Take a look at this article HERE regarding celibacy and the early Church:
http://www.inq7.net/opi/2003/jul/13/letter_1-1.htm
Here is a quote:
"It turns out that to speak of celibacy is not an adequate notion, since the early Church did not have an obligation for the clergy to be unmarried, as meant by the Latin word (caelebs). From this fact the conclusion is sometimes drawn that mandatory celibacy was an invention of the Papal Church in the Middle Ages. Those who pursue this line of argument often point to the Second Lateran Council in 1193, which declared marriages contracted after the reception of holy orders invalid. As a matter of fact, well into the Middle Ages no bishop, priest or deacon was required to be unmarried. The exclusive discipline of celibacy, in the strict sense of the word, according to canon law came into force only after the Council of Trent (1545-1563). In the first millennium, an unmarried clergyman was not exactly the exception, but he was not the rule either.
However, to concentrate on the question of married or unmarried clergy misses the point. Ecclesiastical legislation from as early as the fourth century was much concerned with regulating the life of the clergy, especially in matters of sexual conduct. Recent scholarship suggests that a discipline of clerical continence, more comprehensive than what we understand today as celibacy, was established from the very beginning. Not only the unmarried clergy were affected by such a rule; the married clergy (and their wives) were, too, for they were required to renounce all sexual relations after their ordination. The early Church knew of an obligation for all higher clerics, that is, bishops, deacons and priests, to abstain from sexual intercourse. Thus the present discipline of the Latin Church would appear to be in continuity with the original discipline of clerical continence. "
I am aware that the Orthodox do sometimes have wives and families.
Now, are you going to make me haul out my Durant? ;-)
Tia
You don't have to. Rather, take a looka at this article here: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03481a.htm
Youl will note that celibacy very common (in fact, the norm) in the western church far earlier than the Middle Ages and was considered an ideal to be enforced as early as the Spanish Council of Elvira (between 295 and 302) in canon xxxiii
As I said, this has far more to do with the cultural divide between East and West then money or property. Interesting topic for discussion, though.
Have a good one...