ecclesiastical at Rome was notorious.

[Sidenote: Clerical marriage.]

The efforts of the reformers in checking clerical marriage had not
been much more successful. The law now stood as follows: the first two
Lateran Councils (1123, 1139) prohibited matrimony to priests,
deacons, and sub-deacons; but to those only in one of the three minor
orders of the Church it was still allowed, although Alexander III
ultimately decreed that marriage should cause them to forfeit their
benefice. It was some time, however, before these decrees could be
enforced, and even the Popes found themselves compelled to deal
leniently with offending clergy. Thus Pascal II allowed to Archbishop
Anselm that a married priest not only might, but must, if applied to,
minister to a dying person. Attempts were made to forbid ordination to
the sons of priests, at least as secular clergy, but such regulations
were constantly relaxed or ignored. Pascal II actually allowed that in
Spain, where clerical marriage had been lawful, the children should be
eligible for all secular and ecclesiastical preferment. In the remoter
countries of Europe--the Scandinavian lands, Bohemia, Hungary,
Poland--the decrees against clerical marriage were not accepted until
far into the thirteenth century. Even in part of Germany, notably the
diocese of Liege, the clergy continued openly to marry until the same
century. But even in countries where the principle was nominally
accepted it triumphed at the expense of morality. For example, in
England the decree was published in Council after Council throughout
the twelfth century and was undoubtedly accepted as the law. But in
1129, after the death of Anselm, who had opposed the expedient, Henry
I imprisoned the "house-keepers" of the clergy in London in order to
obtain a sum of money by their release. Furthermore, both in England