“The sex lives of so-called celibate clergy are notoriously difficult to study empirically. During the past decade, however, a few scholars have penetrated this cloistered world of smothered lust.”

I recently read a history of the Protestant Reformation and I was surprised that sex was such a central issue, perhaps the dominant issue. During the 1400s the emphasis on celibacy broke down in much of northern Europe. Martin Luther turned against celibacy exactly because he saw that very few priests were able to maintain it. Martin Luther then came round to the other side of the debate: he insisted that all ministers had to be married. He wrote “No man can be trusted during his time of Nature.” He defined “time of Nature” for men as beginning at age 15 and ending at age 60. In Germany, on the eve of the Reformation, the majority of all priests were living openly with their female partners, who they were not legally allowed to marry because of the law enforcing celibacy. The Reformation allowed all of these priests to marry the women they had been living with.

It is unfortunate that these sane reforms lead to 100 years of religious war, and more than 50 million deaths.