice prepense in the interregnum. Once more the plots of Pierluigi Farnese, a natural son of Paul III., led to his retreat from Rome to Florence and Venice, and once more he was restored with greater honour than before. On returning from a visit to the court of Francis I., being now aged thirty-seven, he was imprisoned on a charge (apparently false) of having embezzled during the war the gems of the pontifical tiara; he remained some while confined in the castle of Sant' Angelo, escaped, was recaptured, and treated with great severity, and was in daily expectation of death on the scaffold. At last, however, he was released at the intercession of Pierluigi's wife, and more especially of the Cardinal d' Este of Ferrara, to whom he presented a splendid cup. For a while after this he worked at the court of Francis I. at Fontainebleau and in Paris; but he considered the duchesse d'Etampes to be set against him, and the intrigues of the king's favourites, whom he would not stoop to conciliate and could not venture to silence by the sword, as he had silenced his enemies in Rome, led him, after about five years of laborious and sumptuous work, and of continually-recurring jealousies and violences, to retire in 1545 in disgust to Florence, where he employed his time in works of art, and exasperated his temper in rivalries with the uneasy-natured sculptor Baccio Bandinelli. The first collision between the two had occurred several years before when Pope Clement VII. commissioned Cellini to mint his coinage. Now, in an altercation before Duke Cosimo, Bandinelli insultingly stigmatized Benvenuto as guilty of gross immorality; in his autobiography Cellini rather repels than denies the charge, but he certainly repels it with demonstrative and grotesque vivacity. Two somewhat similar charges had been made ere this: one in Paris, which he braved out in court--the other, in Florence, was a mere private quarrel, and perhaps undeserving of attention. During the war with Siena Cellini was appointed to strengthen the defences of his native city, and, though rather shabbily treated by his ducal patrons, he continued to gain the admiration of his fellow-citizens by the magnificent works which he produced. He died in Florence in 1571, unmarried, and leaving no posterity, and was buried with great pomp in the church of the Annunziata. He had supported in Florence a widowed sister and her six daughters.

Besides the works in gold and silver which have been adverted to, Cellini executed several pieces of sculpture on a grander scale. The most distinguished of these is the bronze group of "Perseus holding the head of Medusa," a work (first suggested by Duke Cosimo de' Medici) now in the Loggia dei Lanzi at Florence, full of the fire of genius and the grandeur of a terrible beauty, one of the most typical and unforgettable monuments of the Italian Renaissance. The casting of this great work gave Cellini the utmost trouble and anxiety; and its completion was hailed with rapturous homage from all parts of Italy. The original relief from the foot of the pedestal--Perseus and Andromeda--is in the Bargello, and replaced by a cast.