the state of being unmarried and, therefore, sexually abstinent, usually in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term is applied only to those for whom the unmarried state is the result of a sacred vow, act of renunciation, or religious conviction. Celibacy has existed in one form or another throughout history and in virtually all the major religions of the world.

Wherever celibacy has appeared, it generally has been accompanied by the view that the religious life is essentially different or even alienated from the normal structures of society and the normal drives of human nature. On the other hand, the religious style that disparages celibacy gives priority to the role of religion as employing and sanctifying the “natural” states of life: sexuality, family, and work.

Celibacy is practiced in a variety of different contexts. One type of celibacy is sacerdotal, the celibacy of priests (priesthood) and priestesses. A priest may be defined as one who, as a mediator, performs the sacred function of communicating through rites the needs of the people to heaven and the sacred power and presence from heaven to the congregation. His function is objective. Its efficacy is assured if the priest conducts the proper rite and has the proper qualifications of ordination and, perhaps, of ritual purity, regardless of whether he is particularly moral or fervent. Celibacy serves as such an objective mark of special state and ritual purity. Celibacy probably is derived from taboos that regarded sexual power as a rival to religious power, and the sexuality of the opposite sex as a polluting factor, especially in sacred or crisis situations.

Another type of celibacy is that associated with monasticism. The main purpose of the monk's celibacy is moral and spiritual advancement, not the ritual purity required for sacerdotal rites. To this end, celibacy helps the monk to achieve inner freedom and affords him the opportunity for asceticism and meditation. These experiences, possibly together with the “new family” of the religious community, contribute to a sense of separation from the ordinary that facilitates the monk's spiritual growth. Types of monasticism include the solitary—the hermit in the woods or the desert, the anchorite living in isolation in a church or monastery—the cenobite living a stabilized monastic life in community, and the mendicant ascetic who wanders from place to place gathering alms. In any case, the celibate state is viewed as an inseparable part of the monk's way of life.

Institutional celibacy for women is also typically conceived of as an aid to spiritual advancement. Virginity and celibacy are regarded as assets in the attainment of spiritual goals. Most institutional female celibates are nuns in residential cloisters—though there have been occasional solitary figures, such as the anchoress (female hermit) Dame Julian of Norwich (born 1342).

Individual noninstitutional and nonsacerdotal religious celibacy may be practiced by the layperson or the occasional clergyman in a faith not requiring celibacy who makes a vow to remain unmarried out of devotion or to allow the performance of some special religious service.

In the great pagan religions of the ancient Mediterranean, celibacy was practiced in various contexts. In Rome the institution of the Vestal Virgins, who were required to remain celibate for at least the 30 years of their service, indicates that celibacy was a very ancient aspect of Roman religion. As Classical civilization developed, two ideals of masculine celibacy appeared, that of the ascetic philosopher and that of the priest of the mystery religions. The Pythagoreans are an excellent example of the former. Pythagoras (c. 580 BC–c. 500) established a small community that emphasized study, vegetarianism, and sexual restraint or abstinence. Many later philosophers believed that celibacy is conducive to the detachment and equilibrium required by the philosopher's calling. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus (AD 55–c. 135) for example, held that the ideal teacher would be unmarried and that his task would require freedom from the cares of family life.

A different mood was set by the celibate priests of the mysteries. Celibacy was especially characteristic of priest-devotees of the Great Mother (Great Mother of the Gods) cults. The well-organized priesthood of the religion of Isis, for example, represented a serene sacerdotalism; sexual abstinence was an absolute requirement of those who celebrated her holy mysteries. In many other cults—e.g., Manichaeism, Gnosticism, and Hermeticism—an inner circle of worshipers was required to observe strict continence. The philosophical and religious ideals of celibacy in the Classical world strongly influenced subsequent practices of celibacy and monasticism in Christianity.

The religious traditions of India embody a variety of attitudes toward celibacy. In Hinduism the priesthood is hereditary and thus not celibate. Among the prominent religious personages of India, however, are the sadhus (sadhu and swami) (“holy men”), who live a life free of possessions and family obligation. The sadhus have no organization or corporate discipline. Many sadhus, male and female, become celibate after marriage or widowhood; others do so early in life. The sadhu is one who has left the type of life ruled by the order of dharma (cosmic and societal law—i.e., of caste, family, money, and state) in order to seek moksha (final liberation). Celibacy is also an important practice in Jainism. All Jain monks vow to avoid sexual relations, and the laity are encouraged to be chaste and even to become celibate after the birth of a son.

Adherents of Chinese Daoism include monastics and independent celibate adepts. Although the tradition was probably derived originally from shamanism, Daoist monasticism and the Daoist priesthood are now modeled on Buddhist practices.

Celibacy was not part of the original practices of Islam (Islām), and most of the famous Islamic saints were married. Even among bands of Sufi mystics, such as the dervishes, celibacy was exceptional (see Sufism (Ṣūfism)). Muslims believe that marriage is a gift from God or a kind of service to God. Islamic celibacy, where it exists, is a matter of personal spiritual advancement or enthusiasm rather than sacerdotal purity or institutional control.

