Kirchenakte Documented events from judgments, reports and church documents
1018-1089 · 71 years · show in timeline

Pavia 1018/1022 and Melfi 1089: children of clerics were declared unfree property of the Church, and priests' wives were to be enslaved

To suppress marriage and cohabitation of clerics with women, the Church also proceeded against their wives and children. A synod at Pavia under Pope Benedict VIII (1018 according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1022 according to Lea) declared the children of clerics who were themselves serfs of the Church to be permanently unfree, property of the Church never to be enfranchised. Emperor Henry II made the decrees secular law. In 1089, at the Synod of Melfi, Pope Urban II permitted princes to enslave the wives of recalcitrant clerics.

Period
1018-1089 (71 years)
Country
Italy
Institutions
Synod of Pavia
Pope Benedict VIII
Emperor Henry II
Synod of Melfi 1089
Pope Urban II
Category
Slavery, Persecution
Level of evidence
B two independent scholarly sources · what does this mean?
Persons
Benedict VIII (pope 1012 to 1024, Synod of Pavia)
Urban II (pope 1088 to 1099, permitted the enslavement of priests' wives)

What happened to the people

Who was affected? Victims and numbers

  1. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the penalties against incontinent clerics were wherever possible enforced against their wives and children as well. The children were declared to be of servile condition, debarred from sacred orders and incapable of succeeding to their fathers' benefices. The earliest decree declaring the children to be slaves, the property of the Church, never to be enfranchised, seems to have been a canon of the Synod of Pavia in 1018.
    Evidence: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Bd. 3 (1908), Artikel Celibacy of the Clergy
    „Their offspring were declared to be of servile condition, debarred from sacred orders , and, in particular, incapable of succeeding to their fathers' benefices .“
    Celibacy of the Clergy, Artikel Celibacy of the Clergy. Original · Archive copy
    Evidence: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Bd. 3 (1908), Artikel Celibacy of the Clergy
    „The earliest decree in which the children were declared to be slaves, the property of the Church , and never to be enfranchised, seems to have been a canon of the Synod of Pavia in 1018.“
    Celibacy of the Clergy, Artikel Celibacy of the Clergy. Original · Archive copy

How were they charged and sentenced?

  1. Lea dates the synod to 1022. There Pope Benedict VIII and Emperor Henry II adopted canons deposing all priests, deacons and subdeacons with wives or concubines; special stress was laid on the continued servitude of the children of such ecclesiastics as were serfs of the Church. The emperor endorsed the canons, declared them to be municipal as well as ecclesiastical law and promised their enforcement by the civil magistrates.
    Evidence: The Macmillan Company, New York 1907, Bd. 1, S. 206
    „At the Synod of Pavia a series of canons was adopted pronouncing sentence of deposition upon all priests, deacons, and subdeacons having wives or concubines“
    Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, Bd. 1, S. 206. Original
    Evidence: The Macmillan Company, New York 1907, Bd. 1, S. 206
    „while special stress was laid upon the continued servitude of the children of all such ecclesiastics as were serfs of the Church“
    Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, Bd. 1, S. 206. Original
    Evidence: The Macmillan Company, New York 1907, Bd. 1, S. 207
    „them to be municipal as well as ecclesiastical law, promised that their observance should be enforced by the civil magistrates“
    Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, Bd. 1, S. 207. Original

What happened to those affected?

  1. In 1089, at the Synod of Melfi (canon 12), Pope Urban II decreed: whoever as a subdeacon wishes to remain with his wife loses every office and benefice; if he does not amend after the bishop's admonition, the princes may sell his wife into servitude. Lea calls this a refinement of cruelty: Urban offered the women's servitude as a bribe to the nobles who helped purify the Church. The Catholic Encyclopedia dates the synod to 1189.
    Evidence: The Macmillan Company, New York 1907, Bd. 1, S. 289, Anm. 1 (Synode von Melfi 1089, Kanon 12)
    „Quod si ab episcopo commoniti non so correxerint, prinoipibus lioentiam indulgemus ut eorum feminas manoipent servituti.“
    Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, Bd. 1, S. 289, Anm. 1 (Synode von Melfi 1089, Kanon 12). Original
    Evidence: The Macmillan Company, New York 1907, Bd. 1, S. 289
    „Urban, with a refinement of cruelty, reduced the unfortunate women to slavery, and offered their servitude as a bribe to the nobles who should aid in thus purifying the Church.“
    Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, Bd. 1, S. 289. Original
    Evidence: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Bd. 3 (1908), Artikel Celibacy of the Clergy
    „Similar penalties were promulgated later on against the wives and concubines (see the Synod of Melfi, 1189, can. xii), who by the very fact of their unlawful connection with a subdeacon or clerk of higher rank became liable to be seized as slaves by the over-lord.“
    Celibacy of the Clergy, Artikel Celibacy of the Clergy. Original · Archive copy

Background

Response of the Church

  1. According to Lea, Urban sent the canons to the Bishop of Toul in the same year but omitted precisely this provision. The idea that priests' children belonged to the Church as serfs had a long afterlife: according to Lea, at the trial of Archbishop Cranmer in the 16th century one of the judges still told him that his children were bondmen to the see of Canterbury.
    Evidence: The Macmillan Company, New York 1907, Bd. 1, S. 289
    „Urban transmitted the canons of Amalfi in response, but omitted this provision“
    Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, Bd. 1, S. 289. Original
    Evidence: The Macmillan Company, New York 1907, Bd. 1, S. 222, Anm. 1
    „that led Dr. Martin, one of the commissioners who presided at the trial of Archbishop Oranmer, to declare to that unhappy culprit that " his children were bondmen to the see of Canterbury."“
    Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, Bd. 1, S. 222, Anm. 1. Original

Original texts

Original text Synod of Melfi 1089, canon 12 (quoted in Lea)

Eos qui in sabdiaconatu uxorious vaoare voluerint, ab omni saoro ordine removemus, officio atque benefioio eoclesue oarere deoernimus. Quod si ab episcopo commoniti non so correxerint, prinoipibus lioentiam indulgemus ut eorum feminas manoipent servituti.

Translation (unofficial)

Those who in the subdiaconate wish to live with wives we remove from every sacred order and decree that they lose the office and benefice of the Church. If, admonished by the bishop, they do not amend, we grant the princes leave to deliver their women into servitude.

The Macmillan Company, New York 1907: Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, Bd. 1, S. 289, Anm. 1. Original

See also

Scholarly literature and reference works

  1. Reference work
    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Bd. 3 (1908): Celibacy of the Clergy, 1 January 1908. Original · Archive copy (retrieved 23 Oct 2026)
  2. Scholarly literature
    The Macmillan Company, New York 1907: Henry Charles Lea, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, Bd. 1, 3. Auflage, 1 January 1907. Original (retrieved 23 Oct 2026)
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