<P> The earliest textual evidence of the forbidding of marriage to clerics and the duty of those already married to abstain from sexual contact with their wives is in the fourth - century decrees of the Council of Elvira and the later Council of Carthage ( 390 ) . According to some writers , this presumed a previous norm , which was being flouted in practice . </P>
<P> The earliest textual evidence of the forbidding of marriage to clerics and the duty of those already married to abstain from sexual contact with their wives is in the fourth - century decrees of the Council of Elvira and the later Council of Carthage ( 390 ) . According to some writers , this presumed a previous norm , which was being flouted in practice . </P>
when was celibacy introduced in the catholic church
when was celibacy introduced in the catholic church
in the fourth - century
in the fourth - century