Celibacy has played little role in Judaism, in which marriage and raising children are understood as holy obligations. The prophet Jeremiah, who apparently chose not to have children, is the only prophet who did not marry. Even in biblical times, however, there were prescribed periods of sexual abstinence in connection with rituals and sacrifices and the prosecution of holy wars. In post-biblical times, some members of the Essene sect, according to the historian Josephus (Josephus, Flavius), rejected marriage, and the medieval Talmudic scholar Ben Azzai remained celibate. Traditionally, unmarried males cannot assume leadership positions in the Jewish community.

Celibacy was first practiced in Christianity as a result of expectations of the apocalypse (apocalypticism). The original Christians believed that the kingdom of God was at hand and that in the new age there would be no marriage, since all would be like angels. Some of the followers of Jesus gave up family life in order to devote themselves to proclaiming the coming of the kingdom. St. Paul (Paul, the Apostle, Saint) (c. AD 10–c. 67) commended celibacy, though he recognized the legitimacy of marriage for those who could not follow this higher ideal.

In the subapostolic period (the late 1st and early 2nd centuries) some Christian thinkers took the extreme view that all Christians should renounce marriage. More moderate positions were developed to defend marriage against the view that the flesh and all matter were evil and to defend celibacy against the widespread sexual license of the times. Many writers held that marriage was good but that celibacy was better.

The pre-Christian idea that sexual activity was particularly wrong for those who officiated at the altar was assimilated by Christians, and it thus became common for ordained men to give up sexual relations with their wives. The regional Council of Elvira (Elvira, Council of) in Spain (c. AD 306) decreed that all priests (priest) and bishops, married or not, should abstain from sexual relations. The ecumenical Council of Nicaea (Nicaea, Council of) (AD 325) declined to make such a prohibition but did forbid priests to live with women other than their mothers, sisters, or aunts. The position of the Eastern churches was made clear by the decrees of the Quinisext Council in 692: bishops must be celibate, but ordained priests, deacons, and subdeacons could continue in existing marriages.

The subsequent history of celibacy in the Western church is a bit more complicated and reveals the ambivalence found in Paul. The monastic tradition and its celibate lifestyle were adopted in the Western church in the 4th century. In the later part of that century, the Church Fathers, especially Saints Ambrose (Ambrose, Saint) and Augustine (Augustine, Saint), endorsed celibacy in their writings and personal lives. Although it was not as rigorously enforced in the early Middle Ages, the practice of clerical celibacy was promoted as part of the Carolingian reform of the church in the 8th and 9th centuries. Official church teachings continued to emphasize the importance of clerical celibacy, though as late as the 10th century many priests and even some bishops had wives.

As part of their attempt to restore the independence and integrity of the clergy, the supporters of the Gregorian Reform movement of the 11th century sought to enforce clerical celibacy. Their efforts were made part of church law at the first and second Lateran Councils (Lateran Council) (1123 and 1139), which abolished clerical marriage and thus established the official and still-existing position of the Roman Catholic church.

The issue of clerical celibacy arose again in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the church became increasingly secularized and numerous clerics, including Pope Alexander VI, fathered children. Although the Roman Catholic church remained committed to the ideal of clerical celibacy, the churches of the Reformation—the Lutheran church (Lutheranism), the Church of England (Anglican Communion (Anglicanism)), the Reformed church, and others—rejected it. Indeed, the leader of the Reformation, Martin Luther (Luther, Martin), renounced his vow of celibacy, married the former nun Katherina von Bora, and raised a family with her. Opposition to clerical celibacy remained the norm in Protestant countries after the Reformation. In the 18th century, however, Ann Lee (Lee, Ann), the founder of the Christian millenarian sect known as the Shakers (Shaker), established celibacy as the standard for all members of her church. About 1845 monastic orders began to reappear in the Church of England, and about a century later small Protestant monastic groups were founded on the continent of Europe.

Clerical celibacy once again became a cause of ferment in the Roman Catholic church during and after the Second Vatican Council (Vatican Council, Second) (1962–65). The council permitted a married diaconate. After the council, the number of priests seeking to leave the priesthood to marry vastly increased, and many European and American Catholics began to urge that celibacy for priests be made optional. Nevertheless, Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the traditional rule on clerical celibacy in his encyclical Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (June 23, 1967). The pope returned to the New Testament texts: for the sake of Christ and the coming kingdom of heaven, the priest must be totally free of domestic responsibilities; he must witness by his way of life to the transcendent reality that fills and grips him. Paul's teachings on clerical celibacy were reaffirmed by Pope John Paul II.

In the early 21st century, revelations that thousands of priests in Australia, Europe, and the United States had committed acts of child molestation prompted calls for reconsideration of the rule on clerical celibacy. Although the church hierarchy resisted these pleas, it did eventually take steps to ensure that such crimes would not be committed again. Meanwhile, some defenders of the church publicly emphasized that celibacy does not lead inevitably to pedophilia, noting that the vast majority of priests had honoured their vows.