Chapter 1 Better to Marry Than to Burn? Attitudes to Clerical Marriage among the Elizabethan Clergy
‘Wedlocke is honorable amonge all persons, exceptinge none, neyther Prieste, Monke, nor Fryere’ declared Thomas Becon in his Boke of Matrimony.1 Al- though such a confident assertion would appear to have left little room for any misgivings, the validity of clerical marriage was not so easily resolved. Becon repudiated the superiority of a life of virginity and condemned the hypocrisy of those who did not equate a life of celibacy with one of chastity. Not all, how- ever, were convinced that clerical marriage was actually desirable rather than a necessary evil. While evangelical writers and the godly elite continued to en- gage in theological debate, it is by no means clear to what extent the clergy as a whole agonized over these issues before making their personal decisions. Were those who were quick to marry advocates of Protestantism or simply eager to abandon a life of celibacy? Were ministers who chose to remain unmarried conservative in religion, clinging to established practice, or cautious after the upheavals of the preceding years? It is rarely possible to determine the rela- tive importance of these influences on the individual cleric, but an appraisal of the evolving theoretical debate, alongside more pragmatic concerns, can be attempted. This chapter examines these competing dynamic forces and, in doing so, engages with current historical debate touching the influence of con- fessional identity and the prevalence of clerical concubinage. Such themes are best examined against an appreciation of the extent of clerical marriage and the rate at which ministers availed themselves of the opportunity to marry, which is where we must begin.
1 The Extent of Clerical Marriage
From the number of deprivations which occurred during the reign of Mary, attempts have been made to establish the extent to which the clergy embraced marriage during its first, short-lived period of legality. The overall proportion of married clergy under Edward vi has not been established with any degree of
1 Thomas Becon, ‘The Boke of Matrimony’, The Worckes of Thomas Becon (London, 1564), stc 913:01, f. 602r.
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2 E.J. Carlson, Marriage and the English Reformation (Oxford, 1994), p. 53; P. Marshall, The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation (Oxford, 1994), p. 166; G. Baskerville, ‘Married Clergy and Pensioned Religious in Norwich Diocese, 1555’, English Historical Review, 48 (1933), pp. 45–6; H.E.P. Grieve, ‘The Deprived Married Clergy in Essex, 1553–1561’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 22 (1940), p. 145; R.M. Spielmann, ‘The Beginnings of Clerical Mar- riage in the English Reformation: The Reigns of Edward and Mary’, Anglican and Episcopal History, 56 (1987), p. 259. 3 H.L. Parish, Clerical Marriage and the English Reformation: Precedent, Policy and Practice (Aldershot, 2000), pp. 233–4. 4 C.W. Foster, ‘The State of the Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James i as illustrated by Documents relating to the Diocese of Lincoln’, Lincoln Record Society, 23 (1926), p. 455. See also Fig. 6, Age Profile of Married and Unmarried Clergy in the Diocese of Lincoln in 1576. 5 P.J. Cox, ‘Reformation Responses in Tudor Cheshire c. 1500–1577’ (Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Warwick, 2013), p. 377.