The Manly Priest – Clerical Celibacy, Masculinity, and Reform in England and No…

The Manly PriestClerical Celibacy, Masculinity, and Reform in England and Normandy, 166-13\nAuthor(s): Jennifer D. Thibodeaux\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, United States\nImprint: University of Pennsylvania Press\nISBN-13: 9780812247527, 978-0812247527\nSynopsis\nDuring the High Middle Ages, members of the Anglo-Norman clergy not only routinely took wives but also often prepared their own sons for ecclesiastical careers. As the Anglo-Norman Church began to impose clerical celibacy on the priesthood, reform needed to be carefully negotiated, as it relied on the acceptance of a new definition of masculinity for religious men, one not dependent on conventional male roles in society. The Manly Priest tells the story of the imposition of clerical celibacy in a specific time and place and the resulting social tension and conflict.\n No longer able to tie manliness to marriage and procreation, priests were instructed to embrace virile chastity, to become ma.